Hi all,
As many of you may painfully remember, from Oct. 2008 to April 2009 I posted a series of articles describing the building of a harpsichord. Many of you North Carolina Woodworker'ers suggested that I expand these 29 chapters into a book - and that's exactly what I did. It took about a year to write and its size makes my original 29 chapters seem like a short story. It ended up being 37 chapters long with some 950 pages of text, close to 900 photos and illustrations, and several videos. As no publisher in his/her right mind would ever publish a book this big for such a small market, I elected to write it as an e-book and self-publish. I originally chose the PowerPoint format as it allows for macros to make navigating the book easier. This didn't work out - it seems PowerPoint works differently (or not at all) on different computers DAMHIK! So, I re-wrote it in htm format so that it could be viewed on any computer's web browser.
It's currently being put to the test by several first-time harpsichord builders scattered throughout the country. If they are successful in actually building an instrument, I will make the book available through my website. My current thinking is to provide the book free of charge and only sell the CAD blueprints that would be necessary to actually do the build. In this way, people could study the book and determine for themselves if this project is one they'd like to tackle.
If any North Carolina Woodworker members would like a copy send me a PM and I'll send you one.
Once again, thanks to all of you who responded to my original posts with so many thoughtful questions and comments. And to those of you who didn't follow this series of posts, I congratulate you for your good common sense and survival instincts:gar-La;.
I know, I know - no pix, it didn't happen.
Thanks again,
Ernie
As many of you may painfully remember, from Oct. 2008 to April 2009 I posted a series of articles describing the building of a harpsichord. Many of you North Carolina Woodworker'ers suggested that I expand these 29 chapters into a book - and that's exactly what I did. It took about a year to write and its size makes my original 29 chapters seem like a short story. It ended up being 37 chapters long with some 950 pages of text, close to 900 photos and illustrations, and several videos. As no publisher in his/her right mind would ever publish a book this big for such a small market, I elected to write it as an e-book and self-publish. I originally chose the PowerPoint format as it allows for macros to make navigating the book easier. This didn't work out - it seems PowerPoint works differently (or not at all) on different computers DAMHIK! So, I re-wrote it in htm format so that it could be viewed on any computer's web browser.
It's currently being put to the test by several first-time harpsichord builders scattered throughout the country. If they are successful in actually building an instrument, I will make the book available through my website. My current thinking is to provide the book free of charge and only sell the CAD blueprints that would be necessary to actually do the build. In this way, people could study the book and determine for themselves if this project is one they'd like to tackle.
If any North Carolina Woodworker members would like a copy send me a PM and I'll send you one.
Once again, thanks to all of you who responded to my original posts with so many thoughtful questions and comments. And to those of you who didn't follow this series of posts, I congratulate you for your good common sense and survival instincts:gar-La;.
I know, I know - no pix, it didn't happen.
Thanks again,
Ernie
