We're still accepting story submissions for our book project. www.autlabs.com/book.cfm We could choose to self-publish our book through a variety of services like Lulu, but we've decided instead to seek a deal with a mainstream publisher who can get us better exposure. The challenge with this is that it's extraordinarily difficult to get a manuscript accepted through mainstream publishers. Over 90% of submitted manuscripts never even reach the person who decides which submissions are accepted. Having an agent helps, but getting an agent is also very difficult. So we've decided to try something a little different to improve our chances of getting that mainstream book deal. We're going to trade up! In July 2005, Kyle MacDonald started with one red paperclip and began bartering his way to a house. www.oneredpaperclip.com Exactly one year later to the day, he traded his way into a house in Saskatchewan Canada. Kyle has been a big inspiration to us here. He had a simple idea and starting with very small resources worked his way up to something remarkable! So being keen to find sources of inspiration from people who've achieved a lot with very little, Kyle has been high on our list.

We noticed that amongst the items in Kyle's list of trades were several intangibles, including a trip to Yahk BC, a recording contract, an afternoon with Alice Cooper, a year in Phoenix and a part in a movie. And that gave us an idea. It's said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and we've certainly been inspired by Kyle. If he could trade up to a recording contract or a part in a movie, why couldn't we trade up to a book deal? Thinking about it some more, we realized that this also created more opportunities for our friends in the community to contribute to the AutLabs project, help us raise much needed awareness and at the same time it will also give us more opportunities to also help the people who trade. In Kyle's trip from the paperclip to the house, he created an opportunity for an aspiring musician to record her work, got a role in a Hollywood movie for an aspiring actor in Saskatchewan and made many other people quite happy. That's no small thing. We want to create jobs for people on the Autistic spectrum yes, but work isn't the reason why we want to do this. We want to create these jobs to help make dreams come true, to make people happy. And if we can make some other people happy along the way, all the better!

So we looked around our ... ahem... offices here in Dallas to find something we could trade. We wanted to find something a little playful and unusual, something that would get people's attention. And lo and behold, here it was sitting on my desk. I've been using this happy ceramic cup to hold pens. The inscription reads, "I love the days when the trees are laughing." We got this at a renaissance fair in Ft Lauderdale in 2003. In truth I think it's good for the cup too. It could use a new home. It's not that we don't like the cup, obviously we liked it enough to buy it at the fair, but maybe it could be put to better use where more people could enjoy it. Perhaps it would make a good candy dish for the receptionist's desk at a doctor's office or on the teller's counter at a bank? So if you'd like to have this happy little piece of art to adorn your counter top, make us an offer in trade by email to info@autlabs.com or call us at 817-385-0301. We'll keep updating this page on our wiki autlabs.wikispaces.com/Book as more offers and trades come in, so keep checking back!

God Bless,

Ike