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Several folks have offered to scan the papers we're looking to get rid of, and several others have pointed me at scanners. All of this concern and good advice is appreciated, but. . .

I don't understand why I would want to be scanning the papers.

Obviously, I'm missing something.

Somebody point out the elephant, please?

Thanks.

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Maybe they're suggesting you sell e-copies as well as hardcopies?

Probably because those copies have your original notes, scribbles and such on them.

Any chance those might be valuable tools in the creation of subsequent books?

Or maybe just from the standpoint of nostalgia?

Or even potentially to address and legal issues related to copyright that may come down the road. (Although I'd hate to think that any of your fans would engage in less than ethical behavior toward your stuff.)

Any chance those might be valuable tools in the creation of subsequent books?

When we wrote Carpe Diem, we had actually written half-to-three-quarters of an Entirely Other Book. I had, when I saw how. . .many iterations of Carpe we have, a flicker of hope that the other story had survived. And that, I would have kept, because it wasn't a bad story (in memory, at least), it was just the wrong story.

The only thing I find, though, are a few scribbled notes -- names, geographical points -- not enough to recontruct the story-that-was from.

Or even potentially to address and legal issues related to copyright that may come down the road. (Although I'd hate to think that any of your fans would engage in less than ethical behavior toward your stuff.)

We can't guarantee of course, that a fan will be the winning bidder. And that is the purpose of the paper that we'll ask people to sign, in which they acknowledge that the authors still hold the copyright and that no rights of publication are transmitted with the paper. Just the paper, only the paper, and the words thereon.

We can't guarantee of course, that a fan will be the winning bidder. And that is the purpose of the paper that we'll ask people to sign, in which they acknowledge that the authors still hold the copyright and that no rights of publication are transmitted with the paper. Just the paper, only the paper, and the words thereon.

this is the part that concerns me. I'd hate to see someone take your ideas -- especially from the lesser known (unseen?) Candlelight and do something that in large part is based on your work, and you not be able to prove that it was yours because you no longer have anything in your possession. The paper the auction winner signs will need to be as ironclad as you can make it and very detailed.

And I may be more cynical than you are.

I wondered if those offering weren't coming from the 'reduce the paperclutter' perspective you mentioned in the posting, a la 'If it's on the computer scanned, no need to keep the paper'. And they missed the point about the ebay auction... I would have thought that hard to do I admit, but possible I guess.

We're thinking of history. One of the laments I've heard about the rise of authors using computers is that we're loosing the evolution of books - we've got the printed copy, but we don't have any of the drafts. While what you've got may not be the very first draft, it's at least the first draft submitted to the editor, which is something. So we'd like to have them all in one place.

If you turn around and tell us that you actually have known readable versions of the text of all these in electronic format already, we won't care as much.

If you turn around and tell us that you actually have known readable versions of the text of all these in electronic format already, we won't care as much.

No, I can't tell you that. The WordStar files for _Conflict_ and _Carpe_ are long gone, and _Agent_, at least, was typewritten all the way from draft one to submission; there never was an electronic copy.

...and yet, the submission draft is only a draft. The finished book as right as author, copy editor and editor can make it, is the thing. . .

Yet, part of the interest of some/many people is seeing the evolution of the story from first words to paper to published copy.

I know one author who was (and probably still is) auto-saving his drafts every five minutes, automatically making backup copies every hour, and archiving every night. If the historians ever take an interest in how his stories developed, there's going to be treasure trove of material available for them.

Oh - yes, he wrote in a format that was ASCII w/ magic markup, and the last I heard his preferred format was either HTML or OpenOffice XML.

Possibly some of these are suggestions aimed at the idea that you want to keep the contents of those piles of paper, but you don't want to have to find a place for another filing cabinet.

I suspect people are concerned that you are one of those who really wants to keep every jot and tittle associated with each book, but due to the press of full drawers and life, are being forced (probably at blaster point by the Eddorians) to give up these piles of beloved paper. Given that, you might very well want to retain the content, even if you no longer have the paper itself. So you might want all that stuff scanned.

It's actually a bit scary how we hold onto such piles of aged and no-longer-used stuff. And the digital form makes it even easier to keep bigger and better piles. Just in case...

I think the mindset of keeping a copy of everything is for the day when THE Library/Museum of Your* Life calls because they are setting up the YOU* Collection and they want every shred of ephemera that is you*.

*Where "you" is anyone, writer or not. I know several regular, in no way famous, people who have kept every school report card, paper & report, personal correspondence they written & received, for the One Day when they are certain that someone else will really want to open that museum of them. Since I know more then one person who sincerely think this way, I deem it to be a public mindset.

Now, while successful authors are more likely to have this kind of interest in the evolution of their work, I think its not very common in reality. One person's historical documentation is another persons worthless clutter.

Several people, especially (but not only) writers, have been surprised at what people do want. I remember Isaac Asimov writing about how he was totally mystified when a university actaully wanted his papers, and even more when fans berated him for not having kept copies of stories he wrote as a teenager.

I agree that the contract with the buyer has to be totally ironclad that they get the paper and no rights to what is written on it except to read it themself, and the same conditions to be imposed on any subsequent purchaser. Scanning it could indeed be part of that, to prove priority.

Burton fm Montreal

As mention previously. Universities and libraries would prefer someone's papers on a disk. It easier to store and keep track of plus it should facilitate transfer to emerging media. It's simple to copy the content of a disk compare to scanning each page of a huge paper stack.

Also a digital copy will make it possible to deposit one's papers at several locations. Allowing more public access.

An outsider looking in at the trove of papers might see evidence of someone else's thought processes as a work is created and polished. There is also the whole ritual of publishing. If these are events the outsider has not yet experienced herself, she might find it fascinating. On the other hand, to the writer, who's lived it, the trove may not be so much memorabilia as impedimenta.

There is no elephant. It is a figment of your imagination. :-)

Actually, the one real practical reason for having the early works scanned is to have them simultaneously run through OCR software so as to produce text files that can be searched with current software. That would give you a tool to use that might prevent the occasional "Help me find where I said this" events. Mind you, I would only do that with the submission copy, if it's available. Otherwise, the latest draft that you have would be your only choice. Doing scans of multiple drafts would be inefficient and probably somewhat self-defeating. Except, now that I think about it, you probably have copies of the various e-editions of your works, and if they're in formats that can be searched, then even this reason is null and void.

This is just my take on it, but don't you need an image to put on Ebay for potential buyers to view?

Alastair

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The elephant may just be a shadow

Re: The elephant may just be a shadow

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Scanning pages