Vegan Freak, 2nd. ed.
Mon, Nov 12th, 2007
Vegan Freak has been successful beyond our expectations, and it has clearly been a useful book for a lot of people. We get email often from people telling us that the book was instrumental in getting them to go or stay vegan. And to be honest, that’s what we wrote the book for. So in that regard, it is working as we’d hoped, and we’ve certainly sold far more than the 1000 copies that we thought would be our maximum in our wildest dreams.
But in truth, we sometimes look back at the book and think about things that we’d change, or do differently. This is natural as we’ve grown and changed.
With that in mind, we’ve been talking with a publisher about doing a 2nd edition of Vegan Freak, to debut this coming Fall 2008. While the traditional rule is that a 2nd edition requires 10% different/new content, we’re thinking about rewriting most of Vegan Freak from the ground up to better reflect the experience that we’ve gained in the years since publishing the book. We’re dedicated to keeping the book accessible and conversational yet analytical. We see a lot of places where we could improve upon the original, and we’re going to devote this coming summer to this work. I suspect this’ll result in a book that’s fairly similar in tone, but perhaps tighter in its arguments and advice. Still, it will essentially be a new book.
Another cool thing about the 2nd edition is that the publisher we’re talking with is interested in alternative distribution models, including e-books and more. Thus, you can expect to see Vegan Freak as a DRM-free e-book. We’re also kicking around the idea of doing an audio book as well, which we would record and produce, but distribute through the publisher’s channels. We know an audiobook would be an amazing amount of work — we estimate probably 2-3 solid weeks of writing, recording, and editing — but I think it could be a really effective way to get our ideas across, and given the surprising success of our podcast over the past few years, I suspect people would go for it if the price was right. As with everything else, our goal is to make sure that what we produce is accessible, inexpensive, and user/reader friendly.
Though none of this is certain or set in stone, we’re thinking about new ways of getting the message and ideas in Vegan Freak out there, and our potential new publisher is keen on these ideas. The next few months should be exciting times, and hopefully, we’ll continue to produce something that gets people to seriously consider veganism and animal rights.
# Comment by girl least likely to on Tue, Nov 13th, 2007 at 12:19 am:
how exciting! that sounds like a really cool way to keep spreading the word. i can understand thinking seriously about the amount of extra work it would take… but if you go forward with it, let me know if you need an extra set of eyes.
# Comment by Bob Torres on Tue, Nov 13th, 2007 at 12:34 am:
Thanks! We’re going to go forward with it, no doubt. We’ll definitely take you up on reading, though. You were completely amazing with the first version. The book would be full of problems and inconsistencies had it not had the benefit of your ever-watchful eye!
Hope all is well. We haven’t talked in forever!
# Comment by Blue on Tue, Nov 13th, 2007 at 11:04 pm:
Bob,
An audio book would be amazing, especially for us vegan commuters! Plus, it would incorporate VFR in a way, which is an integral part of the Vegan Freak community.
I can’t wait for the new addition, you might even consider enlisting some freaks to offer their personal stories.
# Comment by Andrew on Wed, Nov 14th, 2007 at 4:52 am:
I was bummed when I got to the end of Vegan Freak, so I’m looking forward to a second installment.
# Comment by Vegangsta on Wed, Nov 14th, 2007 at 3:23 pm:
I agree. An audio book would be excellent.
# Comment by Daniel on Thu, Nov 15th, 2007 at 3:19 am:
I’m really excited to hear about this new edition of Vegan Freak. The idea to release it as an ebook/audiobook is excellent, I’d buy both.
# Comment by Ida on Fri, Nov 16th, 2007 at 12:50 pm:
Yay for 2nd editions and alternate distribution models! I think the e-book is a great idea as is the audio book. Lots of work but it makes it much more accessible for those who don’t have the time to read or are visually impaired.
# Comment by johanna on Tue, Nov 20th, 2007 at 1:02 pm:
If it’s essentially going to be a new book (about which I say YAY!), what are your thoughts about keeping the same name? I just wonder if that might be confusing, both to consumers & to bookstore orderers or librarians. Even if you made it Vegan Freak 2 or something, that might help… heh. Maybe I am being too picky. Although whenever a new edition of a book comes out (like the Uncheese Cookbook), I feel like I have to do some digging to find out what’s different & if it’s worth buying another copy. So whatever you do, I’d say please make it obvious to folks that it’s different & they ought to buy it too.
# Comment by johanna on Tue, Nov 20th, 2007 at 1:03 pm:
(Er. Not YAY in the sense that the first book was bad — just YAY in the sense of more stuff.)
# Comment by Theresa on Thu, Nov 29th, 2007 at 12:03 am:
Great idea! My only disappointment with the first book was that there wasn’t more of it. A second edition would fix that problem.
I still pull out the book for random reference, just this week I looked up the vegan pet food section (we’re thinking of adopting a cat…). And I love to loan it out to people.
# Comment by Cathy on Sun, Dec 16th, 2007 at 11:12 am:
Yay!!! That sounds really cool, and the first book was awesome. I can’t wait for Round 2!
I love the ebook part. That’ll be fantastic! Good luck with all the extra work! You can do it!!!
# Comment by Ivo aka Heartborne on Fri, Feb 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 am:
YES, audiobook version IS AWESOME! please go forward with it!
Well, I wish we had a Portuguese version, I could just send it to all my friends and MAYBE get some more vegans :O
Maybe I should just translate it ? erm, :X