When I first launched this Kickstarter campaign a year ago for The Other Side of Nashville book, I promised transparency in the finances, so here's where the money has gone so far...

We raised $1,280 through Kickstarter, plus another $30 from a private donation, for a grand total of $1,310 in the account.

Right off the top, Kickstarter took $64.00 as their fee, and Amazon payments took another $46.48 for processing the donors' credit card payments.

We spent $474.00 on tape transcriptions of all the interviews that I'd previously done (Speedy Transcription Services in Rochester NY), another $55.90 for audio restoration of several broken tapes (Audio Restorations Tape Repair in California), $48.60 for scanning LP covers (Batavia Legal Printing in Leroy NY), and $250.00 to artist Tim Shawl for his great cover art for both the paperback and hardback editions. These expenses add up to $938.98, which leaves a total of $371.02 left from the Kickstarter donations. I've added a little money myself, so we actually have closer to $500 in the book account.

What's left in the book account will come close to paying for the hardback versions of the book that will be sent to all the Kickstarter donors, other contributors, and friends. I plan on printing up promotional postcards with Tim's cover art to send out to media, and to distribute through retailers like Grimey's, etc, and that expense will come out of my own pocket.

Anybody that has any questions about these expenses is encouraged to contact me through Kickstarter. Thanks!

Hey Everybody!

Thought that it was about time to send out a project update on The Other Side of Nashville book, so here 'tis!We're very close...Tim Shawl has delivered all the cover artwork for the paperback and hardback editions, and his cover is freakin' great! The proofreading has been completed, and just waiting for me to finish up the corrections. I have a few interviews left to format and put on the page, and then we'll be ready to go to the printer.

I've had a few questions about why it's been taking so long to finish this book...well, it's frankly a heck of a lot of work, 620 pages, 8.5"x11" with hundreds of band listings, discographies, and photos. There are only a couple of us working to finish production, and since one of them is yours truly...and I work both a full-time and a part-time job...sometimes life interferes with my best intentions to work on the book.

That said, you don't want excuses, you want your book, and here's the timetable. I'm making a push to finish up and get the book to the printer by the end of June, and I've already notified our printer that I'll have the artwork to them by June 29th. I plan on starting to solicit advance orders sometime after June 15th. With a lot of work to tighten up the lay-out around the edges, and a little luck, we can get the book on the street in mid-July.

There will be two editions: a limited edition hardcover version, which will be sent out to all of our Kickstarter friends who helped fund the completion of the book, as well as a few other great friends who have donated time or materials to the project. The print run of this hardcover edition will be restricted to less than 100 copies, signed and numbered, and anything over the number of copies I send out to the above-mentioned people will retail for $39.95. The other edition will be the trade paperback, and it will be priced at $29.95 with free shipping.

Some of you have written and asked about the documentary film that I had originally planned on making along with the book. Plans for the video were pretty much shot down when my wife and I ended up having to move to WNY. Here's my promise, though -- if we sell 300 copies of the regular paperback version of The Other Side of Nashville, and from my previous experience, that's doable -- I will use the proceeds to spend a week in Nashville sometime later this year and arrange to videotape interviews with many, if not all, of the people that I interviewed for the book. I have already made arrangements with an experienced videographer to handle the audio/video end of the interviews, and have spoken with a video editor to turn the raw footage into a DVD, so all I need to do is raise some cash via book sales to make it all happen.

Here's something else that we're excited about...I've read about a couple of people that have had projects funded via Kickstarter that have chosen to celebrate their good fortune and "kick it forward," and we're going to do the same. We're going to donate 5% of the cost of every book ($1.50 for the paperback, $2.00 for the hardback) to other Kickstarter projects in order to try and spread around some of the good karma.

I hope that this answers some questions, and thanks to everybody for their patience...I've said it before, but we're very close, and after spending six years of my life on this project, I'm committed to finishing it up and moving on to some exciting new publishing ideas.

If you donated to The Other Side of Nashville book project, please email me your street address to rev.gordon@gmail.com. I will begin putting together the donor packages in mid-June and want to have everybody's current contact information. Thanks!

A few of you have been asking for an update on The Other Side of Nashville book, and so here it is...we're close, very close, to being done. The cover artist is finishing up his work now that we have a definitive page count (620 pages, a real monster!), and we're about 20% through the proofreading process.

There are a couple more interviews that I'd like to include in the book and, with the page count set, it looks like we'll have enough room to squeeze these in without messing things up. We hope to have proofreading completed by the end of January, and finalize everything and send it to the printer in mid-to-late-February. 

And here's the surprise that I promised a few months back for our Kickstarter supporters. We're going to print a limited-edition (50 copies) hardcover version of the book that will be signed and numbered and provided to you Kickstarter supporters and a handful of other people that provided in-kind donations or valuable material assistance to getting the book together.

Thanks to all of you for both your support and your patience. Putting this book together while working two jobs has been a task, a real labor of love. But when you all see this thing - 8.5" x 11" and 620pp with Tim Shawl's wonderful color cover art, I think that everybody will be pleased. When you see the book go on pre-sale in a little more than a month, you'll know that your special hardback edition will be on the way!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you, and best wishes for 2012!

Hey everybody! Sorry that it's been a while since my last update. July proved to be a real bear of a month, culminating in my sister's death and funeral service after a six-month battle with cancer. Needless to say, my work flow suffered somewhat over the past couple of months.

That's not to say that there hasn't been any progress on The Other Side of Nashville book since this Kickstarter project closed. We've gotten all of the interviews that I had on tape transcribed and ready for me to add some context to the artist's comments. I found a local company to digitally scan almost three-dozen vinyl album covers so that we can include some cool, rare LP photos in the book.

Best of all, I've been working with graphic artist Tim Shawl on the cover design, the front cover of which is shown here. Tim came up with something that perfectly captures the spirit of the book, and the vibe that I wanted for the front cover. I'll reveal the entire cover design once Tim finishes it up, which is my fault for not getting him the info he needed sooner.

I'm looking to finish everything up and get the book out on the street in late September or early October, just in time for the Christmas buying season. I've been re-designing the interior of the book, laying it out for an 8.5"x11" book size, which will reduce the overall page count of The Other Side of Nashville to around 480 or 500 pages (early estimate), but allowing for bigger photo presentation and more graphics. There's a photo of something on nearly every page, including artist pix, album and CD covers, and odd pieces of Nashville rock memorabilia that I hope will make the book better for everybody!

That's all for now...progress is being made, albeit slowly, and with my next project update (coming sooner, I promise), I'm going to reveal a very cool extra for all of my Kickstarter contributors. Stay tuned!

Thanks to everybody who donated to The Other Side of Nashville book project. Because of you we were able to reach our second funding goal, which will help make the book that much better.

Although I don't have an exact timetable yet, I have talked to a professional transcriber about handling the many hours of interviews I have on tape and spoken with a designer about creating a really nice book cover (something I seem to be unable to do).

Updates to the project will be posted both here and on the book's official blog at www.othersideofnashville.com. In the issue of transparency, I will also post a detailed listing of the budget -- where your money is being spent -- at the book's blog site. I will not be able to access any of the funds via Amazon Payments until June 3rd, so my first post about budget details won't take place until after that date.

Thanks again to all of you -- you guys rock!!