Online Seminars: Book Publishing

[John Simkin]

Last November we ran a very successful series of online seminars.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=197

I would like to run another session this year. This time I would like them to appear weekly (last time there were so many posts it was difficult to follow all the threads). Would people post on this thread titles of seminars they would like to give. Please give possible dates of the seminars:

I propose to do two of these seminars (both will be ready by the beginning of February):

JFK, Organized Crime, the CIA and the Irish Mafia

Bobby Baker and the Kennedy Assassination

At the end of the session Tim Gratz and myself will select the best of these to be published in a book. We will then contact the people concerned and invite them to submit a final version of their article. This would of course take account of the feedback they have received from their original seminar.

It would be great if every active member could have an article in the book. You all play such an important role in this research it would be a shame if you were not rewarded in some way.

I have had considerable experience of publishing books and I am convinced that we will do a professional job. Most of the books will be paperback but we will also publish a limited edition in hardcover.

In order to keep costs as low as possible the books will not contain photographs. However, each article will be linked to a website where authors can use photographs and movies to illustrate their arguments. The book would be fully indexed.

The idea is that members of the forum will be offered the books at cost price. They will then be able to sell the book via their websites, conferences, etc. at a profit. This will avoid problems of paying royalties.

I am not sure any other book has been published like this, but I am sure it will work. In fact, the idea is based on the way Tom Paine’s Rights of Man was published. Paine could not find a publisher willing to print the book. Therefore he gave away the copyright and allowed anybody to publish and sell the book. The book advocated universal suffrage so it was immediately banned and Paine, charged with seditious libel, escaped to France before he could be arrested.

Although the book was banned, during the next two years over 200,000 people in Britain managed to buy a copy. It became the first popular bestseller in UK history. Hundreds of men and women were imprisoned for selling the book, but the message was spread. As one man, Joseph Swan, said in court: “I have been unemployed for some time, neither can I obtain work, my family are starving. And for another reason, the most important of all, I sell them for the good of my countrymen.” Swan was sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison.

This is why it is claimed that Tom Paine has been described as the father of the internet. He reflected the ideology of those early pioneers who were motivated by the desire to spread information rather than to make a profit.

[Tim Gratz]

Last November we ran a very successful series of online seminars.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=197

I would like to run another session this year. This time I would like them to appear weekly (last time there were so many posts it was difficult to follow all the threads). Would people post on this thread titles of seminars they would like to give. Please give possible dates of the seminars:

I propose to do two of these seminars (both will be ready by the beginning of February):

JFK, Organized Crime, the CIA and the Irish Mafia

Bobby Baker and the Kennedy Assassination

At the end of the session Tim Gratz and myself will select the best of these to be published in a book. We will then contact the people concerned and invite them to submit a final version of their article. This would of course take account of the feedback they have received from their original seminar.

It would be great if every active member could have an article in the book. You all play such an important role in this research it would be a shame if you were not rewarded in some way.

I have had considerable experience of publishing books and I am convinced that we will do a professional job. Most of the books will be paperback but we will also publish a limited edition in hardcover.

In order to keep costs as low as possible the books will not contain photographs. However, each article will be linked to a website where authors can use photographs and movies to illustrate their arguments. The book would be fully indexed.

The idea is that members of the forum will be offered the books at cost price. They will then be able to sell the book via their websites, conferences, etc. at a profit. This will avoid problems of paying royalties.

I am not sure any other book has been published like this, but I am sure it will work. In fact, the idea is based on the way Tom Paine’s Rights of Man was published. Paine could not find a publisher willing to print the book. Therefore he gave away the copyright and allowed anybody to publish and sell the book. The book advocated universal suffrage so it was immediately banned and Paine, charged with seditious libel, escaped to France before he could be arrested.

Although the book was banned, during the next two years over 200,000 people in Britain managed to buy a copy. It became the first popular bestseller in UK history. Hundreds of men and women were imprisoned for selling the book, but the message was spread. As one man, Joseph Swan, said in court: “I have been unemployed for some time, neither can I obtain work, my family are starving. And for another reason, the most important of all, I sell them for the good of my countrymen.” Swan was sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison.

This is why it is claimed that Tom Paine has been described as the father of the internet. He reflected the ideology of those early pioneers who were motivated by the desire to spread information rather than to make a profit.

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John, a great and inspiring post about Tom Paine and free speech. Both of our countries owe much to men who were willing to sacrifice their liberties and even their lives for the better good of their countrymen. The Internet can be a force for both good and evil. Let us hope that better communication can help break down the walls between cultures and produce peace, freedom and economic development. Not only is communication important; so is education, and I am very impressed with the interset site you and Mr. Walker have produced. I would encourage people who only come to the JFK Forum to review the rest of your site as well. It is a wonderful learning tool. You might enjoy this quote. It was the motto of a newspaper in the city in which I was raised: "Give the people the truth, and the freedom to discuss it, and all will go well." Freedom is such an important thing, and a universal aspiration (I believe). As you know, we tend to divide freedoms into the following: (1) free speech (can include free press); (2) freedom of religion; (3) freedom of assembly (or association if you prefer). Each is important, of course.

Free speech can in a practical sense be limited by economic issues. In the 1960s in America, and I am sure in the UK too, free speech was practically controlled by rich people who owned the media. I believe the internet is helping to democraticize freedom of speech.

Stream of consciousness writing, I guess: do you have, or have you considered, a discussion group on the Internet as such, its strengths, weaknesses, how it is or can promote understanding, etc. I bet it would be an interesting discussion!

Edited January 7, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[John Geraghty]

My seminar is 'The Links between the JFK and MLK assassinations'

[John Simkin]

I have been very interested in John Ritchson's excellent Ballistics' threads.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2947

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2948

John, any chance of pulling all this information together for an online seminar? Then we could put it in the book we hope to publish later this year.