The new J. of Applied Systems Studies (JASS) is soliciting papers on almost any systems subject -- cybernetics, planning, soft systems, cognitive modeling, decision support, HCI, KBS, intelligent systems, virtual communities, medical applications, etc. Nikitas Assimakopoulos ; . [dbworld, 19Jun99.]

Connectionist models for learning in structured domains; IEEE Trans. on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TDKE), mid/late 2000. 30Jul99 (abstracts by 15Jul99); Paolo Frasconi . [ai-stats, 23Jun99.]

"High-performance agent systems: scalable and performance management": "Concurrency: Practice and Experience," Mar/Apr00. 01Oct99; Omer Rana . . [dbworld, 30Jun99.]

----- "There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle." -- Robert Alden. [Thought, 07May99.] -----

6 > Writing and publishing: [With Mike Hanafin.]

Writing for Money is a near-daily announcement of freelance writing opportunities, plus how-to articles on the business and craft of freelance writing. . [John Clausen , newjour, 23Feb99.]

Effective Communication is a twice-weekly newsletter about writing and communication skills. . [Azriel Winnett , NEW-LIST, 08Mar99.]

ProofPositive is a weekly newsletter about proofreading, including grammar, spelling, and word usage. Send a "Subscribe ProofPositive" subject line to . . [Darlene Bishop, NEW-LIST, 03Mar99.]

Hypocritical.com is a more-humorous-than-serious creative outlet for artists, designers, and writers -- people who have to "sell out" to make a living. . [, newjour, 29Mar99.]

Recent e-book contract give authors just 4% of list price, vs. about 15% for traditional book deals. Literary associations are advising authors to reject such deals, or to demand higher royalties if online books become popular. [NYT, 10May99. Edupage.]

Although book publishing is harder than book writing, there are more than 15K small publishers trying to grow their businesses. (53,500 publishers are listed in Books in Print, but most are single-book efforts. See Dan Poynter's "Self-Publishing Guide" for help doing the same.) Independent publishers typically pay 40% of a book's retail price to the bookstore, 10% to the wholesaler, 15% to the distributor, 10% to the author, 5% for manufacturing, and 10% for marketing. That leaves 10% for profit. (College texts and technical volumes have higher profit margins. Book of the Month Club books have thinner margins, with the club getting an 80% discount.) Most books are sold on consignment, and 18%-22% are returned unsold -- sometimes two years later. (Independent publishers may carry a title for 6-14 years, far longer than large publishers.) Some independents do the wholesale and distribution work themselves, but that's quite difficult. Most prefer to concentrate on doing well what they do best, earning profits from careful buying or vigorous marketing. Possibly the Internet will make the job easier, reducing the number of distributors, wholesalers, and physical stores -- not to mention the need to send up to 9K newspaper press releases for each new book. [Jan Norman, SJM, 25May99, 15C.]

----- "All things are difficult before they are easy." -- Thomas Fuller. [Powerquotes, 18May99.] -----