Dear List Members, At the risk of initiating a whirlwind of controversy, may I paint a picture for you? I am a stay-at-home mother of five children, two of whom are college age and the youngest of whom is eleven on Monday. My husband just retired, which means our income has changed significantly. I operate a home-based word processing service specializing in family history preservation--helping people prepare manuscripts for publication, computerizing genealogical records, etc. The charge for that work is $15.00 per hour, discounted from my normal rate of $18.00 per hour for non-family history material. The time required to prepare an abstract manuscript is considerable and done at a sacrifice of more lucrative work. That is why there are probably relatively few of this type of publication. However, my motivation to provide easier access to these records along with a secondary hope of making some income to supplement our family's support encourages me to make that commitment. At this point, two books have been published and a third is nearing completion. I don't know how many of you have had manuscripts published, but the royalties are only slightly better than what we pay in tithing to our church. Then they have to be reported as income and Uncle Sam takes his cut. So the final result is fairly minimal. When well-meaning individuals buy a copy of the book and offer to do free look-ups and then make the material available at no charge, that is definitely a disincentive for authors to make the sacrifices involved in providing the resources. If it ultimately encourages sales of the book (and I don't know whether it does or not), that would be fine. If it reduces chances that people will buy the book, that seems somewhat unfair to the author and publisher. I am open to instruction in this matter, so your observations would be welcomed. Most sincerely, Lorraine I. Quillon lorraineq@juno.com ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

Lorraine: May I paint a picture for you? Imagine a person with a very low fixed income who desparately wants to find information about a family member? He/she cannot afford the travel or the expenses necessary to obtain the required information. So, they ask for help from others who might have that information. I have been fortunate enough to be able to help many of those people. I do not believe that they will be the caliber of customer that you would want. They cannot afford $15 an hour to have somebody do their work. My husband is also retired and we have a set income. However, we did manage to save some money during his working years and are now able to afford some of the research materials necessary to help me and to help others. I have purchased a number of books after seeing what a wealth of information is posted to the list. So, I wouldn't worry. People who see a family name is available in such a book are more likely to purchase that book for collateral lines or other family members who might be listed if they can afford it. If they can't, you have lost nothing because they wouldn't have been able to afford it in the first place. Linda Johnston ljohnston@nethawk.com ----- Original Message ----- From: <lorraineq@juno.com> To: <OHBELMON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 10:39 AM Subject: [OHBELMON-L] Will Abstracts > Dear List Members, > > At the risk of initiating a whirlwind of controversy, may I paint a > picture for you? > > I am a stay-at-home mother of five children, two of whom are college age > and the youngest of whom is eleven on Monday. My husband just retired, > which means our income has changed significantly. I operate a > home-based word processing service specializing in family history > preservation--helping people prepare manuscripts for publication, > computerizing genealogical records, etc. The charge for that work is > $15.00 per hour, discounted from my normal rate of $18.00 per hour for > non-family history material. > > The time required to prepare an abstract manuscript is considerable and > done at a sacrifice of more lucrative work. That is why there are > probably relatively few of this type of publication. However, my > motivation to provide easier access to these records along with a > secondary hope of making some income to supplement our family's support > encourages me to make that commitment. At this point, two books have > been published and a third is nearing completion. > > I don't know how many of you have had manuscripts published, but the > royalties are only slightly better than what we pay in tithing to our > church. Then they have to be reported as income and Uncle Sam takes his > cut. So the final result is fairly minimal. > > When well-meaning individuals buy a copy of the book and offer to do free > look-ups and then make the material available at no charge, that is > definitely a disincentive for authors to make the sacrifices involved in > providing the resources. If it ultimately encourages sales of the book > (and I don't know whether it does or not), that would be fine. If it > reduces chances that people will buy the book, that seems somewhat unfair > to the author and publisher. > > I am open to instruction in this matter, so your observations would be > welcomed. > > Most sincerely, > > Lorraine I. Quillon > > lorraineq@juno.com > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! > Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! > Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: > http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. > > ______________________________