Mineral collectors and mineral dealers are always looking for ways to showcase their specimens to the mineral public. One way to achieve this promotion is through illustrated articles in magazines and books. Unfortunately, the limited scope of most such publications means that only a few specimens qualify for any particular article/book. It is increasingly apparent that there is a need for a venue to promote mineral specimens in a general format. This prospectus proposes to offer the opportunity to have full-color, full-page images of minerals with a comprehensive description published in a hard cover sewn-binding book. The working title is:
Nature’s Garden of Crystals. Subscriptions for submitting images of one’s choice to this book are $3,500. Each subscriber could submit 15 images of their choice, ranging from highly competitive display specimens to unusual locality minerals or any other mineral/gem photos they wish. The final number of images that can be accommodated per subscription depends on the actual production costs, but a double subscription would be entitled to twice the number of photographs of their specimens in the book. Each subscriber would receive 50 copies of the book at no extra cost. The main requirements are that the images would be large enough in size to support 350 dpi printing, be sharply in focus, photographed on appropriate featureless backgrounds (gray, black, or white preferred), etc. A custom designed specimen label will be printed to accompany every illustrated specimen.
The proposed book will be hard-bound with laminated cover. It will have full-color interior, glossy paper, and will be about 120-140 pages in length. The captions will be written by me and will summarize the interesting features of the specimen, including short comments about the history and occurrence of the specimen. The quality of the printing will be equal to the 2009 book,
Maine Feldspar, Families, and Feuds which has been favorably reviewed. (Q.V. reviews blog)
The book will be printed and available before the Munich Mineral Show of October, 2010.
Van King has been a life-long mineral collector and author. His first publication was in 1967 and since that time he has written, co-authored, or edited 18 books (http://mainefeldspar.blogspot.com/2009/12/books-by-vandall-t-king.html) and over 225 articles. His most recent book is
Maine Feldspar, Families, and Feuds, although
Collectors' Guide to Granite Pegmatites will be out in late summer 2010. Van has geology degrees from the University of Maine and the State University of New York with specialties in mineralogy and geochemistry. Although he is currently a consulting mineralogist, he started his professional career as the 7th mineralogist for Ward’s Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York, succeeding Henry A. Ward and George Letchworth English. He is currently a management level editor for the internet mineral database, Mindat.
