Category: hi

Hi. I got my royalty check today. I thought I would break it down for everyone, since many of you shared in the book-making or book-buying experience. First off, we sold 563 books. Yay! Then 39 were returned. Boo! Total sold, that stayed sold: 524. Now, as you all know, the cover price is an astonishing $35. So, $35 x 524 books gets us $18,340. Then there’s this black box where we convert this number to the “net proceeds” which is, as my letter helpfully tells me, is gross receipts minus refunds. The letter does not explain “gross receipts.” The letter does say that the amount of money I get is not a percentage of the list price of my book, because of discounts and so forth. Net proceeds are $14,659, roughly 80% of the cover price. Katia and I get 10% of this. I get 50% of that. Beers are on me next time you guys are in town.

Hi. I am realizing I don’t have categories for anything tech-y except computers. I also launched the library website yesterday and it went well except for one thing that was my fault that went horribly wrong that is now fixed [think custom 404 redirecting to a broken link… yep]. I am also adding a faq to librarian.net as a result of a good question-and-answer email I got regarding the NYTimes link I used to have. If you think there’s a question that should be there, ask it. As for the questions that are there, they really are frequently asked.

Hi. Made it to Yale, went to the Sterling library and went to the Beineke where I was able to look at the Voynich Manuscript. Apparently it’s so popular that unless you’re a really serious scholar [which I clearly wasn’t] they just have one of the librarians [thanks Stephen Jones!] bring it out and show you through it. I was happy to see it. Also tried to get my parking validated at New Haven Free Public Library, but they’re closed Fridays.

Hi. I’m on the road today heading to Mass. to see some family and then to Yale to see some Rebellious Lawyering and maybe get a peek at the Voynich Manuscript. Updates resume Sunday evening.

Hi. Does anyone but me feel that it is a bit facile to add high-scoring word qi and za to the Scrabble dictionary? Especially after they nixed all those slurs with the third edition.