I'm actually in the market for a typewriter right now, for exactly that reason. I'm setting up a room in my new house with nothing but a desk for a typewriter, a chair, and a sound system.
I could see that helping. It seems like transcription will prove a serious pain, though.
More importantly, Linux on an old laptop could still support Dropbox. I would have lost a lot of work to a dead hard drive just last week if not for that. It only takes one leak or one energetic puppy to destroy a paper manuscript.
I'm likely going to hire someone to scan/OCR and fix up my pages. It'll likely only cost me a few grand for a whole novel -- a drop in the bucket compared to good editors and all that. But that's assuming I actually manage to write in the first place, which is a pretty big leap!
Your laptop can serve as that OCR service and it can cost a few - even several - times less than that estimate. Case in point: I write this reply on a $250 Woot.com netbook, which already saw me through a few novel drafts.
Please watch your costs here. My writing still hasn't covered the costs of the netbook I bought for my first novel, drafted back in 2008, and I paid only $500 for that one. A hundred sales counts as serious success for a brand-new author, and that likely won't bring in a grand on even self-published eBook royalties (70%).
Editorial and other services (layout, etc.) shouldn't cost you anything close to that first estimate, either. Dean Wesley Smith (http://deanwesleysmith.com), a 30-year industry veteran, has more to say on these points.
I don't disagree at all with what you say, but it assumes that I'm doing it to make money. I see it as a hobby that I'm willing to throw money against; the likelihood of me seeing a dime is incredibly slim, and not at all the goal. Thanks though -- it's always good to have more info!
