Planning a self-published book - 4

Part 1 of this series is here.  Part 2 is here.   Part 3 is here.

Choosing the keywords (chapter headers)

I've changed my mind. Each volume will have unique chapters. This means that I will need approximately 42*3 = 126 keywords.

These keywords should be charged with multiple layers of meaning. They should suggest stories and mysteries. They should stimulate research. Some archetypes, but not too pretentious. Collecting them is harder than I thought. Especially if you want a wide, random spread.

See also: Latour litanies.

A warning to self

By compiling the list of keywords myself, I run the risk of revealing my deepest unconscious urges. Like Kurt Vonnegut wrote in Chapter 55 of Cat's Cradle: Never Index Your Own Book.

I got an unexpectedly expert answer, as one does in life sometimes. It appeared that Claire Minton, in her time, had been a professional indexer.  I had never heard of such a profession before...  She said that indexing was a thing only the most amateurish author undertook to do for his own book. I asked her what she thought of Philip Castle's job.

"Flattering to the author, insulting to the reader," she said.  "In a hyphenated word," she said with the shrewd amiability of an expert, "_self-indulgent_.  I'm always embarrassed when I see an index an author has made of his own work.  It's a revealing thing... a shameless exhibition....

"He's obviously in love with this Mona Aamons Monzano...  He has mixed feelings about his father... He's insecure... He'll never marry her... I've said all I'm going to say," she said. ...

Sometime later, Ambassador Minton and I met in the aisle of the airplane, away from his wife, and he showed me that it was important to him that I respect what his wife could find out from indexes.

"You know why Castle will never marry the girl, even though he loves her, even though they grew up together?" he whispered... "Because he's a homosexual.  She can tell that from the index, too."

Further challenge

Is there any way I could make the book useful? A guidebook? A self-help book? Tips and tricks? A city walk, that can really be walked. Not just a conceptual object, but a real positive contribution.

Wordlist from six sources

I picked a random book that I had laying around. It was City of saints and madmen by Jeff Vandermeer. I noted a few 'meaningful' words in my notebook. The deck of Tarot cards gave some symbolic keywords. But it should not be too obvious. While reading some articles I noted a few 'meaningful' words. I selected a few words from my own blog page of Latour litanies. And I picked several keywords from the table of contents of Capital: New York, Capital of the 20th Century by Kenneth Goldsmith. And of course some chapters named in the Lost book found movie (marked by *).

Then I ran the list of 149 words through the list randomizer at RANDOM.org. This yielded the following chapter titles for volumes 1, 2 and 3. While making the volumes I will make the final selection. But I will not change the ordering.

Volume 1 - The Kindle version
salt
the periodic table*
antioxidant
bridge
cups
downtown
suburbs
colour samples
window
locks
funerals
water
path
child
oarsman
renaissance
pulley
vector
the flood*
silence
flaneur
victory*
strangers
stone lions
Japanese submarine
nature
the clock*
crowds
savage plant
magma
death
consolation
jeans
chair
architecture
atomic number*
poetic empire
earth
the monument*
the princeling
subway
eagles made from plastic
fire
epicycle
exploration
crust
conservation of matter*
strength
finger
about
simulacrum
wheel of fortune
territory
bread
mission
fear
moon

Volume 2 - The book version
lichen
inferiority complex
emperor
fungal growth
statecraft
ice
symmetries
sun
gentrification
burial at sea*
lovers
clay soil
spectacles
unrest
prison
potato soup
portals
power
insect
the archive*
mercury*
iron
dream city
echo
altars
the parade
glass
horizon
the flood*
battery*
jungle
world
panorama
poverty
tower
the grid
forgery
laughter
blood
rings
smoke
media
landslide
tattoo
merchants
reflections
nostalgia
the hourglass*
diary
crime
undertow*
heat stroke
the street
power
fool
coins
antiquity

Volume 3 - The printed internet version
air
cinder blocks
purgatory
lighthouse*
perpetual motion*
structures
mermaids
mysterious flying cast-iron wheels
art
work
forest
justice
body
skydive
army
strain*
swords
psychosis
mud
refraction
mendel's law*
psychogeography
apocalypse
commodity
advertising
noise
ghosts
towering
sawdust
star
objects of desire
smell
sex
overripe melons
dirt
necklace
the well*
registration form
uranium
light
mirage
smileys
coffin
staves
teapots
toy
the fossil*
drawings of buckets
the sick man*
alchemist*
hearts
italic number*
animal feed
underbrush
loneliness
dwarf
ejaculation inhibitor