If I may be so bold as to offer a few suggestions, I believe that a few things need to be ironed out before this project can move any further along. First of all, what exactly is the scope of this intended project gonna be and what format would best suit that purpose. From what I'm gleaning in the original post, the general purpose is to present new and improved tips, tricks, and techniques that have come about in recent years. If this is the general idea, would it not be better to use a different format than the TBB series utilized? There's no question of the effectiveness of TBB series format. In fact, the original 4 volumes were so effective that it might be nearly impossible to avoid redundancy or outright plagiarism in a volume 5. If the idea is to pool knowledge from this community, would it not be a better use of the vast resources at hand to use the best experience and knowledge from the community as a whole rather than 10 or 12 select individuals? Instead of a conglomeration of these select few, why not a compilation of the best tips, tricks, techniques, insights, troubleshooting or whatever tidbits that are valid and useful submitted by members and compiled into an easy to navigate book or series of books. Instead of chapters, maybe sections and subsections with the best tidbits all catalogued and easy to research in their respective sections. For instance a section titled "character stave techniques" with sub sections "knots", "holes", "checks" and so on and so forth. You could and should have sections covering every facet of the craft from layout of the bow to pet finish recipes and techniques. Then compile the best tidbits submitted by the contributors under their respective sections. Obviously, not all submissions would make the cut and it would be a huge undertaking to sort through it all to separate the wheat from the chaff, but the shear amount of useful bits from such a vast array of sources as this community offers would likely fill volumes with incredibly useful information.
Obviously the question of royalties would need to be addressed. I believe that the only way this would work is if the contributors understood up front that there would be no compensation due for their submissions. The only thing that contributors would get is there name attached to their submission. There would necessarily have to be a compensated staff of compilers and editors, but the royalties should be divided between PA and the publisher. Call it giving back for hosting this forum or whatever you want, but PA is a business and should see a profit for anything they might consider backing. Just my .02 on this project. Josh
