My book has been done for a few years..the passing of my daughter and my reticence to going public and dealing with people, has delayed me, until now...I am going to self-publish...
When I decided to write about my life, I chose to do it for the fans as well as my children. I was concerned that time might leave way for false memories and absent mindedness. Sure, I had a lot of great stories, but I wanted to make sure I showed that the stories were backed by facts! Anyone can have a story, but I still had boxes of papers that included contracts, agreements, correspondence, tour income and expense write ups, notes and receipts. I created a database by scanning most of my documents and found that not only was there a time line established by the scans but after review, I had the stories that coincided and enhanced the documents. It is with these facts on hand that I now have been able to give a more complete and accurate narrative of the events.
For those times when documents weren’t available, I have the memories that remained and stayed consistent throughout my life. I figured that if a memory prevailed, it was important and I recount the early memories to bring context to my behavior.
It is approx 310 pages of text with some images adding to the story. I have another 230 pages of images: The Appendix-The Proof of Truth. This includes the scans of the telex's, telegrams, newspapers, magazines,contracts, call sheets, letters of agreement, budgets and Profit and Loss Statements- re: The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Sam Cooke, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Vinton...
To begin; my thoughts are to create a hard cover limited edition (2000 books)
that includes all the content:book and appendices for the collectors.

Your thoughts?
Ronnie Schneider

Ronnie, I think you are making a good decision.
Publishing is such a mess these days.

Certainly, I will buy your book. When you feel the time is right and the book
is available, let me know and I will make some suggestions and contacts for you
in terms of classy writers who will do a good job to spread the word in a
quality way. Particularly in the US and UK.

My email is slbuzz8@att.net



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-13 19:24 by stonesrule.

Thank you, stonesrule!

I am deciding on a company to work with for POD and Ebook-leaning toward First Edition Design Publishing. I figure a couple of months before something is in print. I will want honest, respected rock n' roll reviewers/bloggers at that time.

Quote
stonesrule
Ronnie, I think you are making a good decision.
Publishing is such a mess these days.

Certainly, I will buy your book. When you feel the time is right and the book
is available, let me know and I will make some suggestions and contacts for you
in terms of classy writers who will do a good job to spread the word in a
quality way. Particularly in the US and UK.

My email is [email protected]

you know there will be a great deal of interest in your book, especially on this site!

thanks and I look forward to it.

So is this a biography, fiction, ... ?

Non Fiction.. Sharing my grains of Sand...for the fans..

Good to see you back on track, Ron. Time has been rough to you lately. Sure hope you are feeling better now.

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Keep On Rolling

Ronnie,

I'm looking forward to it. Have you considered self-publishing as an e-book? The up front costs are low and you don't have to worry about ordering too much from the printer and being stuck with excess inventory. Plus, the project that you've described would be perfect for an e-book as it would allow you to link the items in your appendix to the point at which they are relevant in the text.

In the interest of full-disclosure I am also speaking out of selfish reasons. I have a bad feeling that a limited edition run of 2,000 copies will be priced out of my comfort zone.

-R

Ronnie,

Your book sounds fantastic - and I would definitely want to buy a limited edition hardcover edition. And I love the idea of the Proof of Truth appendix.

I think your memories and your history with the Stones and the Beatles etc are priceless and it is very generous of you to share these with us via your book.

Kind regards,
JL

Quote
Reagan
Ronnie,

I'm looking forward to it. Have you considered self-publishing as an e-book? The up front costs are low and you don't have to worry about ordering too much from the printer and being stuck with excess inventory. Plus, the project that you've described would be perfect for an e-book as it would allow you to link the items in your appendix to the point at which they are relevant in the text.

In the interest of full-disclosure I am also speaking out of selfish reasons. I have a bad feeling that a limited edition run of 2,000 copies will be priced out of my comfort zone.

-R

Sorry, this amused me. A post to Ronnie from Reagan.

Rod

I am currently formatting the Proof of Truth-The Appendices. Not relying on memories or stories, I have the documents that tell the true tale and have them included in the Appendix.

As an example: I am working on the 1969 US tour offers and noticed this one discussing ticket prices from the local promoter. The original proposal had ticket prices at $7 but suggested that the market could handle an $8 to $9 average ticket price. Listening to the local promoters, I settled on $8.50 as a compromise. Note that they said average price: The promoters wanted to go as high as $20 for front row seats and get an average of $9. I set the maximum ticket price at $8.50.

Out of Our Heads-the book--Please be patient as I am doing everything myself, ( I did have editors and a proofreader) and now formatting in Adobe InDesign to send to the printer shortly... I wanted the fans to have the story from me, as opposed to what someone thinks I meant.

can't wait man.i noticed you have alot of documents,i like that.

it's gonna be great having somebody who was actually there write a book.

99% of what comes out now is just so shoddy, most of the time i can remember the old magazine articles they are stealing their information from.there was one i think we discussed in the altamont thread where the guy was making things up out of thin air.

Cool

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

It would be cool (in my opinion) if you had a chapter titled "Like The Lemmings And The Sea". That line got a big laugh when I first saw Gimme Shelter at the Plaza Theater in NYC. Still gives me a chuckle. In hindsight, it was very poignant (as the Maysles obviously appreciated). Looking forward to this (and any appearances/signings/autographed editions that might hopefully happen).

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bmuseed

The promoters wanted to go as high as $20 for front row seats.

That's still only $133 in today's money. Quite reasonable, actually. Nowadays you can expect to pay that much for the likes of Styx and Foreigner, and not just for the front row either.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-10-07 13:56 by tatters.

In Los Angeles, though the top ticket price was mainly $8.50, there were some in the first fifteen rows priced at $12.50.

Attached are some of the ticket prices-- note from Oakland--Bill Graham ticket prices..$5.50, $6.50 and $7.50.

The book as far as the stories (approx. 249 pages) and documents (approx 220 pages more) is done.. there has been a little delay because of You.. I tried to defend not doing an index..but decided I would take the additional time ( PS: I had to learn Adobe InDesign to format the book properly for the printer) --plus all the cross referencing with the docs...

I recall paying $4.50 or $5.50 in Chicago. The tickets were bought via mail request and I was able to get 4. I think the company was called Tri R productions or something like that. I never thought those tickets were expensive at at
all, and would have gladly paid double. Considering low hourly wages for a 16 year old guy, it was easily affordable. The 72 tour tickets were reasonably priced too.

The so called Underground press in the late 60's kept hammering home the point that the Stones and other bands were ripping people off. What a bunch of BS that was.

Hi Ronnie,

I'm really looking forward to this book - I am really interested in the business and logistics behind Rock tours and of course the Stones are my favourite band so that makes it even more interesting.

Will the book include any new photos from the 69 tour? It would be great to see some new photos if there are any... It's funny - these days we can instantly see photos and video of every concert, but with the old tours there is just a finite number of photos in existence and so it's always exciting when previously unseen ones are uncovered.

Kind regards, Paul

Hi Paul

Luckily, there were the tour photographers; Gered Mankowitz, Ethan Russel; news; Thomas Monaster, and personal photographers, to document the tours and events... I was too busy to take pictures and didn't think it apropos of the business guy..but...

What I have may be exactly what you are looking for-220 new images(scans of deal memos, contracts, telexes, telegrams, newspaper articles, notes, call sheets, sketches, tour offers, letters and a few new photos of the back of my head.... that give the timeline of the events.

I did this for the fans- To give an accurate, behind the scenes picture of the '65, '66, 69, 70 Euro tour, Altamont and Gimme Shelter, from the guy that was there, with the proof to show it.

Can't wait!!!

My ticket for the "breakfast show" at MSG, Orchestra/floor seat, was $8.00

Sounds good to me...looking forward to this....

Here you go barbecuebob

i think i paid $35 in '81 for one of the MSG shows. I was 14...my mother was shocked they cost so much and that I was willing to pay that to see them.

if only they cost "so much" now!

This is shaping up to be a very interesting read.
I seem to recall that when Mick first became interested in financial matters he asked his new Adviser, Prince Rupert to look more closely at their touring income, in particular the 1965/67 period. Not sure what came of it.
I assume that unlike record and publishing income they had to set tax monies outside at the outset.
The figures from the States tours suggested plenty of profit for the individuals but Bill in his books always complains about never having any cash!

Just for fun:
The price increase of a Mustang Shelby GT500 from 69 is app 30 fold


Stones tickets prices increased app in the same range in the same period.

Both aged well

Really looking forward to this book!

Ronnie, will be learning something about the elusive Auburn show, and the second Chicago set?
Somewhere on this board, years and years ago, I was able to post a good bit of info on the Auburn show. An entertainment lawyer had called me, and told me a lot about it, since he was involved in it. I just find it so interesting that two of the '69 shows ( considered the first of the 'civilized' tours) are a blank slate.