The Road to Van Halen Encyclopedia 3
Finding a home for the next edition
I’ve been gathering material for the next edition of The Van Halen Encyclopedia for two decades, not knowing if it would ever happen. There are tens of thousands of updates to make. But, who will read them?
People don’t read books much anymore.
People are visiting personal websites less.
I need a place where I can post updates to the last edition, published in 2001, and figure out what a new edition would even look like today.
I love podcasts and videos, but they’re not always a good place for collaborating on big projects. This is a big project. This is a big community.
I’ve tried social media for this, but I’ve found the Van Halen community to be scattered across all the platforms and bubble-ized within them.
A newsletter seems like a more logical place. I’ve been making newsletters for longer than I’ve been writing about Van Halen. Today, it’s part of what I do for a living. I help make newsletters for some of the biggest companies in the world. It feels like a better fit.
I’ve asked my current site/newsletter host (for my other books) to help me properly segment an RSS feed and newsletter for just Van Halen fans, but they’re not currently not structured to do this. I suspect they will be in the future, but who knows when. I’d prefer to have everything under one roof, but that’ll have to wait.
So, I’m going to start posting the updates as a newsletter, on Substack for now. This gives us the freedom to share updates, files, and ideas as a community without the permanent lock-in of any one platform. It’s like a living book.
I’m turning on the ability to have premium supporters too — not because I believe lots of people will help out, but because I know from experience how expensive this process gets. No matter what shape the book takes for the next edition (hardcover, eBook, wiki, etc.), it’ll be costly. These books do not break even. It doesn’t hurt to try and make it all a little sustainable.
Plus, having tiers of supporters means that debates about what goes in the book won’t be a free-for-all. It’ll be an informed discussion from people who care the most.
That’s the plan. This is the experiment. Let’s see if we can finally make this happen.