Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Piano World Book?

I long time ago I posted this thread (I didn't realize quite how long ago is was until just now-yikes!)
https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...2/topic/007354/Number/0/site_id/1#import
(I hope that link works)

I wanted to revive the thread since we have a lot of new members that probably have great stories to tell.

I also wanted to toss around the book idea again. If we could get a book published and sell it all the proceeds could go to a music related charity. Or we could start our own.

Of course we could have many different chapters/topics that capture the entire adult piano experience. From teachers from heck, piano lesson nightmares, and of course inspirational stories as well

I might be getting way in over my head. And a lot of research will probably be involved. But it's worth looking into.

What do you guys think?

Kymber, I think it's a wonderful idea! But it would probably take some serious co-ordination, & someone(s?) who had the time & skills to pull it all together. Anybody want to volunteer??

There is a Piano World CD.

It costs an insane amount of money in order to publish a book. It would probably be more than what we could afford and the more pages, the more money.If you tried to do it at your local Kinkos store, it would be even more since they aren't usually equipped to bind an actual book. It's a great idea but we would have to first donate alot of money ourselves in order to get one publish unless someone's rich:) Or if someone has someway of publishing it themselves but that would also take so much work and still cost money. Great idea if someone wants to do it though. I had a professor put together some kind of fancy portfolio for work and she just had a simple binding on it. Like one of those spiral bindings. She got it done at Kinkos and each page was 10 dollars. She spent well over 100 dollars just on a small portfolio for business purposes. I suppose a cheaper way to do this would be a CD and apple said we did have one? Or maybe set up an alternative website with everyone's story. Like a blog or something

It could be self-published as an E-book. There are instructions online for this. And Amazon pays 70% royalties for U.S. sales (evidently only 35% for non-U.S.).

You can also self publish print books.
There are companies that can print one-offs.

That said, coming up with a saleable book isn't easy, just ask
Perri Knize (Grand Obsession) or Robin Meloy-Goldsby (Piano Girl), both are members of the forums.

And remember, "charity begins at home" :-)

Piano World is my only job now, I didn't plan it that way, it's just the way things worked out after my "day job" was down-sized.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the flexibility and like having more time to play, and to meet up with members. However I also find I have to pour most of the money Piano World brings in (from advertising, and from our online store), back into supporting Piano World. And believe me when I tell you I took a substantial cut in pay (further exacerbated by my divorce, but that's another subject).

Realistically I doubt our book would be on the top of the NY Times best seller list, but let's not be in too much of a rush to give away the proceeds should it come to fruition :-)


BTW, we lost money on the CD project. I don't know if I still have the boxes I had left over, but I'm betting member Ax does and he'd be happy to sell them as he invested his own money in the production.

Not trying to discourage anyone, I think it's a wonderful idea.
I've often thought about writing a book about the "Piano World".