This forum... IN BOOK FORM! Would ya?

[post-op lover]

As for whether I'd buy it, if going to Thailand: probably. However, carrying it through customs would scare the shit out of me. Put a cover on it, like "Japanese Ministry of Industrial Development: 1951-1962", and I might be able to muster the courage.

Include more useful maps than found in most guidebooks, and you've really got it made. Since a POD book can be updated quite easily, you can have multiple updates per year, at least in the hotels and dining section. A little photo album of girls interested in making new friends might not be bad, if they're interested.

POL

[post-op lover]

The ideas are still flowing. I think a guide like this would be most useful for Europe and the US. The websites to visit are hard to identify in advance, while LOS makes everything easy: just go to some place called Sukhumvit or a place called Soi and you're all set.

A guide encompassing London, Tokyo, and LA would be far more useful, since these places are more challenging.

POL

[Lefty]

(pacman @ Aug. 30 2008,17:28)

(azza33 @ Aug. 30 2008,17:03) ...... i disagree with pacman and can't see it being a widespread success.

Everyone is free to disagree with me. Mine is only one opinion after all, but I am surprised by those who feel this subject matter makes it too risky for people to buy.

Not in my experience.

I see the book being presented the same as it is here on the forum (with irrelevant stuff edited out) making it easy to pick it up at random & read a thread or two.

Just like the Readers Digest, a sister publication we have so much in common with...

I agree with you pacman. The subject matter of ladyboys should not be a deterrent at all. Richard Totman's book The Third Sex has done pretty well I think and may have had at least a 2nd printing. There are two covers anyway. I've read The Third Sex while flying over to Thailand. Never gave a shit what anyone would think who saw the title and Ae from Simon Cabaret in Chiang Mai is on the cover, looking very lovely.
If this proposed book is published, I'd definitely enjoy having a copy to read on the plane coming over. Anything to pass the time while sitting in the cattle car they call coach class. If someone figured out what it was about and didn't like it, FUCK THEM I say.

[janabiyah]

Fascinating idea Lefty.

Lots of good ideas and suggestions here.

However, the approach will be dictated by the target market and the motivation for doing the project.

Is the idea here to make it a commercial success, or is it to promote the board?

Knowing the destination helps to plan the journey.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Stogie Bear. A Traveler's Tale. A huge, roller coaster of a novel in four hundred sizzling chapters. A searing indictment of transsexual servitude in the twenty first century, with some hot ladyboys thrown in.

30 day pass to LadyboyFlix.com for the first person who can correctly name the episode that this misquote comes from...

[Torurot]

Black Adder III, Episode One "Ink and Incapability"


E: Oh, codswallop! It's taken me seven years, and it's perfect. "Edmund: A Butler's Tale" -- a giant rollercoaster of a novel in four hundred sizzling chapters. A searing indictment of domestic servitude in the eighteenth century, with some hot gypsies thrown in. My magnum opus, Baldrick. Everybody has one novel in them, and this is mine.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Well done! Email [email protected] for your pass!

[Guest]

What about the book in CD form, with access to the site to update it. Easy to read on a lap top, no Internet connection required and would address some of the discretion issues.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Now THAT is a good idea...

Can it be done though?

[perth_couple]

(manarak @ Aug. 29 2008,23:38) I don't think the book will find much audience.

Think about it:
- the LB-interested population is small
- only single travelers can buy it safely
- most travelers will be too shy to read it openly in the plane
- it can't stay in a shelf at home
- you can't speak about it with colleagues (except fellow TLF members)

would you get the airport-bookshop mafia to sell such a book?

Ok, I've thought about it and...

1. Based on what empirical studies?
2. I'm not a single traveller and I'd buy it.
3. Perhaps, but only for those who are closet lb lovers. It'd be obvious too, whatever you do, dont read it in the open...
4. It'd be cool on my shelf... Along with the other freak gear..
5. I talk about lb's often at work. Not that they know, but it aint like you're talking about how your into child abuse or anything..

Not sure if the airport people would sell it or not though.. You might have a point there...

[Lefty]

As for whether the airport book vendors would sell it...they do sell The Third Sex, although it is more or less anthropological in nature...but they do sell books dealing with bar girls and the bar girl scene...so since this book merges those two things in a way, there could be a chance they would, but that may depend on who printed, published and distributed it, more than it being about ladyboys.

[bigmick22]

will Dieter voice the audio-book verson?

what about a regular podcast?

[dummy_plug]

I think a compilation of all the trip reports and some of the stories here would make for a good read. Don't how how big of a book that would comprise, especially if you left out the pictures, but I for one would love to be able to read a good TR from start to finish without the usual dribble that gets in the way.

Soft copy preferred for easy packing and carrying around, please! E-copy would be better for those of us who carry around Kindles or laptops anyway, but I guess there is the copy protection concern.

[SamplerDoc]

We going to get a royalty payment for our good stuff each time ...

[geosight]

An actual book based on some of the characters here would be more the go . would take some time and maybe a plot would need to be introduced , semi factual with some collaboration s would be a great read