Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Lois and Clark fanfic printed as books?

I have a head-maybe-becoming-a-chest cold and I've decided to do my office a favor and absent myself from them today. So I'm not playing engineer there, not doing any work around the house here...in fact I plan to do as little productive as possible for the near future.

What I would like to do is turn the heat up (done), wrap myself in multiple blankets (done) and read. I don't have an e-reader and I'd rather handle a book at this point anyway. I'd really love to be able to grab a hardcopy of something from the archive.

Printing a 400 page story like "Veritas" at home is out of the question. It'd be cool if I could take the stories I like to re-read and turn them into books, though. Then I thought of the instant book machines--wouldn't it be cool to get a copy of the "Home" series or a Kerth anthology?

So I looked it up. (http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/21/new-york-public-library-gets-first-espresso-book-machine/) The article says they can print public domain content. I'm about out of steam but I was wondering:

FoLCs--Would you be OK if someone printed a copy of your story as a book?
Assuming an author grants permission, does anyone know if it's possible to upload or open an internet file with the book machine? They mention the Open Content Alliance but I don't know anything about it.

Would I be OK with it? I'd be honoured if someone liked any of my stories enough to do that!

I hope you feel better soon.

Joy,
Lynn

I second Lynn--that sounds really cool! I don't know any details on how that would work, but I love the sound of this 'espresso book machine'! Does that mean it makes your coffee AND gives you a book?! LOL Just kidding

And feel better soon!!

So first off,as an author, I agree with Lynn and mozartmaid - I'd be honored if anyone printed my stuff out.

Secondly, I have to say I'd be interested if you figured out how to do it. For several reasons, over the past few years I've had periods of time when all I want to do is curl up with a good book, but don't have the brain power to deal with anything difficult. I'm actually in one of those now, and I had a good academically oriented book on hold at the library and let it go, because as much as I want to sit on the couch with a book, I don't think I'll be able to get through that book now.

Fanfic is perfect for this, but it's hard to curl up on the couch with my laptop. I do have an Ipod Touch now, but even that doesn't have the same feel. I do read a fair amount of fanfic on it these days, but that's generally as I put my daughter to sleep. It's just not the same as reading a book, though.

So, if you figured out how to do this, please post it. I, for one, would be very interested.

I hate to put the damper on this party, but the material here is not public domain material. In other words, Warner Bros. holds the copyright to the characters and none of us have permission to use them. We do it because we are more or less underneath the radar on the computer and at the time all this started the lawyers didn't understand computers. You note we put big disclaimers on the front of our stories, but that could hold very little legal water if WB wanted to take the effort to push the issue. So we do run the risk of being shut down some day or having to pay WB! ACK!

What you print out on your home printer is your business, but if you print and bind a book at a public site, you are publishing even if it is one book. If that is mailed, that is transportation across state lines (assuming out of state) and the FBI has jurisdiction.

Hence the large effort by Lauren, Dorowen, Bobbart and others to convert the fiction into other forms that could more easily be read on hand held devices such as readers and ipads.

For economy of printing on your home computer, .pdf double page would probably offer the best book-like experience.

I used to be a died-in-the-wool book reader and would haul 20 paperbacks on a trip and buy more during the trip, but now I'm a total Reader convert. I went on a 16 day cruise and had 100 books, plus some LnC fiction, at my fingertips.

I have Sony Reader and HP iPac, others have Kindle, which is wifi accessible and good in airports and such.

Sorry for the bad news, but I hate to see this plus fanfiction.net shut down sometime in the future. I would be very frustrated.

This is my opinion. If LabRat or Lauren or Karen come on and say otherwise, I bow to their opinion.
regards
Artemis
P.S. There are more stories converted to epub than are listed on the Archive, including most of Nan Smith's stories. Find them here: epub site

I wouldn't risk bringing the pestilence of the government or anyone's copyright lawyers down on anyone. There's enough of that without provoking more. I was thinking of a not-for-profit derivative work printed by a not-for-profit machine, not about the original owners of the characters. You're right and it is unfortunate that approaching them regarding some kind of pay-per license arrangement would probably unleash the lawyers.

I appreciate the effort to create electronic readable files and the various advantages of the new readers. Then again, I can't say I'd be comfortable taking an e-book to the beach. I'm not a Luddite by any means but my preferred medium is still the Biologically Oriented Optical Knowledgebase.

Yeah, best not to 'unleash the lawyers'--though that line cracked me up... so I guess it's e-pub for now!

Artemis, you make an excellent point. *Sigh*

Thank goodness for e-readers (and e-reader apps) of every ilk. (Long live Stanza!)

Joy,
Lynn

LabRat concurs. Sadly, it's probably too much of a risk.

But what a fascinating piece of tech, Shallowford. What will they think of next?

LabRat (who can think of plenty of material from Guttenburg she could have bound into book form...)

James hijacking Elisabeth's login...

Before 'Readers' I would make take stories and put them into MS Word. I would max out the margins, set the font to Times New Roman or Arial and set the size to 8 or 9. I would then put it into 4 columns and print it on both sides.

Doing this I was able to condense Labby's Cape Fear into about 320 pages, which is no mean feat!

James