Appalachian Trail Stories
Frequently Asked Questions
Updated: April 3rd, 2000
If any of your questions remain unanswered, please send mail to editor@trailstories.com and I'll do my best to answer them.
My name is Tim Hewitt. I thru hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1999 under
the trail name Paddler. I live in Maine, was born in Washington State, and
lived in Arizona for a few years. I love to hike, and have covered countless
miles in the US and Canada. I live with my wife and three children in a
modest home in a small community in Maine. I am employed as a Principal
Software Engineer for a large semiconductor manufacturer, and have been
in the software business since 1982.
It's my name for this book. There are probably other, more industry standard
names for this, but it's how I feel about the book. I want to help you to
publish your material. I am working on another book project for my own
thru hike, and I thought that while I was at it, I might try to help other
hikers get their works in print. Many of my hiking friends are not overly
accomplished writers, and I understand that. That should not be a reason to
keep their stories hidden away from the world. In that light, I will act
as editor and writing assistant, to help you to put your words in print.
In that way, we will work together, or cooperate, on the book.
Yes! Assuming we sell the book, you will get a percentage of the profits. I
will publish the exact percentage on a private page on the website, and I'll
keep meticulous records during the actual project so that nothing is left to
faith. The profits from the book will be divided between me, as Anthologist, Editor and
Project Manager, and you, the Authors. The split will follow standard practices
in the book business for anthologies, where the Anthologist (that's me) gets
50% and the Authors (that's you) split the remaining royalty based on word
count in the final publication. The exact amount of your split will not be
known until the final version of the book is at the printers, but we'll have
a good idea before then.
The one catch in this is the duration of the royalty split.
It cannot be indefinite - the bookkeeping and tracking would be impossible to
keep up with. We will put a 10 year limit on the collection of
royalties, and after that, any residual profit would go to the Anthologist.
Not at this time. It's possible that the shared royalty method of profit
distribution will not be attractive and that I will have to go to outright
purchase of a story before it can be published. We'll cross that bridge when
we come to it. I think shared royalties are a better system for the Authors
as well as the Editor.
No. Advances against royalties are generally paid by the publisher. In an anthology,
it is not uncommon for the publisher to pay an advance to the Anthologist, and
then for the Anthologist to pay the individual Authors a small advance against
their future royalties. Since there is no publisher yet, we have no advance, and
we are all in this together - waiting to get paid when the book sells. It
is possible that this will change in the future, but don't mortgage the farm expecting
an advance check.
As long as it related to the Appalachian Trail, you can send in almost anything.
Review the Author's Contract, and the
Author's Kit for more information on
this, but anything that is "G" rated will be considered. This book is meant for
the general public, so no lewd or obscene material, nothing of a deviant nature,
no devil worshiping, no slanderous articles or libelous ranting and ravings allowed.
I have the final say as to what's trail related, but I've a very open mind.
You may submit poetry or prose, fiction (please identify it as such), historical
works, mythology, thru hike planning assistance, a special story about something
magical or wondrous that happened to you on the trail. Write about the birds and
plants along the trail, it's geology, facts and figures, the people who live in
the trail corridor, trail angels, the evolution of the trail over the years;
practically anything AT related is fair game. Use your imagination. If you are
not sure what you want to write about it going to be accepted, send me mail and
ask me first.
Please don't just send me your unedited, 180 page daily journal. Yawn. I'm
sorry, but the daily ranting of a tired, smelly, hurt, food-obsessed thru hiker
is not what people want to read about. Well, maybe just a little. I'm not going
to publish 25 daily journals, OK? Keep it interesting. Maybe we'll publish one or
two... I don't know, we'll see (wishy washy enough for you).
First, read the author's kit, and read the
submissions guidelines. If you are still interested in being part of the
project after reading through these materials, follow the instructions in
the submissions guidelines and you should be all set (gee that's an easy
way out. Really, just email or US Mail me your story as a text file, a Word
document, or almost any other format and I can work with it from there).
If your story is rejected, you will get a clear, descriptive reason why. It's
possible your story will not be accepted into the current volume of the book,
and may be held over for the next volume. It's possible that your story is not
appropriate for the book for one reason or another. These reasons will be
spelled out for you. There should be no question why your story was rejected -
unlike the rejection messages that can come from a publisher.
Should we go to a publisher with the draft manuscript and one or more stories
are struck by the publisher, they will be automatically held over for the next
volume of the book.
The Virtual Bookstore is something I've done on another website, and it
provides a few dollars a month in book commissions when people "click through"
the links on this site and buy a book from Amazon.com®. The profits from
this are very small, and it is my hope that they will amount to enough to
cover the costs of hosting the website for Thru Hiker Journals. If there is
significantly more income from the Virtual Bookstore that what it takes to
pay for the website, it will go towards any additional costs related to the
editing and publishing of Appalachian Trail Stories. A total accounting for
anyone working on the book project will be available at the end of the year.
There should be no surprises.
"I have a dream." Well, at least a vision, and that vision is of Appalachian
Trail Stories, Volume XXIV. Published in 2024, and detailing the travels and
adventures of your kids and mine as they hike the Appalachian Trail together.
I'd like to do this once a year; putting your stories, and mine, on paper for
the world to see. I really believe that to protect a resource you need to
understand a resource, and the best way to do that is to educate the public.
I really enjoyed reading the Rodale Press AT books even 20 years after they
were published. Why not resurrect the format and do it all over again!
That I don't know. Yet. When we have a publisher interested, you'll be the
first to know. If anyone knows a publisher that is really excited about
working with us on this book, please send them my way. I've been contacted
by two likely candidates as of March 2000. I've made no decision yet, and
neither have they. Suffice it to say there is interest, and we'll be published!
Yes I have, and though I have not ruled them out, I am not considering
Internet publishing at this time. There will be excerpts from the book
on the website, but the book will not be available electronically until
there has been a change in piracy protection and we can guarantee the
property of the Authors will be handled in an appropriate manner.
As long as you have not granted exclusive rights to your work to another
publisher, yes I will consider your work as well. Review the Author's Contract
and see if you still qualify.
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