Came back from the holiday weekend and had an email from Justine. She’s finished most of the book’s initial layout so sent a link to the first section’s pdf file. She then sent another email with links to five other pdfs of the rest of the book save the last section (reference, how to, endnotes, etc.). Jennifer has tipped us off to yousendit.com, an online email service that handles large attachments. yousendit also gives links to the files, which stay online for a limited amount of time. The first section downloaded fine, but the system was busy for most of the morning when I tried getting the other files. The network eventually opened up and I downloaded them all. So exciting to see the book in digital form. I set up Acrobat to look at the pages as if they were in a book in my lap so I could get to see how Justine set up the two-page spreads. I had given Justine hopeful page counts for each artist, documentarian, section, etc., along with the photos that I sent her in order of my first choice to print to the last choice. I could tell right off that I had asked for too much space for the sections, and realized that only a few of the sections will get 3-4 pages of photos. I am also afraid that many of the 750 photos I sent her may not get in the book. I plan on going through the book with my photo credit file (the photos are in order on that file) to reference my choices with Justine’s. Overall, I like what’s going on with the book. I have mentioned the fact that all the photos might not fit, and am sad to see still more being edited. But I understand that that happens, especially when a small press publishes a full color book. I found a few obvious tweaks right off, and Jennifer encouraged me to look closer and find everything I think should change. I plan on doing that tomorrow. On the digital front, MySpace and Flickr moves forward. I add photos weekly and long in often to check out who’s gotten in touch. Good to see the buzz happening already, and I’ve seen some great art and met some new artists thanks to the sites.
The Sun Ra Ship is Leaving this Planet!