What, another day already?

So, yesterday…

• I registered my first ISBN number(s)* for Mortal Touch with Bowker for Books in Print. (* they still send you, and require you to register, the 10-digit versions, even though we’re all supposed to have converted to the 13-digit ISBN’s as of January 1st.)
• I completed my application for a new account with Lightning Source, although I’m still running numbers to see if I want to go with them. (I don’t have to use just one printer, of course.)
• I applied to the Library of Congress for an access account so I can then apply for a PCN number, since as a small publisher I don’t qualify for a CIP number (that’s for libraries to help with their cataloguing; libraries will purchase your book without a CIP, especially fiction. The PCN number is a substitute for that, it’s free).
• I continued researching prices and trim sizes for books in this genre, and found that the majority of them, from large and small publishers, are the smaller trim size. So, I’m seeing if I can get a typeset file at an even number of signatures in the smaller trim size, and I may just do the ARC’s at 6″ x 9″ since Lulu doesn’t offer the smaller size. But I’ll have to compare prices for two sizes with printers that offer both–a smaller trim size will probably be a longer page length, although that depends on the type size and margins, too. I’m still debating what price to put on the book. It wouldn’t be an issue if I was selling everything myself. But Amazon Advantage and wholesalers require a whacking discount and a distributor, even more so.
• I logged into the admin console of my new website, set up a couple of e-mail accounts, and uploaded my files in progress, so there will be something there. I’m still redoing the graphics and writing the content! http://bylightunseenmedia.com/ if anyone wants to look at an embryonic website.
• The rest of yesterday I spent in a fruitless and extremely frustrating search online for a photo to use for a baseline template for a graphic I’m working on. I just feel like I’m missing something…some motherlode of standard artists’ human figure models, like those books of figures in motion that have been out for about a century. I can’t even home in on search keys to find a links list that might include such a source. There are tons of online resources for writers and researchers. For graphic art, even the for-pay stock photo sites don’t have what I need, even if I was willing to pay for it, which by this point, I am!! (It’s a deductible business expense!)

I also cooked veggies for brunch, did a 90-minute workout, did a 15-minute sunset attunement, and baked a new batch of homemade crackers. (This is the third batch; on the second try I perfected the recipe, so now I’m baking all my own crackers as well as all my own bread. I am clearly nuts.) I watered all the plants since I suddenly realized that they were all at death’s door. (How did that happen? It hadn’t been that long since I watered them…had it??) Amazon has shipped the reference books I ordered. I also upgraded Quicktime to Quicktime Pro since I can use it to edit book trailers. I have some ideas for soliciting endorsements, but they’re long shots. Won’t hurt to try, though.

And I am so not sleeping. It’s not even funny. Tomorrow I get up before sunrise and drive 2-1/2 hours out to North Adams. We’re having lovely weather–a bit nippy, but sunny–but I still haven’t heard the spring peepers around here.