A week of 'This is not a book'
It’s almost a week since Tom and I launched the This is not a book website/book/digital text and the response has been greater than I expected.
First, the gratitude #
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If you’re one of the people who has sent supportive word or said kind things over the past week, thank you.
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Huge thanks to Alan Stearns for his typo-fixing pull requests on the github repository.
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Also thanks to Alberto Pettarin and others who gave the readability and typography feedback that lead to me completely redesigning the entire site.
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Huge thanks to everybody who has boosted the project.
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Finally, many thanks to the University of the West of England whose support was instrumental in making this project possible.
What’s been happening? #
Fortunately, we’re only getting started. We’re updating the site regularly and not just fixing the typos.
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Like I said above, the site for This is not a book has been completely redesigned to be more readable. I’m already sketching up ideas for how to improve the navigation as well. If you haven’t checked the site out since the launch, you’re in for a surprise. It’s changed quite a bit.
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I made a single-page version of the entire text, including a Table of Contents, for those who don’t want to graze through a forest of bite-sized snippets and for those of you who use Instapaper or Pocket.
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I put together a print stylesheet that we’re using to create a PDF version for those of you who like those sort of things. It’s generated straight from the single-page version of the website. If we ever do a print version then this is what it will be using (sans the Prince XML watermark, of course).
What’s next? #
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I’ve got a few more navigation updates in mind for the site, but they require a little bit more thought and planning.
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I’m working on an ebook version. When that’s done, it’ll be generated straight from the html of the single-page version, just like the PDF.
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We’ve noodled around a bit drafting updates to the text itself. Mostly clarifications—like for the ‘this is not a disruption’ chapter—but also additions; the ‘serial fiction’ chapter needs to be extended and we need to write a chapter on physicality/thingness. No timeline for when, but we’ll let you know when they’re done.
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And we’re still preparing the super-secret extension of the project.
Thanks again for all the support.