Ever closer… 3 Jun 200922 Jun 2018 Now it has a pretty cover… More here. Administrative Book Species and systematics Species concept
Administrative A new comment policy? 6 May 2011 From Barry Ritholz’s blog Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you… Read More
Evolution Rudiments and vestiges 23 Aug 2009 A new paper has just come out on the functionality of the human appendix, or cecum (caecum in British biology). The authors, following some work done on appendix function in 2006, have said that the caecum in humans has a role in repopulating gut flora. I was going to do… Read More
Epistemology Two kinds of natural classification, and hybrid classifications 11 Aug 2010 It is fairly clear to anyone reading the last century’s discussions about classification that there are, with respect to natural classification, two main approaches. These are roughly: classification based on shared causal properties, and classification based upon shared phenomenal properties. In the debates between the “pheneticists” who used computer-based techniques… Read More
The cover is more than “pretty”; it is a work of art – suitable for framing. I am especially impressed with the subtitle: A History of the Idea. It is perfect and so much stronger than The History of an Idea, which I suspect was suggested/considered. _Quill & Quire: Canada’s Magazine of Book News and Reviews_ regularly includes an article entitled “Cover to Cover “which tells the story of the “evolution ” of the design for the cover of a particular book. Is there a story about the cover of _Species_?
Your curtains are based on Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur? Where can I get some? I explicitly claim there is only one species “concept”, but many “conceptions” or “definitions”; so that was always my subtitle. But I was disappointed I wasn’t allowed to use “The Origins of Species Concepts” as the main title for the PhD it comes from. Basically I sent them the Haeckel image and permissions, and they designed it. I can’t even reject the awful use of Helvetica… but I love the colours and layout.
Cool. At least it will look pretty as it’s sitting on my coffee table for a period of years waiting to be read. 😛
John, just visited PayPal. You should have a small token of my esteem in your accounts. When you have advance author’s copies of this work, could you please publicize? I would pay for an autographed copy + shipping from your side of the world. I urge others to do the same, as I urged over at PZ Mwahaha’s. Regards….Scott
“Oh, and “Idea” is a pun on eidos, the Greek term for “species”…” I’m glad you cleared the air — I didn’t think it quite proper to inquire regarding a pun, even a good one.
I get, I think, 5 copies as author. Unfortunately they are all assigned to academic friends who helped (advisors, mentors, that sort of thing). But I will happily sign any copies sent to me or handed to me at a conference. Alas, UCP won’t be sending me on a signing tour or anything… 🙂 I don’t know when the paperback is out, but I hope it won’t be too long. By foregoing my royalties we kept the costs of the hardback down to a manageable amount. I have seen monographs like mine at $115US recently.
Ugh, foregoing royalties is tough. In my case, I’m getting nothing but royalties for 50 Voices of Disbelief. Foregoing any advance kept the costs down. As of today, I have no income whatsoever except for whatever royalties I do get (and some bank interest on savings deposits and the occasional paltry Telstra dividend or whatever), so hopefully the book will sell a few copies. Writing (or editing) books for academic publishers isn’t a great way of getting rich, I’m afraid, however the deal is cut.
No, we discussed that not having an advance would keep the costs down. I was actually offered (and accepted) a straight 10 per cent royalties. This is a bit different for me because in the past I’ve only ever made money from books I’ve done from advances. Even the book I co-wrote for Greenwood Press gave me a small advance: a hundred or a couple of hundred dollars, or something. The royalties from the four novels I wrote for Byron Preiss were set very low, as is typical with media tie-in contracts, and then the whole Byron Preiss operation went bankrupt after Byron’s tragic death, which means I never got US$3000 that I was still owed at the time. However, I did get a fair bit in advances in the early 2000s. Hey, I almost made enough from writing to support myself for a year or so … that year being, alas, 2003. Trying to make a living as a freelance writer is a bit like trying to make a living by giving singing lessons to snakes. I can think of lots of ways to expand that analogy … although I must add that the Wiley-Blackwell folks have been very good to deal with, and I hope to work with them on some of the future projects that I have in mind. With luck, they’ll have a best-seller on their hands and everyone will be happy.