Preface to the Infinite Edition

The problem with any book related to technology is that it quickly becomes outdated and obsolete.

I wrote and published my first book, “Drone, Glitch and Noise”, in 2015 on Amazon Kindle. It’s a really short book, to be honest, but I was able to get some ideas out there that resonated with folks. The book has done fairly well, selling hundreds of digital copies in the first couple of months, and still getting a few new readers on occasion. It was a great experience for me on many levels.

For those who haven’t read the book, there are really two main sections: the first three chapters, and everything else. The book starts with my general thoughts on experimental art, along with some strategies on workflow and staying productive. The remainder of the book is more technical, giving an overview of different iOS apps useful for making experimental music.

The problem with books

While the first section of DGN (the book) will hopefully be useful for many years to come, the majority of the book has become outdated. Some of the apps listed in the book are no longer available, many are seriously in need of updating, and there are a plethora of exciting new apps that have been released over the last 8 years that I would definitely add if I were writing the book today.

What’s a poor author to do?

I have a few options. I could give in to the inevitability of obsolescence and just allow the book to fade into obscurity. I could re-write and release an “Updated and Expanded!” edition every year or so. I could write new books, providing more depth and fresh insights related to the topics introduced in book one. Or… I could just write articles on Substack and keep the content perpetually updated and growing.

I hope to use this forum to expand on some of the ideas from DGN, share some of the lessons and discoveries that writing and publishing the book have provided, and post about exciting new noise-making apps as they become available. I hope you’ll join me.

What to expect

I plan on republishing the original text of the book here over the next week or so, in chapters (or maybe smaller sections as needed). I’ll probably add some notes regarding really outdated stuff. Once the original text is all here, I’ll go over the most highlighted parts of the books by readers, talk about some of the reviews on Amazon, and then begin adding new posts to bring everything up to date.

A note on self-plagiarism

I do want to mention a couple of things. First, this preface is itself a revamped and expanded version of an article I published on Medium in 2016. I had the idea way back then to do something similar to what I’m attempting now, but honestly Medium just didn’t do it for me.

Secondly, I am a trans person, and the original book was published under my deadname. I’m not going to share it here (because it’s dead), and I’d prefer if others didn’t. If there’s any concern that I’m stealing all this from the “real author”, I assure you, I’m the same person, just with a much cooler name.

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