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[FearfulJesuit]

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As many of you might be aware, I'm a total language nut. I own about 10 feet, end to end, of books on languages and linguistics- all sorts of things, from Aleut and Basque to Sanskrit and Welsh, are represented.

Now, on my bookshelf, in the middle, is a pair of rather imposing volumes entitled A Dictionary of Upriver Halkomelem, vols. 1 and 2. You are unlikely to have ever heard of this language, and who can blame you? I acquired them when the Linguistic Society of America convention rolled through town a couple of years ago, I took the time to go bookshopping. Thing is, when you go to a professional conference, the publishers are so desperate to sell their merchandise that you can usually get it at a reasonable price, especially if you play up the I'm-an-impoverished-language-geek-in-high-school puppy-dog eyes. By such means was I able to get the dictionary for a measly $20. Why? One, it was stately and imposing, and two, Upriver Halkomelem is a Salish language, which is a really, really frickin' awesome family that it's hard to find material on. (One of UH's relatives, Bella Coola, is rather famous for having words that can be up to thirteen consonants long without any vowels.)

OK, so what I thought was: can I get the accompanying grammar for it? I wrote into UCPress, which deals with these things, and asked them. They said (I feel really guilty about what happened) that they wanted to get it out as print-on-demand, but there were some maps they weren't sure about; could I review it for them? We'll send you a review copy, you send it back, we'll send you a free replacement.

...well, sure, I said. I don't look gift horses in the map.

So anyway, I held onto it for a few months, gave them a very nice review, and then sent it back. Only problem was this: rather than sending it to Jack Young, who dealt with these things, I sent it to the Books Division, who, as I then learned, deal with thousands of books a day and promptly lost it. It was further noted that that was their only copy, so, basically, I screwed the pooch and it may never be published.

Woops.

So basically, to review, UC Press are wonderful, wonderful people who actually want to put their stuff as print-on-demand, and I fucked them over.

There is, I was delighted to learn, a way around this: there are copies on Amazon that are in great condition, and I could order one and send it to Jack Young. But they were overrun copies from the first print run-in perfectly good condition, but about $170. I don't have that kind of money.

Basically, my proposal is this: I'd like to use IndieGoGo or some similar site to do a 50-50 raffle. Every little bit helps, and then I'll draw a name weighted on the amount of money that was contributed to Paypal that person half the money. Does anyone know of a site that does raffles like this? With a $170 book, I'm really hoping that I could get people to contribute at least $300 total, every little bit helps, and who knows, you might win. And it is for a good cause; these dinky little languages are dying, and documentation is really important.

Thoughts? Anyone know of a raffle site? Otherwise I'll just use IndieGoGo.

[finka]

Aw, and here I thought it might be a raffle for such a grammar. 

Anyway, I have no particular pragmatic advice for how to run this, but I'd chip in if you get it running.

[FearfulJesuit]

Whatever it is, I probably can't use IndieGoGo- the minimum amount is $500, and I don't need that much.

I could, actually...I'd need a video camera.

Big edit: I can't do a raffle, because it's considered gambling and is definitely illegal to set up in the United States, as a site. I could always just say "well here's my Paypal, guys, and we'll do this under the table," but that doesn't look as good and many of you might be suspicious- not unjustifiably.

Edit to the edit: I've found a site called Rafflecopter, which seems to do these things. Let's take a look.

Edit to the edit to the edit: I could use it just to have it set up, but you can't "buy" your way into it. Seems like internet gambling laws are going to hurt us here- I can't set up a 50-50 raffle online because it's gambling...? One way to get around this may be to offer a prize like a gift card- probably an Amazon gift card.

[FearfulJesuit]

Bump. I'm using IndieGoGo to do this. For $25, I'll send you $5 of Amazon gift money, and for $100, I'll donate $20 to Toady. So there's no raffle, but there are perks.