Free Copies For Special People

Lulu are kind enough to apply a bulk discount of 7.5% to orders of 30 or more books (not a hint, that would be silly) and the postage is remarkably cheap, so with the Kickstarter money finally in the bank – only £791.70 once Kickstarter had taken all their fees – I have just been able to make the first bulk order of books to send out to various people. This is how it’s going to break down:

6 books for people who gave £50 or more to the Kickstarter project, and wanted a copy.
11 books to people who made a considerable contribution to the production of the book.
13 books to send out to organisations / groups / libraries that would like a copy available to their members / users.

I expect a big box to be arriving in about a week.

Once things are a bit clearer with regards to the exciting news alluded to in my last post then I will know whether I can use the remaining money to order more books, produce eBooks or start building the Underminers Network (hmm, where did that one spring from?) If I do the latter then I’ll have to get permission from my funders, but we’ll see in due course.

For the time being, if anyone is in an organisation that could really use a copy of Underminers for free, or is an individual who promises to do something good with the book, then please contact me at keith[at]theearthblog.org and let me know. I’ll put a big advert up soon, so you might like to get in there quick before they all go…

Kickstarter Fully Funded: More To Go…

A huge thank you to everyone who has pledged money to the Underminers Kickstarter project so far; the £900 has been made which guarantees Kickstarter’s support, and an exciting time in the new year getting the book out into the big world…

But we’re not done yet. There is no theoretical limit to the amount that can be used for this project. The more money raised, the more copies of the book can be printed and distributed – I will donate copies of the book to libraries and general interest groups, keeping a small stockpile aside to respond to demand from those who cannot afford the book. I will also produce a Kindle version of the book (different to ePub), again with free download available from the website.

So if you haven’t pledged yet then your money is just as important as that already pledged – we need more Underminers to give us a future. Click on THIS LINK to go to the Kickstarter page.

Many thanks, Keith.

Exciting, Paper-Related Things

It’s arrived. Or rather, the first “It” has arrived.

Lulu have delivered and the first draft of Underminers was handed over by my friendly postie yesterday just as I was walking to the village soup lunch (posties here do things like that). A slab of paper dound in a shiny bit of card with pictures and words shouldn’t get people that excited, should it? But books are enormously powerful – their tangible, tactile nature trumps anything online in its fuzzy electromagnetic form. Riffling through the pages was a thrill, but straight away I new a few things had to be changed – little things like the colour of the cover text, image formatting, thickness of spacer lines, that kind of thing. It’ll take me a few days to work through the list I’ve made, and then I’ll order another copy which, if it’s ok, will then be available to buy.

Then the fundraising begins…watch this space.

Chapter 6 Online in All Its Glory!

That horrible, exhausting chapter, the one that made me lose sleep, gave me headaches and almost caused me to give up is finally online in all its glory. It is so long I’ve had to split it into three parts, which are linked together starting from Part 1.

There’s not much point going into detail over what it’s about: but worth saying something about the change in style from the previous chapters. As you might know, Chapters 1-5 were in a section called Groundwork, which contained background information, analysis and a lot of basic, well, groundwork all about what undermining is and how it should be done to be most effective and only as risky as you are prepared to make it. Part 2 is where we really get down to it, as tough and dirty as you like, but also devious, secretive and scary – depending on whether you are the Underminer or the target.

As you step over the threshold into the actual practice of undermining don’t forget that the earlier chapters are there to help and guide you. You should never do anything you aren’t entirely comfortable with, but maybe with a few trusted friends and perhaps a few unknown, anonymous colleagues, you will end up surprising yourself. Now read on, and start undermining the Veil of Ignorance.

Chapter 2 is Online

A little tardy of me posting this blog, but in case it isn’t obvious from the menu items, Chapter 2 of Underminers is now online in two browser-friendly chunks. This chapter is a little heavy going as it goes through the Tools of Disconnection in some detail, including a few extra Tools that weren’t present in Time’s Up! / A Matter of Scale (although they were implied in later text). Dave Pollard deserves extra praise, not only for providing a fantastic essay to introduce the Tools in such an eloquent way, but also helping clarify what the Tools should consist of. In particular, Dave identified “Turn Us Against One Another” as a discrete Tool that has features not found in other disconnecting parts of civilized society.

The chapter is split into two sections because of its length, just over 13,000 words, which in one go would not sit comfortably in a browser window. The downloadable PDF, on the other hand, is in one chunk, designed for printing out or sending onwards to anyone you think might appreciate it. Don’t forget to send the link to others, and post it on blogs and websites. The book is going to start getting edgy in the next chapter so watch this space.