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CONTENTS NEWS: Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? performers are on concert tours FEATURE: Cracking the code of ISBNs — those cryptic numbers on publications GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn up to $500 NEWS: Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? performers are on concert tours      Several of the performers about whom we wrote in our book Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? — Volume 1 (http://www.facebook.com/WHATPSG) continue performing in public. Five groups have announced extensive concert tours spanning the next few months. THE ASSOCIATION (hits include: "Cherish," "Windy," "Never My Love")      The Association performs throughout the year, and on most dates the group includes three original members: guitarist and trombone player Russ Giguere; guitarist and banjo player Larry Ramos; and guitarist Jim Yester. The touring group also includes drummer Bruce Pictor; keyboard player and guitarist Jordan Cole (son of the late bass guitarist Brian Cole); and bass player Del Ramos. While Larry recovers from illness that has kept him off the road temporarily, original Association member Jules Alexander has agreed to fill in for him on the group's current tour.      After performing Feb. 11 in Alexandria, Va., and Feb. 12 in Annapolis, Md., the Association will join forces with Jay and the Americans for a concert in the Los Angeles-area community of Cerritos on March 9. The Association then heads for Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for a March 18 performance. Visit http://www.theassociationwebsite.com/showdates.html for details. HERMAN'S HERMITS STARRING PETER NOONE (hits include: "I'm Into Something Good," "Just A Little Bit Better," "There's a Kind of Hush")      Peter Noone, lead singer of Herman's Hermits, continues touring at a blistering pace with his own backing band. His February schedule includes successive dates in Snoqualmie, Wash. (Feb. 2), Merrillville, Ind. (Feb. 3) and Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Feb. 4). After a week-long break, he'll be in Hot Springs Village, Ark. (Feb. 11), Fairfield, Conn. (Feb. 14), Marietta, Ga. (Feb. 18) and Tampa, Fla. (Feb. 25) before hopping the pond for 52 concert dates over a two-month span in the United Kingdom. For information, visit http://peternoone.com/concerts/. HERMAN'S HERMITS (U.K.)      A separate British-based band of Herman's Hermits is led by Barry Whitwam — the drummer of the original hit-making group. Whitwam's group consists of lead singer and keyboard player Kevan Lingard; guitarist Simon Van Downham; and singer and bass guitarist Geoff Foot.      The group, which performs most often in the U.K., Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, is scheduled for 21 concert dates in England and Scotland during February and March. Locations include Rotherham (Feb. 4), Buxton (Feb. 5), Lancashire (Feb. 11), Carlisle (Feb. 24), Billingham (Feb. 25), Great Yarmouth (Feb. 26), Peterhead, Scotland (March 2 and 3), and Camberley, Surrey, England (March 15). Visit http://www.hermanshermits.co.uk/ and click "live" for more information. THE KINGSTON TRIO (hits include: "Tom Dooley," "MTA," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?")      Bill Zorn (formerly of the New Christy Minstrels and the Limeliters), George Grove and Rick Dougherty (who also had been a member of the Limeliters) compose the present-day Kingston Trio. Although Bob Shane, the sole surviving original member of the Trio, has largely retired from performing, he is still at the helm of Kingston Trio operations from his base in Arizona. Kingston Trio fans will have the rare opportunity to see Bob perform a couple of tunes with the current trio in two Northern California appearances in March.      After early February appearances in upstate New York and in New England, Bill, George and Rick will travel to the Rocky Mountain West, Florida and Arizona before heading to the northern part of the Trio's original stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay area. Bob plans to rendezvous with the Trio on stage March 30 at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley and on March 31 at the Uptown Theatre in Napa.      Bob wrote, "I haven't been in that neck of the woods for years, and I'm really looking forward to it. See you there." Bill, George and Rick then will head to dates in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Arizona and Ohio. Visit http://www.kingstontrio.com/html/kt_tours.htm for information. THE ZOMBIES (hits include "She's Not There," "Tell Her No," "Time of the Season")      Zombies keyboardist and composer Rod Argent and Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone are performing separately with their own bands and together as the Zombies in concert tours. The recording artists, who have performed in the United States in recent months, will concentrate on the United Kingdom and Europe for the next several months.      Rod's band Argent (which he formed following the breakup of the Zombies in 1968) is performing in Cardiff, Wales (Feb. 1), Wolverhampton, England (Feb. 2) and London (Feb. 4). The touring group consists of all four members of the 1969-74 lineup — singer and guitarist Russ Ballard, bass player Jim Rodford, drummer Bob Henrit and keyboard player Rod Argent. Colin Blunstone will be performing with his band (keyboard player Pete Billington, guitarist Tom Toomey, bass player Chris Childs and drummer Pat Illingworth) in Milton Keynes, England (Feb. 7), Wolverhampton (Feb. 9), York (Feb. 10), Glasgow, Scotland (Feb. 11), Kinross, Scotland (Feb. 12), Reeth, England (Feb. 13), London (Feb. 15) and Cardiff, Wales (Feb. 28).      Rod and Colin will join forces as the Zombies (with guitarist Tom Toomey, bass player Jim Rodford and his son, drummer Steve Rodford) for a series of concerts in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the United Kingdom beginning March 27. Visit http://thezombies.net/future/ or http://www.colinblunstone.co.uk/gigs.html for more information.      Learn more about these and other recording artists in our first two books, Echoes of the Sixties and Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? — Volume 1. For information, please visit http://www.editpros.com/echoes_ebook.html and http://www.editpros.com/WHATPSG.html.      We invite you to "like" our page at http://www.facebook.com/WHATPSG, where you can read periodic updates and participate in discussions.      Please consider buying the paperback from our friends at Rediscover Music or The Kingston Trio Store. It's also available from other bookstores throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, and from Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. You may buy the e-book version through Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and from local bookstores connected with the Google ebookstore through the IndieBound program.      If you have read either book and enjoyed it, we encourage you to post a review at Amazon.com for Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? — Volume 1 and for Echoes of the Sixties. Thank you. FEATURE: What's behind ISBNs — those cryptic numbers imprinted on publications      You may know that you can find and order a book or other publication even if you don't know its exact title or author — as long as you can identify it by its ISBN. You may not know, however, what information is imbedded in ISBNs — or who issues and monitors them.      Many people don't realize that they're being redundant when they refer to an "ISBN number." That's because the "N' stands for "number" in "ISBN," which is the abbreviation for "International Standard Book Number." As the name indicates, an ISBN is valid throughout the world — for the same edition of a publication. A different edition or format requires a separate ISBN. For example, the ISBN for the print version of "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? — Volume 1" is 978-1-937317-00-3, but the ISBN for the e-book version is 978-1-937317-01-0. The ISBN for a paperback book differs from the hardcover edition of the same book. Likewise, an updated volume of a book must be issued a new ISBN.      Publishers, wholesale distributors, libraries and booksellers use ISBNs to identify, list and track inventory for cataloguing, sales and other purposes. Before January 2007, ISBNs consisted of 10 digits, but depletion of available numbers in some countries prompted conversion to the current 13-digit system. Here's what those five clusters of digits indicate: the first three numbers (either "978" or "989") constitute a "prefix element," identifying the sequence as an ISBN; the next group, which can vary from one to five digits, is the "registration group" element, which identifies the country, geographical region or language area of the publisher; The "registrant element," consisting of up to seven digits, identifies the particular publisher or imprint within the registration group (thus, EditPros is publisher number 937317); The "publication element," which can contain up to six digits, identifies the edition and format of a specific title by the identified publisher; the concluding single digit, called a "check digit," validates the number using a mathematical calculation, somewhat like the security code on a credit card. The letter "X" sometimes is used in place of a digit.      An organization called the International ISBN Agency, based in London, administers the ISBN system worldwide, defines the structure of group agencies, and allocates numbering. The international agency coordinates the activities of agencies that issue ISBNs within regions or individual countries.      ISBNs do not appear on books published before 1970. The ISBN concept evolved from a British innovation. When Great Britain's largest book seller, W. H. Smith, decided in 1965 to expand and computerize its warehouse inventory, it sought a standard numbering system for its inventory of books. The Distribution and Methods Committee of the British Publishers Association and a team of consultants developed the U.K.'s Standard Book Numbering (SBN) system, which went into operation in 1967. The British system attracted the attention of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee on Documentation, which began work on adaptation of the British system on an international scale. The ISO enacted the resulting ISBN standard in 1970.      ISBNs may be assigned not only to books, but also to pamphlets, maps, audio books, microform publications and instructional computer software. Periodicals — journals, magazines or newspapers — are not eligible for ISBNs; another coding system, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) registry, applies to periodical publications. GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions 1. Tom N. wrote:      "I am hearing (usually in commercials) phrases such as, 'We can help you GROW your business.' Whenever I hear 'grow' in that context, it makes me cringe. Am I wrong? I know what they mean, but it seems like 'grow' should be used in phrases like 'I grow flowers as a hobby,' or 'I plan to grow a beard,' or 'Why don't you grow up?' It seems to me that one 'increases' or 'expands' a business, but doesn't 'grow' it. Now that is only one example of the increasing (growing) use of the word." The grammar coach replies:      Use of the transitive sense of the verb "grow" in reference to expanding a business is gaining legitimacy. Webster's New World College Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary both contain entries citing its acceptability as a verb meaning "to cause to develop or flourish" (with the example "to grow a business").      Not everyone accepts such use in reference to inorganic materials or concepts, however. Tom doesn't, we don't at EditPros, and neither does the American Heritage Dictionary, which flags that appropriation of the word as a "usage problem." In a "usage note," the American Heritage Dictionary says, "'Grow' has been used since medieval times as an intransitive verb, as in 'Our business has been growing steadily for 10 years.' It has been used with an object since the 18th century, meaning 'to produce or cultivate' as in 'We grow corn in our garden.' But the transitive use applied to business and nonliving things is quite new. It came into full bloom during the 1992 presidential election, when nearly all the candidates were concerned with 'growing the economy.' The Usage Panel is decidedly less fond of this development than business leaders and politicians are. Eighty percent of the Panel rejects the phrase 'grow our business.'"      Editors at EditPros place such use of "grow" in the same category as the recent faddish use of "transparent" (in reference to business practices) and the neologisms "memes" (a biology term that was hijacked for use in a social networking context), "cloud computing" and "off the grid." We have plenty of verbs at our disposal, including "expand," "enlarge," "proliferate" and "strengthen," to portray the growth of a business. We prefer to reserve "grow" for the realm of organic materials — including crops and beards. 2. Shawna B. wrote:      "I'm the marketing manager of my company, and I edit our newsletter. For bylines identifying who writes each article, I capitalize the 'b' of the word 'by' (as in 'By John Doe.' But one of my co-workers says that I should make the 'b' lowercase because it's a short preposition. What is the rule on that?" The grammar coach replies:      Shawna, if the word "by" begins a new line, capitalization is logical. A lowercase "b" would be appropriate, however, it's placed alongside the title or otherwise falls in the middle of a line (for example: "Photo by Jane Doe"). Your co-worker's argument that "by" should be lowercased because it's a preposition is invalid. We wonder if your co-worker also is inclined to lowercase the preposition "for" in Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls."      If you want to avoid an argument, though, consider slightly reducing the size of your article bylines and running them in all caps: BY JOHN DOE.      Are you perplexed by some aspect of grammar or word usage? Don't be shy! Ask the "grammar coach" at EditPros and we'll try to help—at no charge, just for the sport of it. FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn a finder's fee of up to $500      Do you know of a friend or colleague whose office can benefit from EditPros' services? If you do, EditPros may reward you with a "finder's fee" of up to $500.      EditPros LLC, established in 1993, performs writing, editing, proofreading and publication management services for newsletters, brochures, Web sites, annual reports, research studies, business proposals, and other informational and marketing materials. Our office is in Davis, Calif., between Sacramento and San Francisco; however, our clients include educational institutions, private corporations, health-care organizations, trade associations, scientific research institutions, Web site developers and government agencies from throughout the United States. We have worked with some of them for more than 10 years.      If you recommend our services to a friend or business colleague, and that introduction leads to an assignment for EditPros, we will award you a "finder's fee" equaling 10 percent of the amount we earn on the first assignment for the new client, up to a maximum finder's fee of $500. Naturally, the finder's fee is applicable only to client organizations for which we have not worked previously.      This offer will remain in effect until further notice. YOUR TURN: Ask the "grammar coach" or subscribe      We invite you to submit your questions to the "grammar coach," and we welcome you to subscribe to this monthly newsletter—which we'll send to your e-mail address at no charge. We respond to all "grammar coach" questions personally, but delays may occur because we must place top priority on assignments from our clients. We appreciate your patience and your interest.      You also can change your e-mail subscription address. For an address change, please indicate your existing AND your new e-mail address. Thank you. OUR PRIVACY POLICY for e-mail newsletter subscribers:      We do not use any commercial e-mail lists or automated mass-mailing programs, and we do not allow access to the list by anyone else for any reason. Our subscriber list is maintained by hand, and it is not for sale. We are protective of confidentiality because many of our readers are also clients of ours. Any accompanying advertising is placed by Yahoo.com in exchange for our use of the e-mail server to distribute this newsletter.