I want to ask you, as many as possible, how many copies would an AWE book sell, if I wrote one. It would explain many of the detailed issues AWae developers would face and analyze some different configurations. It would not be in the form of a scientific paper (eg. not every piece of information proven and referenced). Also it would contain some useful data tables, eg tether diameter vs strength vs mass.
Please, I am just looking for numbers.
We could assume the selling price around 50 Euro
How many AWE 101 classes are there, and would this book be suitable for those? If you look at students doing research in AWE, what percentage of them would this help? Is it relevant for other fields? Are the chapters you decide to include useful for your target audience? Can you get input from subject matter experts for each chapter? Can you ask subject matter experts to write chapters for you? How much are the existing AWE books selling? Can you make a proposal to suitable publishers and can you find contributors? Can you update the content regularly? Do you have access to and an interest in relevant research?
I’d say go for it, write some chapters and figure out the answers and if they matter in due time. It is a good thing to work on anyway. My guess would be that it will initially be a trickle which could die off, or increase if it keeps getting referenced and keeps getting updated. You might also collaborate to make a lecture series out of it.
I would be really interested… Maybe Ill do one on kite boats…
Being a textbook on AWE university courses would definitively bump the volume a bit. But also raises the bar regarding what needs to be in there…
I dont think its likely though.
I could spill my own guess though, 500 copies over 10 years. Not enough to be worthwhile monetary wise. That means I would get paid maybe 5000 Euro for hundreds of hours of work
If you write it I’ll buy three copies 
Maybe ask Roland how many copies of the Springer books got sold.
/ch
You don’t write books (about niche subjects before being contracted to) to make money, you write them because you are genuinely interested in the subject and want to share what you learn for example. But also writing a chapter on a subject you are qualified to write on shouldn’t take you that long. It would just be collecting ideas over time and eventually collating them into a chapter or book. Just do that and ignore the fact that the first edition only has 2 chapters maybe. Let other people do the other chapters.
If you instead are more interested in increasing the number of people seeing your work, like I would be, I’d make a YouTube series out of it for example, which could also serve as an advertisement for the book, although that would be a pain to update.
If we assume the book to become a required reference work for AWE students, then you can probably correlate it to the success of AWE overall over time, which is probably an unknown.
Nice to hear you want the book to happen. If I did it, it wouldnt be for the $. But still everytime I hear about people writing books, its a larger undertaking than anticipated. And this would not happen during work hours. And work hours are also super busy these days…
I do have a lot of subjects to talk about. Even just summarizing a few years worth of discussions here would fill a book. I guess I will keep thinking about it and maybe write a little here and there. Eventually maybe I’ll reach crotical mass and finish it. Who knows. Most probably not.
There is a second option which is to get a scholarship to share R&D information. Apparently people get these. Still doesnt solve the time squeeze issue.
The option I have for time squeeze would be to spend 1 hr every week for a year for example. Still takes a lot of effort though.
Sounds like how every successful author ever started
Hi Tallak: You might sell more books with an emotionally catchy title. I’ve noticed a lot of clickbait videos have failure or impending disaster themes. Maybe a something like “Idiots, Idiots, Idiots… - The Story of Airborne Wind Energy” (!)
Good one! I will remember to quote you on that. I dont know how this works but you would also be entitled to royalties…
Nice initiative, @tallakt! I am sure that you have the knowledge and experience to make this a useful contribution. I’d be happy to share my experiences from the various book projects.
Daniel Hautmann has published a book on innovative wind energy concepts, including also AWE:
The book is in German, though, and AWE is only a part. But most importantly, it was not written by an insider. So, yes, I think it would be a great addition.
That’s a good point, @someAWE_cb Springer luckily provides good statistics for their books.
The AWE book (2018) has
The AWE book (2013) has
The Energies Special Issue on AWE is the third larger publication project, this time now in Open Access (meaning neither authors nor editors see any royalties, only the publisher). These papers also develop quite some traction, and from what I can see, especially the societal and environmental topics generate the highest turnover (citations, views, etc). Seems like these are topics of high interest to the research community.
Hi @rschmehl ,
Can you get @Kitepower or SkySails to power a few homes for a good amount of time? This would be the first middle-scale commercial application. An almost live follow-up could result in a chapter written by @tallakt, relating successes (energy production) and failures if/when they occur.
What, and ruin a perfect record?
Thanks so much @rschmehl for your input. I am a controls and physics geek so my book would not go much into other than build/energy/analysis. Probably not much new that could be found described better in papers but maybe at least I could add an insider look like you mention.
Here I am, talking as if the book was already in print 