Richard Daniels This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. www.indexpup.com

   www.indexpup.com/index-list/19 - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/5/2001   Last Visited: 8/4/2002

   Our guest speaker, Richard (Dick) Evans, will be presenting his workshop: INDEXING COMPUTER MANUALS It is a full-day workshop and will be held on Saturday, April 3, 1999.
   ...
   ABOUT THE PRESENTER: Richard (Dick) Evans is the owner of Infodex Indexing Services in Raleigh, NC.
   ...
   Dick specializes in indexing computer topics, a field for which he is particularly well suited, having spent 30 years with IBM before retiring and beginning his indexing business in 1992. Dick's interest in indexing is multifaceted and dates to the 1960s when, as a computer operator, he was often frustrated by the difficulties of finding information in computer manuals. In the early '80s, he was a technical writer dealing with the challenges of creating indexes for the manuals he wrote. By the late 80s, he was a systems analyst conducting usability tests on indexes to determine what made them easy to use. When he left IBM in 1992, he did contract technical writing while doing indexing on the side. He learned CINDEX and landed one steady client, a software corporation in Research Triangle Park, NC. By 1993, he had a second client, a publisher in Durham, NC, and when he landed his third steady client in 1994, he quit technical writing and became a fulltime indexer. He currently works out of his home and indexes over 60 titles and about 20,000 pages per year. He is also the President of the Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Indexers (ASI), on the Board of Directors of the national ASI, a candidate for Vice President of national ASI, and on the Board of Directors of the Carolina Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). ==================================================
   ======================= Date:
   
   Tue, 2 Mar 1999 09:08:20 -0500 Reply-To:
   
   Indexer's Discussion Group Sender:
   
   Indexer's Discussion Group From:
   
   ...
   For illustration I could perhaps use a story told me by a good friend Richard Daniels, a successful self-published producer of books of tablature for rock guitarists: Heavy Guitar Bible, Jimi Hendrix Note for Note, among others (he can be found at heavyguitar.com). He was in the usual prostration stage of trying to get his work published by conventional publishers, and he ended up meeting the guy (I forget his name) who wrote a whole series of almost cultish classics about VW repair from the late 60s and 70s. This guy showed Richard 2 numbers. One was what he made as a conventionally published writer, and the second was what he made after he started self-publishing. The difference was so incredibly vast that it was an automatic gestalt switch for Richard!! I know this won't convince you. In fact I know it can't in and of itself. Just consider it a free cognitive seed from one who has been down that road. If I were you I'd forget about Norton. This situation is somewhat analogous to trying to pitch a toy idea to a toy company: generally speaking they want to have nothing whatsoever to do with you, but if you're stupid enough to pitch your idea without first patenting it you may soon discover it on the shelf with their name on it.