Here
I post thoughts, memories, stories, novels, plays, essays,
reading lists, genealogical research, info about ebooks for
sale, and matters of interest to friends and family. This
isn't your typical web. It's meant to be idiosyncratic and
fun. I always welcome feedback and suggestions.
I'm the publisher of Seltzer Books, with over
14,000 time-tested books in ebook format, available for sale
through Barnes & Noble (Nook), Kobo, Apple, Google Play, and
PublishDrive. Earlier, I published entire libraries of books on
CD and DVD primarily for the blind, who used "screen readers" to
convert the text to voice. I also made a quixotic attempt to
build and run my own ebook store, Quench, trying to
single-handedly compete with the likes of Amazon. My publishing
company was originally known as B&R Samizdat Express and
consisted of just my wife Barbara (B) and me Richard (R).
Samizdat means "self-published" in Russian. Barbara died in
2012, and I recently got an offer that I couldn't refuse for the
domain name samizdat.com. So I am now rebuilding the web site as
seltzerbooks.com
In
the early days of the Web, I worked for Digital Equipment's
Internet Business Group as their "Internet evangelist." When the
company was swallowed by Compaq (which was later swallowed by
Hewlett-Packard) I worked independently as an Internet marketing
consultant, writing extensively about business on the Internet.
Many of the books, articles, and speeches I wrote back then
are available here. My AltaVista
Search Revolution was the first consumer-oriented
book about search engines. Library Journal, called
it "indispensable". My Web Business Bootcamp was a
pioneering guidebook for Internet start-ups.
My original samizdat.com web site, which I used as a sandbox to
test ideas about the Web, has been preserved by the Internet
Archive as part of their Wayback Machine. They have stored
666 versions of that web site, captured from November 1996 to
September 2017. This
link takes you to the part of the archive that is devoted to
samizdat.com. Select the date you are interested
in; then you can browse the archive the same as you do the live
web, clicking on link after link. Everything from the web
site is there, including all the issues of my Internet-on-a-Disk
newsletter and the hundreds of articles from my blog.
Richard
Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com
The AltaVista
Search Revolution:How to Find Anything on the Internet,
Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1997 and 1998, with Eric J. Ray and
Deborah S. Ray
Ethiopia
Through Russian Eyes by Alexander Bulatovich,
translation by Richard Seltzer (Red Sea/Africa World
Press, 2000) at
Kobo at
Nook
at Apple
The Lizard of Oz, fantasy, 1974, revised
and expanded 2018 at
Kobo at
Nook query
message for second edition
at
Apple at
Nook at
Kobo
Now and Then and Other Tales from Ome,
children's stories, 1976
at
Kobo at
Nook at
Apple
The Name of Hero, historical novel,
Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin, 1981 at
Kobo at
Nook at
Apple 
Saint Smith and Other Stories, 2011 at
Kobo at
Nook at
Apple
Echoes from the Attic, novel,
with Ethel Kaiden,2008 at
Kobo at
Nook at
Apple
query
message
MGMT MEMO: Management Lessons from DEC, 2018
at
Apple at
Nook at
Google Play
Snapshots
of DEC, 2018 at
Apple at
Nook
Web Business Boot Camp Hands-on
Internet lessons for manager, entrepreneurs, and
professionals, Wiley, 2002 at
Apple at
Nook at
Kobo
- Take Charge of Your Web Site,
MightyWords, 2001
Shop Online the Lazy Way (Macmillan,
1999. Braille edition published by National Braille Press) at
Nook at
Google Play at
Apple
The Social Web: How to build successful
personal or business Web sites, 1998)
at Apple
The Way of the Web Lessons from the
Internet. How to adapt to the new business environment,
1995)
at
Kobo at
Apple
Dryden's
Exemplary Drama, senior thesis at Yale (1969)
at
Apple at
Google Play at
Nook
Death of
the Federalist Party, paper written in high school, in
1963.
at Apple at
Google Play
Dark Woods and Other Poems at Apple at
Nook
- The Choice
- Creation Story
- Chiang ti Tales
- Hands
PLAYS
Without a Myth and Five
Other Plays
at Apple at
Google Play at
Nook
- Without a Myth, three-act play
(1971) - Heel, Hitler, ten-minute play (2015)
- The
Barracks, a three-act stage play (1989)
- Rights Crossing, a two-act historical
play, set in the American Revolution (1976)
- Mercy, a two-act historical comedy, set
in the American Revolution, based on the lives of
Mercy Otis Warren and General Johnny Burgoyne. (1975)
- Heel, Hitler, ten-minute play
(2015)
- From Russia and Ethiopia to the
Internet (Wesleyan College) article
- Surviving as a Small Business in the Age of Google: Generate
Search-engine Traffic (NEXPO, Washington, DC) article
- The Future of Business on the Internet (Lewiston,
Maine) script
- Increase Traffic on the Internet Without Advertising (IQPC
Conference, San Francisco, CA) article
- Corporate-wide Knowledge Management (ExpoManagement
98, Buenos Aires, Argentina) article
- Business Opportunities on the Internet (Comdex, Buenos
Aires, Argentina) script
- The Social Web: from Hyper-links to People-links (Web
Week 97, Oak Ridge National Labs, Oak Ridge, TN) book
- Basics of Effective Web Sites: How to Succeed When the Rules
of the Game Change (Boston) book
- Building Communities on the Internet (Internet Expo/Email
World, Boston, New Orleans) article
COLLECTIONS OF ARTICLES
JUVENALIA
The Story of the Trojan War in
Unintentionally Humorous Verse
doggerel written in the sixth grade (age 11)
- Hi-Q or Peg Solitarie, a solution to
the game solved and recorded in the third grade
(age 8)
- Stories Written in the Second Grade
BOOKS IN SEARCH OF AGENT/PUBLISHER
- Beyond the Fourth Door,
The first door is
birth. The second is death. Frank and Marge go
through the fourth door. query
message
- Breeze, a
trilogy of novellas, connected by soul transference. query
message
- Lenses, a book-length collection of
essays that look at knotty questions from unusual
angles, looking for a publisher. query
message
- What Did
Newton Say to the Apple? and other word play query
message
- Sign Me Up, (picture book)
- What Can You Do With a Fifth Foot
(picture book)
-
Alternate
Lies: a
novel about Mercy Otis Warren and General
Johnny Burgoyne, during the American
Revolution
-
Pop Goes the Universe,
novel about the end of everything
- Uncle Adolph's World Guide Book. for those who would prefer to stay home and read about it
- The
Name of Man, historical
novel, sequel
to The Name of Hero opening chapters available
here
- The Name of God, historical
novel, sequel to The Name of Man
My Twitter account is @seltzerbooks Click here to get there.
READING
Sixty Years of Reading (complete list of
books I've read since 1958)
Recommended
contemporary books (published since WW II)
My book reviews
Book reviews by Dean Rink
The
Cary-Estes Genealogy by May Folk Webb and Patrick Mann Estes
The
Cary-Estes-Moore Genealogy by Helen Estes Seltzer
Richard's genealogy page (listing over
1600 direct ancestors)