There'll be two main "streams" of publication: online and print.

Online publication

The Big Meow will be published online, one chapter at a time. Chapters will be ready for posting at roughly three-week intervals. Each time a chapter is ready, DD will send out an email to the notification mailing list to let everyone know that subscriptions can now be paid for that chapter. When the amount subscribed for the chapter hits its pre-established "break-even" point, DD will put the chapter online.

If you're a subscriber to The Big Meow -- meaning that you've either subscribed to a single chapter, to the entire ten-chapter run, or you're a donor to the project in one of the other ways that qualifies you to see the material first -- you'll be provided with a password that will let you view a protected webpage containing the chapter in question. (An Adobe .PDF version will also be available for subscribers to print out if they like.)

If you're not a subscriber, you'll have to wait a week to see a given chapter. That's when the password protection will be removed from that chapter's posting page, and anyone who wants to can read it.

The per-chapter subscription fee will be USD $2.50. The ten-chapter "whole book" upfront fee will be $22.50. (Get your first chapter free!)

Please note that some or all of these fees may change...downwards. Generous benefactors have already come forward to offer challenge grants which have significantly pushed down the cost of subscriptions. We hope that this process will continue...and if it does, the savings will be passed on to the readership.

All posted chapters will remain online until the print version of The Big Meow is ready to ship, at which point they'll be withdrawn. (However, a complete Adobe version of the book will remain permanently available to all subscribers on demand, via the same channels as the e-books below.)

E-book versions of the novel will become available shortly after the online chapters are withdrawn. These will be made available free for all subscribers, at whatever level. The price for nonsubscribers isn't definite yet, but will be somewhere around USD $5.00. There will be no DRM on these e-books: they will be fully printable and otherwise unprotected.

Print publication

After the book is complete, it will be edited by a professional editor whose fee will be paid by DD. Cover art will also be solicited and paid for. The finished work will then be published via Lulu.com. Depending on how quickly the editorial, art-direction and other production processes go, The Big Meow will be ready to start shipping to readers in the very early months of 2007.

Subscribers who have paid for the entire ten-chapter run, either up front or chapter by chapter -- as well as sponsors, challenge-grant providers, and other similar project donors -- will receive a print copy of TBM as part of their subscription fee.