Well that was quick. As of last week I’m pleased to say that thanks to the ineffable generosity of some beyond-lovely donors, I’ve raised the money needed to buy reproduction rights for the covers of Man Bites Dog and Not Quite the Man for the Job to use in their ebook iterations. Thanks from the bottom of my everything to everyone who donated. You’re ace.
The fund actually allows three months to raise the dosh, so with roughly 61 days left, there’s still time to score yourself a cheaper-by-one-dollar copy of either book if you like.
It occurred to me yesterday that I hadn’t actually tried to make these epub versions of my books actually work on a “device” as they’re called in teh biz. The closest thing I have to a device is an iPod shuffle, and that ain’t so ebook friendly. I’ve been testing them out on Adobe Digital Editions on my laptop, with plans to try them on an iPad down the track, but I read a scary article about epub standards and validation and stuff that made me wonder if I might be completely fucking things up by doing it that way.
So I put the latest test version of the book (still some margining issues to sort out, still needs proofreading, plus some other stuff…) onto the iPad at work and, well, that was a learning curve. After I got over the whole “what do you mean you can’t just open a new file?” and got my boss to add the epub to his iTunes and then sync it to the iPad it was ready to actually test.
Which is the point where I started all giggling and shit. Because look! I made a ebook! And the pages, like, turn and stuff. Plus the subject index works. Which is a good thing.
Like I said, there’s some rough edges need knocking off, but it’s nice to know the sucker works. That would have been embarrassing.
The Other Adam Ford 
Not Quite the Man for the Job was the first book of yours I ever read. Hell, there’s a good chance it was the first book of poetry that I ever read, in a ‘cover-to-cover’ sense. So I’m definitely chipping in for this. Now all you need to do is work out what happens to any funds you raise over and above your goal…
I was thinking of spending it equally among shits and giggles…
I’m in – sorry I was a little slow. Looking forward to ‘Man Bites Dog’ especially, as I’ve had a wonderful hard copy of ‘Not Quite the Man for the Job’ for a few years, fantastic that you’ve been able to get the original artwork, Adam
Thanks, ashley! Where’d you score the NQTMFTJ? Second hand?
No, brand new in a bookstore in Bairnsdale, must have been about ten or nine years ago I think, around the time you came for one of the Zebu gigs.
Or maybe 8 years, I should try find a poster. Always wished we could’ve had bigger crowds for those gigs
I still have photos from that gig. Good gig. And I scored an excellent wool suit from the Red Cross op shop the next morning.
I got scored a second hand copy in an op-shop in Newtown not long after i moved to Sydney. After i’d lent my copy to so many people, so many times, it never came back… A score it was! iPad version though! Very cool!