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books, series, status thereof

Darcy

By Darcy
in Nihonto

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Darcy Mentor

Darcy

Posted
Posted

This is a bit overdue, I wanted to update people in general on what's happening with the books as I'm asked from time to time.

 

Time has been at a premium since the financial crisis in 2008, and I've been drawn back into software as a result of said crisis. The first book took about 5x the amount of time I had originally thought it would take, due to having to take on the majority of the writing, and I didn't realize how much effort would be involved in making images ready for print.

 

Overall it was a good experience, very expensive though, as the first book has sold around 300 copies. That covers about 25% of the cash expenses I incurred in doing the photography which involved a lot of travel. The discrepancy can probably purchase a cheap Juyo Token.

 

The five months or so of time invested in the creative aspects of writing the books was a luxury that I haven't had the time for as I got back into software and employment as the books will not likely return just the expense of making them, and 5 months of what would be work time devoted to each is not going to show anything for that time invested. Considering the future books, there remains a lot of work and research, I am diminished in my sword knowledge these days as I haven't been able to fully focus on them anymore. I had hired a graphic artist to try to speed the photo editing, but that just incurred more delays and me spending time teaching how things had to be done. So more invested into the process without a lot to show for it.

 

So some small progress has gone on, but nothing major. My goal has been to make a Soshu book to follow the Bizen book, but I could not round up a proper example of Soshu swords among North American collectors. There are good swords out there by Hiromitsu, Akihiro, and Masamune, and likely Sadamune, but I have not been given access to any, and without these the real spine of Soshu is not described and makes for a bit of a silly book. Norishige, Shizu and Go are well represented, and people have been generous in bringing these in. It's just very hard with Soshu den, as some of the pieces one needs are very rare and hard to come by, and those that do have them are not of an inclination to advertise far and wide their existence.

 

The last hurdle I have is translation, it costs me about $100 to translate a Juyo paper, so $2,000 of translations for what will comprise a book. It's a bit steep to continue to spend this kind of money when the books won't return it, so that means either translations will be dropped or I need to get some assistance from the community in performing some translations. If anyone wants to assist, I'd be happy to hear directly. I'm not sure what I can compensate, at least a free copy of one of the books, but I need to make the future efforts be more than Darcy's $XX,000 contribution to the community, so I need the efforts to make sense for me going forward.

 

Soshu I am going to have to put aside until I can resolve the problem of the core smiths, or it is possible that the by-school theme will be dropped. The second could happen, or else the next volume will be Yamashiro which has been well represented in what people brought in.

 

So that is still being decided.

 

There is no time horizon currently for finishing these things, as it stands, it is a massive effort of writing, $10,000 of translations for the rest of the books, and editing some 400 photos to be print worthy. Because my time is at a premium, and the response to the first book was far lower than I had anticipated, it appears to me to be a big pit to throw cash into. I'm happy with what was made, but I don't have the luxury of the time and money investment where I can sit down for 5 months straight and bang out books that so few are interested in.

 

Putting the time investment in perspective, just the photo editing will be 400 photos x 4 hours each to edit, = 1,600 hours of time that has to be done on a no-return basis. 1,600 hours on a work week basis is 40 weeks of a full time job. It is a big commitment and my attempt to short cut this just cost money as said.

 

Those that are interested though have been fantastic, and these things will be done eventually, somehow, if even that I have to cut corners on translation and writing...

 

Because people have been generous with supplying their swords and in particular, their time for those who helped me photograph, and especially Ron Bonanno who has done so many oshigata, these things will get done, honor really requires it. Just a matter of trying to figure out how exactly to put them together in a reasonable way.

 

Suggestions?

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Brian

Brian

Posted
Posted

Darcy,

Wow..quite a catch 22. I am guessing the lack of replies means that people are just as stumped as you are on how to proceed. Can't really offer any help besides of course the resources of the forum, and perhaps 4 or 5 definite pre-orders.

 

Brian

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trygve Contributor

trygve

Posted
Posted

Hello Darcy!

 

Your efforts to share your knowledge and your high end nihonto

throuh articles, posts, photo and a very good webpage have been

very helpful for fellow nihonto students. I am looking forward to buy the rest of the books, as the first Bizen book was a plesaure to read and study. Since Rich stein started this forum you have posted some of the most interessting reads on this subject on the web.

 

"Photographing Nihonto" and the post on detecting

altered kissaki is examples on articles that have given us members alot of input.

 

I will gladly pre pay for the book.

 

Sincerely

trygve

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jrs Enthusiast

jrs

Posted
Posted

Darcy,

I loved the Bizen publication and appreciate the work of everyone who was involved in its production. I, like most others here, will be happy to pre-pay for the next book, BUT, I'd like to do more.

I don't need multiple copies, so I'm not comfortable buying multiples.

Would it be possible for me to "sponsor" a Juyo translation? I don't make enough money to indulge in the blades that I like, but, I can afford to make a modest $100 contribution to your work, in the spirit of research and education.

I had this idea immediately after reading your original post but have hesitated in posting publicly. The only reason I am now is because maybe some other members might join in to help out.

I hope this doesn't offend in any way.

I believe in what you are doing, understand the burden, and wish that I could offer more technical assistance.

 

James Stephenson

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  • 2 weeks later...
Darcy Mentor

Darcy

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Posted
Hi Darcy:

I am prepared to pre-pay for the book if that helps. I did the same for Harry when he did translations. I am sure that you could pre-sell a significant number.

 

It's appreciated... but Harry never completed all his work haha :).

 

Doing a lot of individual pre-orders is thankful, but also brings in a level of organization and individual treatment that sucks up more time.

 

One thing that can be useful is if people get a sword organization to order in bulk. Lulu will give a discount for a bulk order as well, so if people in an organization all want the book, they can all get it cheaper, and I can record it as a preorder. That's encouraging.

 

Ted has offered to help me on translations as well so far. Just getting around in the number of things and projects I am up to to replying here....

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Darcy Mentor

Darcy

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Hey Darcy, ditto to the above I loved your first book and will gladly prepay for any subsequent books. I am currently a technical writer / BA by trade so I offer any help I can in editing / formatting / proofing documents in my spare time.

 

Rich Thomas

 

Perfect. Got you signed onto the proofing list. We had 3-4 proofers but still we had errors slipping through into the final.

 

Anyone offering to help gets mention in the book.

 

I am very interested in essays, I got one OK from the board a year plus back to use his... but more is better.

 

I did the lions' share of the writing last time, Bob wrote up a few pieces, and you can probably go through the book and see where the difference in background knowledge bumps up high. I have to write based on research and my time spent collecting. Bob writes from what he's learned hands on with swords, and you can see the change in voice and material. With his time crunch I'm not seeing how he can be made available again to contribute more than one or two pieces that he has in depth familiarity with.

 

So with possibly losing some of that, it's nice to balance it out with some research essays that apply.

 

We will be putting in work about the "Thai Nakagos" which are out there and part of an ongoing story.

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Darcy Mentor

Darcy

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Darcy,

I loved the Bizen publication and appreciate the work of everyone who was involved in its production. I, like most others here, will be happy to pre-pay for the next book, BUT, I'd like to do more.

I don't need multiple copies, so I'm not comfortable buying multiples.

Would it be possible for me to "sponsor" a Juyo translation? I don't make enough money to indulge in the blades that I like, but, I can afford to make a modest $100 contribution to your work, in the spirit of research and education.

I had this idea immediately after reading your original post but have hesitated in posting publicly. The only reason I am now is because maybe some other members might join in to help out.

I hope this doesn't offend in any way.

I believe in what you are doing, understand the burden, and wish that I could offer more technical assistance.

 

James Stephenson

 

James, sponsoring translation is definitely a help.

 

Maybe what we can think about is this... I can probably brand a few "sponsor copies". For the sponsor copies, I will do something different with the cover to make them a short special edition run, and maybe something interesting/bonus inside.

 

Pre-purchase the sponsor copy and that can turn around and fund translation.

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