Here's some thoughts I posted in the xenophobia thread, before I read the above:

kat, and all, yes, yes, yes, let's authorize a book and, kat, dear, will you allow yourself to be nominated as a candidate for its author? I hereby so nominate you. Who wants to start a new thread so we can all argue this idea into oblivion or glory? (I'm sorry, katlaughing is too many keystrokes, and furthermore I have to spell it out as I type it. If you'd prefer not to have your name abbreviated, though, I'll make the sacrifice.)

Some years back the local folk music DJ, Mary Cliff, put together a Christmas program from singing done at the Folklore Society's Christmas party. She phoned each person the day before the show was to air, asking their permission to use their singing in the show. It seems to me this would be a good approach to use with the book. A two-pronged approach would work. First, anyone who has strong feeling about wanting to be excluded, or willingness to be included, can e-mail the designated author up front. Second, the D.A. can check with anyone he or she would like to include in the book who hasn't already stated their preference.

Money is a separate issue. One alternative is an arrangement where the first x dollars go to support Mudcat. Period. Then, if the thing actually makes some real profit (say, more than $300.00 *smile*), figure out a way for some of that profit to go to the people whose words were used. Maybe. That could be an administrative nightmare. How do you apportion royalties? Based on the number of posts? The number of words per post? The number of contentious responses to the post?

As far as profiting from the book, maybe we should be content to have a bio, with booking info etc, for each contributor. That can be done once and not drive some poor accountant crazy. If we start a book thread I'm sure hundreds of ideas will be proposed and argued and twisted and I can already start imagining the condom jokes. But let's do it! - Start the thread, I mean.