Continuing with the full disclosure, twenty-five people took Dark Slivers as an ebook, makes next to no money but that was never the point — just trying to get my thoughts into as many hands as possible. I’m very conscious that I owe an update of the ebook version incorporating a number of changes that made it into the most recent hardcopy but not into the ebook. Likewise there’s one table that runs off the edge of the screen and two maps that need refreshing and improving for clarity’s sake. This will happen.
Are there differences between the first edition and the second edition of the book? Answer, yes, but just a few additional footnotes as described a month or so ago (https://nirvana-legacy.com/2013/01/24/second-printing-amends-to-dark-slivers-and-new-information-on-all-apologiesblack-white-blues/) plus a God given chance to fix the typos that leaked through first time around. Essentially time was running low, I was determined I wanted the book to be available to people by December 15, 2012 because the anniversary of Incesticide was the date that had driven me on throughout the year long process of working on this. It meant my publisher offered to do a final proof-read of the last file from my designer…It would have meant one week to review, another week to fix in the design file…There was no way. I said “We print. Go, go, go.” I wish we’d fixed them…But there’s always more work that can be done and there had to be a time I took the risk and placed the book in peoples’ hands to critique.
There’s also a slight difference to the cover. My original conception, actually my designer’s original thinking which I loved, was that the cover was grey at the top, black below the blue line. The first version came back from the printer with an all grey back. Nevermind. We tried again but, alas, it turns out it’s extremely hard to make the file do that. The result is visible in the photo montage below (apologies for flash glare, grain, etc. I was working quick and what the hey!) Essentially just a darkening of the grey top, a more visible contrast on the back cover — so that’s the visual differences covered.
In terms of feedback incorporated, the core purpose of the first edition was to solicit advice and improvements from people learned in the ways of Nirvana. My faith in the Outcesticide series of bootlegs undid me — an early table required two dates altering — Jack Endino made a point around the name Kurdt that I incorporated as a footnote, Brett Robinson’s point about the coincidence of the name Incesticide was incorporated along with the response from JG Thirwell. I also added in a footnote about the meaning of the song Been a Son, deleted one sentence that I believe may have belonged to an earlier draft because I had no clue how it related to the text around it (oops!) and that was that. Naturally feedback welcomed at all times, it can only make things better, stronger, fitter, more productive…
What’s next? Well, it’s time, I feel, that I spoke directly to the press, let’s see how that goes shall we? Naturally I have a strong desire to let people know about the book — I’d be thrilled if my revision to the history of the creation of Incesticide was ultimately incorporated into the ‘official’ record but maybe I need to source even more material to back it up. I’ll work on that.
A further effort is that, finally, the agreement has been signed with the supplier to Waterstones and Amazon to begin permitting stocking of the hardcopy. Some final steps required but that should be a positive move; I’ll admit I’ve felt bad about the cost to U.S. buyers of postage (about £6.50 GBP for postage) so I’m hoping that this proceeds quickly allowing an easier route for people in North America. Plus, for all the lip service paid to independence, non-corporate, alternatives…People trust their main suppliers, people like cheap n’ easy, people need something more than my word on it that there’s a book here worth a look. I can understand it completely, this means me too; there’s so much material in the world methods are needed to allow it to be sifted out, marked as quality and trusted.
An immediate thank you to those who have taken the time to provide me with feedback, plus those of you who took the added time to place their thoughts on Amazon and elsewhere — that’s been really (really) good of you and of definite value. I like the fact that people might hear from a voice other than my own when considering the book. Rasmus Holmen of the Internet Nirvana Fan Club took the time to write a review both on that site and on Amazon which was so gratifying and I’m aware the guys at LiveNirvana are working on it too and did update the LiveNirvana homepage today — nice!
Nirvana Italia (www.nirvanaitalia.it), a very active national language site has also been kind enough to begin preparing for their own review while commenting on the book in their forum. It’s gratifying to see Nirvana Italia still thriving because so many of the local non-English sites seemed to die out over the past decade as the teams of people needed to keep fan resources such as these going fell away. All power to Nirvana Italia! Plus I love their choice of home page photo with the band all looking in different directions and eccentrically attired…
Onwards…More, more…
Nirvana Legacy 