TODAY'S ISSUE
Closet authors arise: You, too, can publish your own book
By Pat Montgomery
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's Note: In addition to publishing her own book, today's writer is also to be a radio personality. A new show on parenting, called "Parent Rule," will start February 23 and run Thursdays from 2-3 p.m. on Radio Sandy Springs, 1620 AM, and online at www.radiosandysprings.com. --eeb)

SUWANEE, Ga., Jan. 31, 2006 -- Now You Know What I Know: Parenting Wisdom of a Grandmother was conceived as a gift to my children after September 11, 2001. What started as a document that would advise my children about parenting in my absence, became an odyssey through my parenting experience. The text relates advice and philosophy of responsible parenting with love and common sense punctuated with personal experiences.

Montgomery

This book was birthed from my soul, as I cried and laughed throughout writing it. Once I had the manuscript, what was I going to do with it? I gave copies of it to my husband and children to read, and they encouraged me to publish it. Now, to appreciate this, you must know my children. If they did not like the book, they would have no problem telling me so.

So I ignored my self doubts and did some research. Right away I ruled out traditional publishing for many reasons: the time involved and my desire to retain all the rights to the book were the main ones. Remember, this was a "baby" to me and I wanted to have final say on how it would "grow up."

Self publishing was a term I had heard, but what was it? I had some idea of having to buy and learn an expensive computer program, then going down to a local printer-basically doing everything myself. It seemed very complicated! The reality, I discovered, was much easier.

An internet search yielded a long list of self publishing companies. They all offer a basic publication package and a menu of options from which to choose, based on specific goals for the book and the cost of the initial investment. I contacted a few companies, had them send information, and then spoke to the author representatives.

I chose the basic publishing package, editing option, basic marketing package, and bookseller's return program. Other programs range from hard cover printing to intense media information. Basic publishing packages range from $500-$800. That is affordable even if you don't intend to market the book. Marketing packages range from $250-$3,000, or the author can choose to do that on their own. Some companies offer a publicist who will contact media and booksellers on the writer's behalf. That would be nice, but, since I am neither shy nor wealthy, my checkbook declined that option.

Book pricing depends on the number of pages or word count. A book the size of Now You Know What I Know: Parenting Wisdom of a Grandmother sells for $8.95-$15.95 as a rule. The surprising fact to me was that, on books sold online or in stores, the royalty on my book is seventy three cents. There is a little more profit if I sell them myself. (As an aside, after actively marketing the book for about three weeks, I have made back 15 percent of my investment, not including any internet or store sales.)

As the process unfolded, I was able to accept or decline any changes the editors suggested and also to choose font size, style, book size, and cover design. The company I used was great to help me through each step of the process, answering each question I had. Finally I was electronically sent a galley (publishing jargon for a manuscript ready to print) and a cover design to approve. The whole experience became real to me when I saw the cover for the first time.

The day finally came that I received my advance copy. I danced around, holding the book in the air and shouting, "I'm an author!"

To all of you closet authors out there, it is time to come out and publish your work. You can feel that exhilaration of creation. Go ahead. If I can do it, you can too.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Visual pollution sprouting up in Snellville and Norcross
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

JAN. 31, 2006 -- Someone has sold the City of Snellville a bag of goods.

I refer to signs hanging from lampposts within the city. While they may tout the city itself, they also are emblazoned with advertisements from local firms.

What they do is add to the clutter and visual pollution that all of us are faced with more and more.

While these signs may promote the City of Snellville, they at the same time add little of value to the city, other than enrich the treasury of the sign promoter.

Of course, some may argue that you can't do much to make a utility pole more unattractive than it already is. "Put 'em underground," the people say, while utilities cite the high cost of installation, and the real problems of making repairs to underground wires. But one argument is hard to dismiss: no trees can fall on underground wiring!

Snellville may take some comfort in knowing that another Gwinnett city, Norcross, also now has signs hanging from its utility poles. But at least the Norcross signs merely say "Historic Norcross," and don't come with additional messages from private firms. But still, the Norcross signs add another element to visual pollution, as do their (larger) Snellville cousins.

Makes you think both cities were hit by a super duper sign salesman.

Signs in Norcross

We remember years ago when some aggressive company wanted to place benches all around Gwinnett. This may have been about 20 years ago. This firm was pleased to do it, and would do it for free, since the benches would have painted backboards with messages from firms advertising themselves.

Somehow, after some publicity about their potential placement, these signs never got a good start, and soon fizzled. Good riddance, we felt, for they were a bad advertising investment, plus themselves contributed to more visual pollution.

Meanwhile, another development has taken place in the last few years that may be something of a clarion call for some added facilities that would be helpful for some people in Gwinnett.

We refer to the many bus stops of the Gwinnett Transit System. Many of these stops are merely signs on poles, to let riders know where to congregate. But at some locations, there are smart green metal benches for the riders to sit awaiting the bus. Only problem is that the benches are out in the open, useful on good days, but with no protection from rain (or sun).

We look for some enterprising concern to approach the county (and the cities, too), suggesting that they construct some protection from the elements for the bus riders. No doubt the riders would appreciate it, perhaps even if the shelters had some form of advertising to help defray their construction. At least some group (bus riders) would be gaining benefit from the shelters (and benches). Perhaps even some of the shelter advertising revenue might flow to the bus system.

One thing you can say about the utility pole signs: besides being pollution, they don't offer any utilitarian purpose other than promote the firms advertising. Benches and shelters, on the other hand, would benefit at least the bus riders.

ABOUT OUR SPONSORS

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today¹s sponsor is The Peachtree Bank, located at 9570 Medlock Bridge Road. Duluth. The bank also has locations at 185 Gwinnett Drive, Lawrenceville, in Roswell is located at 695 Mansell Road,and 1725 Mount Vernon Rd. in Dunwoody. Monty Watson is president of the bank, which has assets of over $484 million. Member, FDIC and Equal Housing Lender. Go to The Peachtree Bank web site at : http://www.thepeachtreebank.com.

For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm

FEEDBACK
1/31: Our apologies to Martha Frances Hutchins, and Lee, too!

Editor, the Forum:

I read with interest your article about the DVD on Dacula's history because my mother is on it, and I look forward to getting one of the DVDs.....but I was dismayed to notice you got my mother's name wrong! She's Martha Frances Hutchins, not Mary. Thank you.

-- Lee Hutchins, Hog Mountain

Dear Lee: Of course she is Martha Frances. I should have known better. It was our mistake. Our apologies to you and your dear mother. -eeb

1/31: "No millionaire left behind" good mantra for Bush folks

Editor, the Forum:

The Bush administration and the Republican majority in Congress are pushing to pass an education "reconciliation package" that will cut $12.7 billion in student loan programs. This will be the single largest cutback in the history of the student loan program, placing a college education further out of the reach of middle-class and lower-income students, all the while giving millionaires an average windfall tax break of $19,000 a year.

Rather than cutting subsidies to private lenders, Rep. John Boehner, an architect of this legislation, has targeted working families. The bulk of the cut will be paid in the form of higher interest rates and fees paid by students and their parents. On average, students will pay an additional $2,000 in interest payments; parents an additional $3,000.

College tuitions have risen 40 percent in the last five years, state support for public universities has been cut, and the Republican Congress has frozen maximum Pell grants at the same level for the fourth straight year.

Students from working families will have higher debts because the vast majority of them now borrow an average of $19,000 to help finance college.

Perhaps their slogan should be, "No Millionaire Left Behind."

-- Ralph Greene, Snellville

1/31: Name of railroad missed right tag in article about Dacula

Editor, the Forum;

Your favorite railroad curmudgeon is signing in.

The name of the railroad that built through what is now Dacula was not the Carolina & Northern, but the Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railway, an affiliate of the Seaboard Air-Line group of railroads. In 1900, (before the founding of Dacula as a city) the GC&N and the other roads in this group were merged to form the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company (no hyphen in Air Line this time). This in turn became the Seaboard Coast Line RR in 1967, the Seaboard System RR in 1983 and CSX Transportation in 1986.

More than you ever wanted to know about this.

Also, I WILL read a book on Tuesday evening as suggested by reader Ralph Greene of Snellville. I expect that I'll learn a whole lot more there than anything that is on the tube. And I mean anything.

-- Bob Hanson, Loganville

UPCOMING
Rudy Bowen to address Chamber leadership breakfast

Homebuilder Rudy Bowen will speak at the February 17 "Success Lives Here' Leadership Breakfast of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. The meeting will be at 7:45 a.m. at the Sugarloaf Country Club in Duluth.

Bowen is president of Bowen Family Homes, which began in 1969. He undertook a new career by building one new home in the quiet Atlanta suburbs of Gwinnett County. Within five years, he was building 50 homes a year.

By the early 1980s, metro Atlanta was one of America's fastest growing cities, and Mr. Bowen began to develop his own land, avoiding third-party development costs and passing the savings onto home buyers. Suddenly, his company was creating entire communities.

Today, Bowen Family Homes is a leading creator of new home communities in major markets nationwide, including Florida, Texas, and metropolitan Atlanta. Builder Magazine has recognized Bowen Family Homes as one of America's 100 fastest growing builders and one of the top 75 builders overall in the nation.

Designed to profile the successful business and community leaders who have made Gwinnett what it is today, the "Success Lives Here" Leadership Series touches on the their lives and how they got to where they are today, what has contributed to their success, and what brought them to Gwinnett to build a career.

Registration deadline is February 14. Seating is limited. RSVP to Meghan Schroder at Meghan@gwinnettchamber.org.

NOTABLE
Duluth rail museum buys added land for expansion

The Southeastern Railway Museum has completed the acquisition of 3.8 acres adjoining the museum from James Elliott of Duluth. This acquisition is the museum's largest since the museum acquired its present 30 acre site in 1998 and was financed cooperatively by a community development grant sponsored by Rep. Brooks Coleman and coordinated by the City of Duluth, a donation from the Woodruff Foundation of Atlanta and a partial donation by Mr. Elliott. Legal services for the museum's part of the transaction were provided pro-bono by the Atlanta office of Alston & Bird LLP.

The museum plans to use the new property as space to consolidate parking, build a new visitor's center complex, a railroad depot and a new exhibit facility. In addition, the additional space provides increased flexibility in designing and building out the museum's current 30 acre site by improving access.

The museum has signed an agreement with E.R. Snell Contracting Inc. to do preliminary clearing and grading of the new acquisition and anticipates construction will begin during the first quarter of 2006.

* * * * *

The Southeastern Railway Museum has a limited number of tables for "Romance on the Rails," its third annual Valentine's Fundraiser event.

Dinner will include a choice of beverages, Hors d'oeuvres, salad, choice of beef, chicken or fish entre, and side items. Champagne, coffee & deserts will round out the evening. Each couple at dinner gets a box of chocolates & a rose.

Dinner seating is limited to nine tables at four different seating times. Seating is available Saturday, February 11 and Tuesday, February 14, at 7 and 9 p.m. A table for a couple is $125 and a table for two couples is $200.

RECOMMENDATION
The March
By E. L. Doctorow

Even if you are no Civil War buff, and neither am I, still E.L. Doctorow's The March, a fictional account of Sherman's march through Georgia (and South and North Carolina), makes good reading. We finished it in two sessions. Initially, it was hard to get into, but soon we were enthralled in the details, the continuing muck, the mire, the combat, the blood, the stories, etc. that Doctorow described. We don't know if it really rained that fall and winter each time Sherman's army marched, but it seemed like it. And just reading about it made us cold. It made you feel like you were really there, and that's why it was so enjoyable. (eeb.)

• An invitation: What Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  

GEORGIA TIDBIT
Hambridge Creative Arts Center flourishes in Rabun County

The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, founded by artist Mary Crovatt Hambidge, is an artists' community situated on 600 acres of pristine, natural forests, woodland, and streams in the north Georgia mountains.

Arts Center entrance

Hundreds of visual artists, writers, potters, composers, dancers, and other artists have pursued their crafts here in solitude. The Hambidge Center, along Betty's Creek in Rabun County, was the site of a revival of the mountain art of weaving from the 1930s to the 1950s, and it continues today as a focus for community activities geared toward the arts and nature.

In 1934, the Jay Hambidge Art Foundation was formally created; it was incorporated ten years later as a nonprofit organization for educational and scientific purposes. Hambidge fostered a group of women, known as the Weavers of Rabun, who grew and sheared sheep, carded and spun wool thread, and created fine woven goods.

With the industrialization of the 1950s, Hambidge broadened the scope of the center and invited creative artists and friends to come for extended stays there. An original caretaker's house became an artist's home, a studio was added, and other cabins gradually were built, all in secluded spots that allowed for maximum privacy along the mountainsides that line the Betty's Creek valley.

Every year, applicants from all parts of the United States and from around the world are selected to spend two weeks to two months in residency. Over the years, a great deal of assistance has been provided to the center by numerous funding sources, including the Fulton County Arts Council and the Georgia Council for the Arts, private foundations, and memberships from the community. Expanding creative vision is the center's mission; artists taking part in the program return to their communities to share their art and renewed inspiration.

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Just another way to look at the weight problem

"I've reached the age where you eat your own weight in pills, hoping they are low in calories and carbs."

-- Columnist Joseph Sobran, via Marshall and Becky Miller, Lilburn.

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com

© 2006, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.