NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection

The more I learn about the publishing industry, the more confused I get.

As some of you know the official release date for my new book, NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection, was November 30th.  

If you pre-ordered it from the publisher ABC-Clio, you probably already have the physical version in hand. Amazon started allowing Kindle downloads last Sunday, but as of this morning does not yet have the paper copy in stock. Barnes and Noble has been offering the Nook version all week. 

Next comes the matter of price. On the publisher's site the price has consistently been $40 for the physical book. If readers email me, InfoDoc [AT] ddowell.com, I can send you a discount code from the publisher that will give you a 20% discount. That will make the price $32 before shipping. 

Amazon originally offered the paper copy for $40 but has recently lowered that to $38. With Amazon's pre-order guarantee, any of you who have placed orders there should get it at that price and you may get free shipping if you have a Prime account.

Over on the e-book side, Amazon has been offering the Kindle version for $35.99. Barnes & Noble started out offering the Nook version for about $23 but quickly changed its price to the current $30. Although the publisher also offers an e-book version, you probably should not be interested unless you are a library that plans to offer the book to your patrons from your own server.

Then comes the description of the book. Some of you may know that the information about books that you see online generally was created before the book was written. It was created by the publisher soon after the contract was signed. In the current example, all three online sources mistakenly agree that the book has 136 pages. The actual physical book I have in hand has 173 pages including the index. The lower number was the publisher's guess to use a place holder before the manuscript was received. Such information takes on a life of its own.

Another example of information taking on a life of its own is the co-authorship of CeCe Moore. CeCe was originally contracted to participate in this book project. Based on that the publisher originally created a cover that included her name. Initial information including her name was included in the publisher's catalogs and was sent to others including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Then CeCe's career as a DNA consultant for television programs and her independent consulting work rocketed at a pace that forced her to withdraw from this book project at a very early stage. A new version of the cover was created and the publisher no longer mentions her on its site. I was able to get Amazon to remove reference to her authorship. However, the Kindle division appears to operate in a different universe than does the print division of Amazon. The short version of this saga is that you will still see CeCe mentioned by Kindle and Nook.

Thank you for indulging me in this rant. Perhaps this will make you a more informed consumer as you contemplate purchasing this and other books.

What's Next for Dr. D?

Back in June on the eve of Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank, I had dinner with my acquisitions editor at the publisher who has published all my books to date. She had just read and forwarded to the production editor the manuscript for NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection. As we parted that evening she asked, "What are your going to write next?"

At the time I was not ready to answer that question. My commitment involvement to complete NextGen had not yet run its course. Now that is changing. You can now see the Table of Contents:

On Thursday I  posted on Facebook: 

Just sent corrected page proofs & index to publisher for NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection. Postpartum setting in. November publication.

I'm moving past the brief depression that comes with the realization that my ability to shape the final product has passed. For better or worse it is in the final stages of production. 

The book itself is just one of the aspects about which I now seem to be powerless. Even though Amazon has taken CeCe Moore's name off the cover, the site continues to list her as a co-author. See my earlier post about how this came to be. Once something gets into a database it seems to take a life of its own and it is next to impossible to remove/correct all locations where it resides.

Now I'm still not sure what I want to do next. I'm also not sure what the appropriate venue for that effort might be. My current publisher, Libraries Unlimited, has been a very comfortable fit up until now. As long as I was writing about library topics for library workers, this was the right market niche. With Crash Course in Genealogy it was easy to maintain this tie by slanting it toward helping library workers assist family history researchers. With NextGen Genealogy that connection became more tenuous. The title was almost shifted to Praeger -- an imprint also owned by the parent company ABC-Clio. In the end this book stayed with Libraries Unlimited. If I do undertake another book, should it be with Libraries Unlimited, Praeger, some other publisher or should it be self published?

The nature of the content may guide that choice. I have long had in the back of my mind that I might want to top off my trilogy with a book on the ethical issues surrounding DNA testing. This would go beyond testing for family history applications and wander into the even more emotionally charged area of testing for medical conditions. 

Ethics is not a new area of concern for me. In the 1970s I served on the Committee for Professional Ethics of the American Library Association. I even chaired the committee for a year. More recently, for more than a decade, I taught a short course for library workers and web designers entitled Ethics in the Information Age. However, it was only in the last three years that I came to realize that there was a significant overlap between my earlier forays into the field of professional ethics and my newer found interest in DNA testing. Chapter 7 in NextGen Genealogy is my first attempt to write about the overlap of these two fields of interest.

Now that NextGen Genealogy is about to be launched, it is becoming obvious how much has changed in the last 6 months since I turned the first draft of the manuscript over to my acquisitions editor. Print publication is such a slow process in the age of instant gratification. In addition, in NextGen Genealogy, I deliberately tried to not intimidate newcomers to genetic genealogy. Is it time to start working on NextGen Genealogy 2.0: Digging Deeper Into DNA?

Before making a final decision, I'll probably do what I have often done in the past. Do a little writing. Do a little teaching/lecturing. Get a feel for what works with people with whom I'm interacting. In the spring I may be teaching another class through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt University. It wouldn't be appropriate for that audience to dive deeply into either of these topics but it may give me a chance to try some of the content.

Dr. D is having a hard time trying to decide what to do when he grows up or even if he wants to grow up!

NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection is moving toward publication

With great haste we make slow progress. I just returned the copy edits for my new book to the editor. Another step closer to the publication date but still a few steps to go. 

For those of you who have not experienced the process, I'll review it for you. I signed the contract last September. The manuscript was due at the publisher at the end of December. That deadline was missed and my co-author had to withdraw because of success in other areas of her life as a genetic genealogist. It was April before I finished the part she was to have written. 

First the acquisition editor read the manuscript and approved it to go into production. Then it was reviewed for plagiarism, copyright and legal permissions from those whose material was being included. Here the progress seemed to bog down. I'm not sure whether this was due to an illness of the production editor or because of the cycle adopted by my publisher. The cover was developed as soon as the manuscript went into production. Authors, at least with this publisher, have no say about the cover. We can negotiate almost any other aspect but not the cover.

Manuscripts for other books I have done with this publisher were due at the end of December. This allowed the books to be available for showing to thousands of librarians who attend the American Library Association Conference typically held at the end of June. Since the current title missed that cycle, it seemed to fall into the next cycle. That cycle is to get it out in November so that it could be available for Christmas.

The production editor assigns the manuscript to a copy editor who reads it for grammar, footnote format, etc. The manuscript is returned to the author for concurrence with any changes and to answer any questions from the copy editor. This is the last point at which the author can make any changes or add new material. 

The manuscript is returned to the copy editor for final formatting. It is then converted into page proofs. These are returned to the author for one last review. At this stage only the most minute changes can be made so that the pagination will not be disrupted. The index is created at this point. I prefer to do my own indexing. Our work schedule calls for me to be indexing in mid-September. The page proofs and index are returned to the copy editor who places every thing in final form and forwards it to the publisher for printing and distribution.

If you should order this book from the publisher, be advised that the electronic format offered was designed primarily for library servers and may not be what you have come to expect from Kindle. The book also can be preordered from Amazon but the discount code shown above will not be honored there. 

Makes one want to investigate self publishing. 

Paper Will Record Any Nonsense Any Fool Writes Down

Way back in the last century, I took a course on the history of the Renaissance and the Reformation. I don't remember much about the Renaissance or the Reformation from that course, but I still remember and apply a few pearls of wisdom that Professor Emeritus Thornton shared with us. One of them was

"Paper is a very neutral medium. It will record any nonsense any fool writes down."

I wonder what Professor Thornton would have said about the medium of silicone. 

As an expansion of Professor Thornton's admonition, I often say that since I was born in Missouri, the "Show-Me" state that I have to see things to believe them. But of course Photoshop has challenged that as well.

This morning on the right column of my Facebook page I discovered the following image:

  
I'm happy to have the publicity for my forthcoming book which is now winding it's way through the editorial processes of my publisher. It is also interesting to see it paired with an ad for DNA.Ancestry. However, I don't want people to buy it because CeCe's name is associated with it. She had to withdraw from the project because of her success in other aspects of genetic genealogy. She is blessed with a brain for genetic genealogy, a face for television and is an articulate spokesperson. Although she was originally contracted to participate in the writing of the book, she had to step aside to try to retain some small smidgen of sanity among her many commitments. The publisher has already updated its website to reflect the true status of authorship of the book. Amazon.com is more intransigent to updates. The publisher claims to have no traction there. 

Bottom line: I'd be happy for you to pre-order the book at Amazon or from the publisher. However, I don't want you to do it based on out dated information. For those of you who will be attending Jamboree in Burbank later this week, I'll be distributing flyers about the book. Hope to see you there. 

BIG Y: Open letter to Bennett Greenspan

Awaiting Results

OK Bennett, you can release my BIG Y results now. When I saw my original release date of December 31, 2013, I was thrilled to know I would have something exciting to do on New Years Eve. After all I would have just finished the manuscript for NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection (see other post today) and I would be needing something to do.

Well, it turns out that you knew better than I did about what was best for me. You didn't want me to be conflicted between working on my book manuscript and interpreting my BIG Y results. That was thoughtful of you. The amended February 28th release date should have given me time to get the manuscript finished but it didn't. Well at least you released a 100 or so results then. Those guys must have been all caught up on their chores. But somehow you knew that NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection still needed my attention. Scary. 

Then the due date got moved to March 28th. Surely I would be ready now. You released the results for a non-biologically related Dowell in our project but again none for me, for my late father-in-law or for my 6th cousin George. How did you know it wasn't time to release mine?

Last week you released Herb McDaniel's results. Herb is an STR match for me up to and including 111 markers. We are getting closer or are we? 

Bennett I really need you to keep paying attention. You do remember don't you that I ordered this test on November 11, 2013 -- the first day you were taking orders and my current expected date is the 28th of last month.

The manuscript is almost finished and out the door. Tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest. Thank you for trying to simplify my life and genetic genealogy priorities but I think I can take it from here. 

Please Bennett, free my SNPs. I want my BIG Y results and I want them NOW! I'm really not throwing a temper tantrum -- at least not yet.
  

NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been blogging much in the last several months. But now, finally, the manuscript is almost ready to go out the door and into the publishing process. The writing process was not at all what I had envisioned even a few months ago.

Amid the euphoria that engulfed me at the publication of my last book in June 2011, I announced on this blog that CeCe Moore and I "were talking about collaborating on a book. If all goes well you should see it in 2013." 

Then life intervened for both CeCe and me. As with most segments of life this one contained both good and not so good. My father-in-law died at age 93 and my wife Denise and I decided to sell our ocean view in Morro Bay and move to Nashville to be over 2,000 miles closer to each of our four kids and now soon to be eight grandsons. It has turned out to be a great decision for both of us but the relocation put some other parts of our lives on hold for a while. Finally last year CeCe and I signed a contract to deliver a manuscript to our publisher by December 31, 2013. The publisher came up with a cover. It is a cover you won't see later -- at least in this form:

Then life intervened for CeCe in a way that was good for her professional career as a genetic genealogist but not so good for our book project. In October, 2013 CeCe became involved in solving a two decade old genetic mystery about a substituted sperm sample during an in vitro fertilization. This case reached the national media spotlight in January. By then she was immersed in work to keep up with the production schedule for "Finding Your Roots with Henry Lewis Gates, Jr." scheduled to air on public television on Tuesdays starting in September. In February CeCe withdrew from our book project.

I decided to write the autosomal part which would have been CeCe's major contribution. Angie Bush was enlisted to critique what I wrote and of other parts of book as well. Angie was a great help because she is a molecular geneticist with a background in genetics as well as genealogy. So the writing part is now a day or two from being ready to transition into the publisher's production process. The book should be out this fall.

Now I can feel free to act more like I'm really retired. I can blog, teach and research my own genealogy! :-)