Thanks to the efforts of a better geek than I, Rats!, the anti-snitch book is now online.
But not quite ready to spread around.
For one thing, we still need an epub version. Any volunteers? Anybody want to create that? I can send the .doc file or whatever else you need to work from. I don’t want to officially go live until we have all formats. UPDATE: an epub volunteer emailed me within minutes of this post going up. 🙂 People are good.
I’d be grateful if you guys would go to the site and make sure everything looks and works okay. It’s meant to be bare bones, so please don’t suggest any fancy flourishes. But help me make sure that the site works and makes sense for everybody.
Thanks! It’s pretty exciting to see this finally online after so many people’s efforts.
Nice! I’ve downloaded the kindle version and will read it after work tonight. Everything on the site I clicked on worked.
Looks good from here and from my iPhone, the mobi link opened right up in the kindle app.
Looks good, PDF downloaded well on my laptop, and I’ll be reading it tonight. Congratulations!
Thank you, guys! I’m particularly glad to hear the site looked & worked okay from an iPhone. Since I don’t use mobile devices (a laptop computer hardly counts as “mobile,” these days) I wasn’t sure. I knew to keep it simple when I looked for a template, and the actual geek who did the actual coding surely knows about mobile. But I had fingers crossed on mobility …
Copy editing note: On the cover, the line
informants,agents provocateur
Needs (1) a space before “agents”, (2) an “s” at the end of “provocateur” (it’s French, adjective should agree in number with noun), i.e.:
informants, agents provocateurs
Sorry, but it caught my eye right off.
Groan. That’s my error and you are the only person who’s caught it.
I’ve also received a couple of private communications pointing out smaller mistakes. None would be terribly hard to fix — except that they’ve gotten this far are in formatted documents I don’t always know how to deal with. And I’ll end up asking favors to get them fixed.
Ah well, better now and better you guys finding them than later. So … thank you, even though at the moment I feel more grouchy than grateful.
Got it! Glad to have it, even if it does have an imperfection or 2!
Just downloaded the PDF. Will mention anything I spot.
Proofreading is… difficult sometimes. I do OK with other people’s work, but when going through my own I keep missing stuff becasue my eyes see what they expect to see, what they think I wrote. Classic example in Net Assets: I proofed it multiple times. Someone else proofed it. Then Sunni looked it over and immediately… “Did you know you used ‘aid’ everywhere instead of ‘aide’?” Sunnuva… Did a quick word search and discovered I _had_ typed the wrong blasted word through the whole danged book.
Even though we’ve already read it Claire, be sure to let us know when we can go forth an announce.
So if I enjoy reading it who do I provide remuneration to? Or do I just get some extra Hardyville Tale books?
That’s a very nice question, Richard. And I don’t know. Too many people have worked on the book to figure out a fair division for money — which is one of many reasons the book is free.
At some point we’ll have to put it on Amazon for money — maybe $.99 or so. But even then I don’t know what we ought to do with any proceeds.
Keep hanging in there with that good thought and maybe I’ll come up with an idea.
BTW, Keith Perkins graciously and quickly made alterations to the cover and I’m in the process of correcting those few pesky typos now. I just fixed the HTML version of the book & will see about the PDF. Others will help with the mobi and epub. Might take a few days before everything is polished up and ready for the world.
Donate Amazon proceeds to FIJA, maybe?
I downloaded all three formats and (without actually reading them) they look good. The “HTML” link downloads a zip file. It contains: the book in MS Word format (doc) plus three different covers and a graphic of a notebook page.
No html files…
RickB — Thank you. I’ll de-activate the HTML link until I can figure out where the REAL file has gotten to.
Even with all the help on taking this project “live” — the designers, the formatters, the web geeks, all helpful, willing, and cheerful — I’m finding this stage of the project completely confusing and overwhelming. It’s another reminder of why my job in life is just to go off in a corner and write.
Pdf version looks good. Another small typo, FWIW (sorry!): At the bottom of page 4, “and their as welcome” should be “they’re”.
Thanks, Laird! That one’s in the process of being fixed. I do not know how I succumbed to the dreaded “their there they’re” typo, but the evidence is undeniable.
BTW, I mentioned earlier that this part of the project has me in a complete frazzle. Which it does. But several people, notably K, J, and O, have stepped up with their expertise and willing attitudes to make it a lot easier.
Looks great! Congratulations, Claire! You really turned that around fast, clean, and sharp!
On the Amazon proceeds – I’d rather see them go to Claire. She has another 8 months of rainy season to get through.
If people would prefer to read the book in a Kindle format instead of PDF, Amazon offers a free Kindle-for-PC download.
Thanks, Jim. Much of the credit goes to other people, though, for the fast turnaround and good looks. This project has involved a lot of people and boy, did they pull together well (and cheerfully) for this.
Only eight more months of rainy season? My, how time flies!
I have finally read “Rats!” cover-to-cover. Scary, but very informative; it helps *greatly* to know what to expect! And to have it in one sourcebook is easier to remember than having one person mention something online that happened to him, or what should be done in a given situation. (It helps, too, to know there are lawyers and other advocates out there who’re willing and able to fight against injustice. They’re hard to find on a daily basis in one’s own community.)
I had a chance to read Rats last night and it was very good. I already knew to never talk to cops and it was another reminder that I need to find a lawyer.