theLogBook

Who?
I'm Earl. I've been doing theLogBook.com since 1989, when it wasn't theLogBook.com, but was merely the LogBook, a collection of episode guide files shuttled around from computer bulletin board system to computer bulletin board system, back when the Earth's crust was still cooling, the outer planets were still forming, dinosaurs were starting to give serious thought to walking the Earth, and Milli Vanilli was on the radio a lot. I've been at this a long time.

When?
The neat thing about that is, that means theLogbook.com has been continuously growing - often in many different directions - for 25+ years, amassing a depth of material and expertise that not a lot of sites have.  In recent years, I've begun translating, updating and expanding that material in print form and in podcast form.  Because if there are two things I'm good at, it's writing and talking to myself (while you listen).  I try to impart the site's same vast depth of material and knowledge through the books and podcasts, and try to do both as professionally as possible - I've been doing print layout and radio/voice work since the '80s and I try really hard to make sure that some of that expertise translates into the stuff that I put out there.

What?
The site's main areas of focus at present are:

Podcasts - Select Game (Odyssey2 video game history podcast) and Don't Give This Tape To Earl (my general geekery podcast) are monthly shows.  Retrogram, coming in January 2019, will be a retrospective of vintage genre TV from the 1970s and early '80s, and my current thinking is that it'll be bi-weekly.  In The Grand Theme Of Things (soundtrack podcast) rolls out 3-4 new episodes per year.  theLogBook.com's Escape Pod has completed 366 episodes (one for every day of the year, including February 29th for leap years!), and refreshed episodes are on the way all the time, because history marches on.

Books - books based on the site's content gather and organize that content differently than the web site does, and takes that content to a new audience beyond theLogBook's loyal readership.  Titles to date include VWORP!1 and VWORP!2 (massive comprehensive guides to Doctor Who, with episode-by-episode critiques, credits, and trivia), Fatherhood, Fandom And Fading Out (a book of essays, articles and humor, focusing on being a geek who happens to be a dad), and WARP!1 (covering Star Trek in the same format as VWORP! covers Doctor Who).  As to the question of why a Patreon is needed with all of these listed on Amazon: they're all self-published titles with a decidedly niche audience.  Further VWORP! and WARP! books are in the pipeline, while the previously announced Guide To 42 British Sci-Fi TV Classics and We Come From A Funky Future - and what research had already been completed for both - have been folded into one entity, the upcoming Retrogram podcast, as the gestation period for those projects as books would've been an incredibly long one.

Site updates - updates are ongoing in several sections of the site, primarily the day-in-history timeline and the LogBook itself, which is a sprawling survey of science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction covered in the LogBook's signature style, with summaries, credits, and original airdates/premiere dates, covering TV, movies, fan films/internet productions, audio/radio productions, and more.  Other site sections, such as music reviews and book reviews, have become dormant for budgetary reasons (the items reviewed there have to be purchased, obviously), but could "wake up" if I can afford the items reviewed there.  The site itself is where future book and podcast projects are born.  Social media presence is maintained on Facebook and Twitter to promote all of the above.

How much and why?
The site's expenses are no small thing, nor are the typical expenses involved in raising a couple of awesome kids.  The recent cross-country move so I could continue living with and raising those awesome kids has done a number on me financially; at this time, all of the expenses associated with the site have to be paid from a combination of Patreon support, ebook and book sales, occasional (but sadly infrequent) voice work and writing gigs, and occasionally me throwing things to the eBay wolves to make up for shortfalls.  This is where you come in - without you, there's no theLogBook, no podcasts or videocasts, no further books.  Without you, it's all a failed experiment.