*sigh* I’m feeling very tense and hyper today, and I really don’t know why. I’m dropping things, banging into things, clicking the wrong things on websites, making mistakes–all those irritating things you do when you’re wired and that make you feel really stupid.
I have finally settled on (and double-checked with title searches on Bowker and Amazon) a title for the book: Mortal Touch. The subtitle is The Vampires of New England Series, but that, I already knew! I assigned it an ISBN number, the first on my list. I tried out the free barcode generator, and got a nifty-looking barcode. I’ve set a tentative price, based on what other fiction trade paperbacks in this genre sell for. I don’t have a Canadian price pre-set, but there’s time to do that later.
If the days were twice as long, they wouldn’t be long enough. I spent huge amounts of time yesterday working on website graphics and typesetting. To make the typesetting story as short and unconfusing as possible…I changed the settings among four different type faces, four different point sizes and three different leadings (the space between lines), before I FINALLY got one to come out with a number of pages close enough to an even signature number that I can work with it. (413, including four pages for “front matter,” 13 32-page signatures would be 416 pages. I can find something to put on those last three pages! LSI apparently requires a blank page to use for end-of-print-run codes.) I was just about ripping my hair out, because every one I tried either went 1-3 pages over an even signature count, or ended up right in the middle, so I had a signature and a half. Let’s face it, 32 pages is a lot! I printed out sample pages as well as looking at them on the screen, and the final result does look fine. Neat, readable, a good solid “old stye” font face. I’ll keep my fingers crossed it prints well on a digital press.
Now I need to register the title with Bowker for Books in Print, and apply for a Library of Congress Catalog Number (LCCN). Oh, yes, and polish up and proof the typeset book so I can get the PDF file ready for Lulu, finish the website and get it uploaded, finish my application with LSI, and work on the cover design, which I have a pretty solid idea for but need to implement.
I’m tired of exercising! I’m exercising every single day now, and it just seems to take such a big chunk out of the day. 🙁 OTOH, I really need to be doing it, because aside from that, I’m pretty much sitting in front of this computer all the rest of the time. I haven’t even vacuumed in months. One thing about the shelter job is that it kept me on my feet a lot. I was running up and down stairs all the time. My house doesn’t even have stairs! I didn’t even go get the newspaper from the paper box yesterday! (I better go today, because I figure if I go to a third day, the paper delivery person will have the cops do a welfare check on me. 🙁 )
Saturday is the IPNE meet. I’ll have to fill my car’s gas tank and get some cash from the ATM. It’s way out in North Adams, a 2-1/2 hour drive. Whew. I just ordered a couple of reference books from Amazon, because I really do need them. I’m getting the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (industry standard for usage and style) and Business and Legal Forms for Authors and Self Publishers.
Why do I have to sleep????? It wastes so much time!!