[at-l] A Request for Information

[redhead at hack.net (redhead@xxxxxxxx)]

I'm pretty sure that a majority of AT hikers are less discerning than your 
editor.  We read every account of the AT we can find without regard to 
punctuation, grammer or whether you actually completed a thru. Heck, we even 
read soap labels. I am pretty sure that Bryson only managed a high selling book 
because he was published previously, and had a reputation for humorous writing. 
(and he had an editor, which means there were few, if any, typo's ;) ) There 
are no hikers that think of him as an actual thru hiker. That he was thought 
that way by millions of people simply shows that those millions - thank 
goodness - haven't been on the AT and don't know what it's about. Crowd control 
could be a bigger problem if everyone who read Bryson's book ran out to do a 
thru hike :)

I guess I'm saying - every journal, every account of a thru hike, or even a 
section hike, or a thru hike that ended - we read, if we can find it. It's nice 
to find it free on the web. We devour those accounts. But most of us buy any 
books related too. Even those of us with limited means find the money to 
purchase the books about the AT.

If you ever decide to publish a book, let us know. With a readership of 700+, 
you might not want to expect initial books to sell that well - but word of 
mouth rules - and that will expand.

In the meantime - if you want to, you could put up your journal or any related 
writings for free on backcountry.net, so we could all enjoy them.

:)

red




Quoting "Bob C." <ellen@clinic.net>:

I had toyed with the idea for a book, but concluded if an editor thinks even a
successful hike couldn't sell, my mishmash of a a journey along the Appalachian 
Ridges certainly wouldn't attract readers.