Books by Bill Ritchie

Bill's first book was a hand-bound artist's book of his smaller prints made during graduate school. His first trade paperback was Art of Selling Art, 1987. Since then he has used only on-demand services, self-publishing manuscripts online in paper (both paper and hard-back) and eBooks, calling his imprint, Perfect Press.

Emeralda Songbook: Journal of a MOOC experience is Bill Ritchie's notes from a songwriting MOOC in 20012, plus the back story for his songs in book 2, about a fictional journal about a hapless Russian boy in the 18th Century. Buy it now on amazon as black--and-white paperback or colorful Kindel eBook one can read on a smart phone, tablet or desktop via Kindle Cloud Reader.

This is Volume 1 and 2, the years 1941-1960 bound together in one book. Titled My First 20 Years, it covers his birthday, schooling and his first job at the University of Washington. Buy it now on amazon as black--and-white paperback or colorful Kindel eBook one can read on a smart phone, tablet or desktop via Kindle Cloud Reader.

This is Volume 3, the years 1961-1970, titled Box & Portal: Escape the teaching game, about ten years of Bill Ritchie's life when he was teaching art at the University of Washington and learning a global view. Buy it now on amazon as black--and-white paperback or colorful Kindel eBook one can read on a smart phone, tablet or desktop via Kindle Cloud Reader.

This is Volume 4, the years 1971-1980, Target Heart: Notes from the ivory tower , autobiography, updated in 2019. Buy it now on amazon as black-and-white paperback or colorful Kindel eBook you can read on your phone or desktop on Kindle Cloud Reader.

This is Volume 5, the years 1981-1990, Dumb Hope: My curious life , his autobiography, updated in 2019. Buy it now on amazon as black-and-white paperback or colorful Kindel eBook you can read on your phone or desktop on Kindle Cloud Reader.

This is Volume 6, third draft, the years 1991-2000, Hope & Envy , 2019. Buy it on amazon as black-and-white paperback or full-color Kindle eBook you can read on your phone or desktop on Kindle Cloud Reader .

This is Volume 7, third draft, of Bill Ritchie's Autobiography,the years 2001-2010, " My Printmakign Game (or) "Honey, I shrunk my press!" Written in 2017-2019. This period was marked by changes in the decade since the Internet opened new possibilities for artists and teachers. Buy it on amazon as black-and-white paperback or full-color Kindle eBook you can read on your phone or desktop on Kindle Cloud Reader.

This is Volume 8, The Payoff: Bill Ritchie's Autobiography the years 2011-2020. It's the story of his years up to the present, including the peak of his experience developing a market for Halfwood Presses. The title comes from a question by one of his former students - what has Bill won? Buy it on amazon as black-and-white paperback or full-color Kindle eBook you can read on your phone or desktop on Kindle Cloud Reader.

Vladimir's Story Sketchbook, an interactive, do-your-own illustrations project Bill Ritchie launched in 2017. He invites readers to illustrate pages in the book that have four lines of his 48-stanza storyline. Vladimir is a Russian castaway whose tale is told and which Bill thinks would make a good graphic novel or a storyboard for a film. Available for preview and purchase at lulu.com.

A Printmaker's Tale. An ongoing saga of Bill's designing and making two-hundred etching presses in wood and steel some say are works of art. This book tells how buyers found them and used them. As Bill worked at their crafting he made up yarns to entertain himself. He took notes and wrote stories about real people plus imaginary places, things, and events. This book bundles them as the back story and his over-arching printmaker’s tale. Available as Kindle or paperback.

Halfwood Press: The Story tells the beginnings of Bill's adventure making and selling the first thirty Halfwood Presses, listing each person who bought a Halfwood, something about them plus people who went on buying them. He added the words to a ballad he wrote about the legend of the ship that brought the Halfwood idea to him - the Emeralda. For a good read, he wrote it in his pen-name, "Harris Sweed." amazon.com

Halfwood Press Memories: Bill pasted his favorite snapshots he made over the course of seven years when he was making, demonstrating and delivering the first Halfwood Presses to over 90 individuals. This 37-page hardcover picture book is a document of the early days of Halfwood Press, a collection of memorabilia and related stories that will be enjoyed by anyone who is interested in printmaking lore. Lulu.com

Swipe: Screen play writing is an art form, a blend of pictures and story telling. Bill thought of the plot for a movie while working on Halfwood Presses. He read books about screen play writing. He read many screenplays. While it's as hard getting used to reading as it is for writing in the screenplay form, if you read "Swipe" you get to see how one art teacher made lemonade out of a lemon of a life. Available at Lulu.com.

Art of Selling Prints - As an artist faces the eternal dilemma of earning a living and making uncompromised art, Bill set out in the 1980s to learn professional sales peoples' methods. For three years he read, watched and listened, then adapted those sale peoples' sometimes unsavory methods, revising them to suit the artist's way and applying the ideas to selling his art. In this new edition he's revising it to focus on the special opportunities for selling fine art prints. amazon.com.

A fictional woman named Issey is stalked by spies as she tries to follow her dream. Something strange is going on - something to do with the Mini Halfwood Press her father sent for her journey. The screenplay is based on Bill's a trip around the world. This is the first of planned ten screenplays for a series, "Printmaking Camp," a work in progress.

Cascades - He got a mobile for notes, a 1990 PDA, and netted ideas that cascaded into his thoughts and dumped them put them in his computer memories. For 10 years he logged entire days—hour by hour, minute to minute—it became a text picture of what he did with his time, with whom, where, and why. He then filtered over 2,000 of his great notions he calls "Cascades" and made them into this book. Available at amazon.com

Video Dig Reloaded - Carl Chew's art exhibit, Video Dig, is the centerpiece for an installation concept for the videos that vivified Bill's time as a UW media arts professor. His musings and ideas make up this anthology, which he wants to become the soul of a video art history exhibit named, Video Dig Reloaded. The book is available in its original form at Lulu.com

An Unusual Childhood - Memoirs of Bill's mother, Harlene Jessie Reeves Ritchie (1916-2001) a sardonic recollection of growing up near Gardiner, Montana. It's a coming-of-age original. His sisters started it in the 'Nineties originally. Bill hand-bound it, then published it as a Kindle, then a paperback available at amazon.com and also as a Kindle book. An audiobook is coming in July, 2012.

Travel Tapes - He was a professor of art in 1982 and he taught that printmaking is the ancestor of video and that video art was the Next Big Thing so art students needed to study electronic media. To demonstrate he risked everything, mortgaging his family home, selling his car, his etching press, and closing his art studio. He bought a state-of-the-art video system and plane tickets. With his tenure and a sabbatical in hand, what did he have to lose? Read this book you will find out.

Rembrandt's Ghost in the New Machine - An old-world printmaking professor, Mac, wakes up on a dung boat in 17th Century Amsterdam with nothing but a Mini Halfwood press chest. He meets Rembrandt, who is down and out and in need of a press to print playing cards. Mac comes close to helping the renowned artist get back to etching, however, Mac is poisoned by a vengeful procuress. Read more online in the paperback galley proof or Kindle at amazon.com or as a Barnes & Noble Nook eBook.

Emeralda Inventor Interviews - Years deliberating how to invent a new approach to asset management and legacy transfer, artist/professor Bill Ritchie decided a game might be the best way. He began modeling the game play after his personal life experience in October, 1998, role-playing thesubjected of 31 interviews by "ghost" students. His hope in this comical process was to invent a game. The audio tracks are transcribed in this series as a book to serve in the development of his game, known as "Emeralda." Available at amazon.com both in paperback and Kindle.

Artsport 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2019 2nd Edition. A comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie, a catalogue raisonné of 576 of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 60-year anthology on broadly defined subjects summarized for browsers. The abstracts are indexed so that one can request the digital full-text by contacting the author. This edition includes color images of the artist's trading cards and stamps. Subtitled "Ritchie Mined" referring to mining the artist and professor's brain. See the video.

E'Studios 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2019 2nd Edition. A comprehensive catalogue of musings summarizedby Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - an abstract of his 40-year blog. It's a complete list of works on wide-ranging subjects indexed so that they may be identified and for which one can request the full-text. It includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps - only the eBook version has color. See the video.

MacRitchie's 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.

O'Studios 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.

Perfect Press 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.

Perfect Studios 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.

RIISMA 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.

SPEACON 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.

Video 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.

Video 'N Print 'Zines: Ritchie Mined 2009 Kindle Edition. A digital monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of musings by Bill Ritchie Mined. The series is a catalogue raisonné of hundreds of his 'Zine essays - like an abstract of his 40-year blog. It purports to be a complete list of works on broadly defined subjects in a way so that they may be identified by readers, with indexes for which you can request the digital full-text. Includes color images of artists trading cards and stamps.