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Will Spring Ever Arrive?
I don't know about you, but where we live Old Man Winter just doesn't want to leave. One day we think he's on his way out - the next we get more rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. Between that and the price of gas, it is making it tough to get going on our spring road trips - right?
Just sit back and enjoy this month's edition of Dreaming and wait for better weather.
Phil and Carol White |
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| Second Edition Selling Briskly
For those of you who have never written a book, when a new one comes out you waver hourly between sheer terror and overwhelming joy. Joy that it is almost out and terror as to whether it will sell or not.
The latest statistics say that nearly 300,000 NEW book titles were published last year, so you know the competition it stiff to find success. We are happy to report that in the first month that our new edition has been out, we have sold over half our printing. In this economy, we are really excited - maybe people will continue traveling after all.
Watch for the new e-book version on Amazon and other online retailers this summer - really going high-tech, huh?
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| Phil & Carol Barbara Goetschius Thanks Barbara for sharing your trip with us. Yours is one of the first blogs I've seen used for your whole trip - you did a nice job. |
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And a road trip comes full circle One of our earliest road trip families were the Brays. They taught me a bit about satellite internet, as Daniel was working on their trip. Imagine my surprise a couple of months ago, when I got an email from them saying that they were not only back home, but had written a book about their adventures. They certainly didn't let any grass grow under their feet! An interesting thing that I didn't know that I got from their website is that Traci won a car on Oprah, sold it, and used the funds for their trip. I think Oprah would approve. Read a bit about them and their book here. Oh, and you can buy it there too. |
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(Although this isn't road tripping information this month, I thought you might be interested in what we're doing to help the environment)
Small Business Grows "Green" Results (from a recent press release) How can a small publisher who produces paper books be sensitive to the environment? It seems almost like an oxymoron for such a paper-intensive business to be “green.” Oregon-based RLI Press, the publisher of travel information including the award-winning book, Live Your Road Trip Dream, had been struggling with this dilemma since their inception in 2003. Early efforts included obvious efficiencies like recycling and/or reusing all paper products in their office, recycling of ink cartridges from printers, using electronic communications instead of paper communications whenever possible, and recycling cast-off office goods on freecycle.org. But their consumption of trees and other environmentally-sensitive products in their book production activities continued to bother them. While recycled paper has been around for quite some time, it wasn’t of the quality that was needed for their products. That is until this spring’s release of the second edition of Live Your Road Trip Dream. Print broker, Bob Smith of BookPrinters Network, was able to secure from Bang Printing in Minnesota a white, recycled paper (containing 30% post-consumer recycled fiber), of high enough quality for the new edition. It is this “eco-friendly” paper that becomes the basis for the savings calculation of trees, water and energy below. Another feature that was attractive about Bang’s environmental commitment is their use of all vegetable-based inks in their printing process. And what about the subject of their award-winning book? Road trips consume a lot of fuel energy, don’t they? The authors, Phil and Carol White, are quick to point out that they advocate traveling in smaller, more-efficient RVs (they got over 20 mpg on their recent publicity tour in a Roadtrek Class B motorhome) and also point out that while they consume more auto fuel while traveling, they aren’t consuming energy in a house that requires far more fuel than an automobile or small RV; or consuming airplane fuel and hotel energy jetting around the country. When RLI Press realized that their printing “dream” could finally come true along with their authors’ travel dreams, they joined the Green Press Initiative (http://www.greenpressinitiative.org) in support of other publishers and printers, like Bang Printing, who were making the environment a priority in their businesses. As a result, the second edition printing of “Dream” will save 13 trees, 617 pounds of solid waste, 4,804 gallons of water, 1,157 pounds of greenhouse gases, 9 million BTUs of energy. Not bad for a now “green” small business from
Figure your fuel costs using
Don’t forget! Personally autographed copies of the book are always available on our website
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What do you think?
We are always anxious to hear from our readers and friends about how we are doing.
Always feel free to email us with your road trip questions or tips, or thoughts about the book. We’ll be printing some of your comments in the months to come.
Where have your dreams taken you?
Please send us your travel pictures taken on your road trip dream. We want to share stories of trips that were inspired by reading Live Your Road Trip Dream – Travel for a year for the cost of staying home. Until next time.. Keep Dreaming...
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