I know, it’s been a long time since I made an update. I put a lot of time and energy into a big family milestone, my dad’s 80th birthday on Monday, April 19. My sister flew out from Chicago for four days and I spent so much time at the lake, and had so much to unpack and put away when I finally got home from taking Jill to the airport, I felt like I’d been away at a convention!
But that doesn’t mean that publishing stuff stopped–on the contrary. Krymsin Nocturne’s official release date was April 15. As is inevitable when you deal with so many different third-party entities, things have been happening at all different times and with all different types of hiccups, hangups and unpredictability. (Mind you, this is what I go through with every book! Welcome to the cutting edge of independent publishing in 2010, where, if you’re doing it right, you’re doing everything from hardcover to iPad editions, all at the same time.)
The hardcover edition of Krymsin Nocturnes showed up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but not the paperback. I checked my account at Lightning Source (LSI) and was puzzled by the fact that I never had the option to approve the paperback proof, although I ordered it, paid for it, and it was delivered with all good speed. I approved the hardcover proof, and that edition said “ready for printing and delivery” in my LSI library, but the paperback edition was still pending (although I’d already ordered a short run myself and it was on the way!). But that explains why Amazon and Barnes & Noble hadn’t picked up the paperback listing from Ingram.
I called my rep at LSI and got a message saying she was out of the office for the rest of the week, and giving the number for another person who was taking care of her clients. I called that poor person and left a message on her voice mail, with a somewhat futile feeling. But I must give LSI some kudos. The second rep called me back within about 20 minutes! She manually fixed the proof approval (the glitch remains a mystery) and soon after that the paperback edition showed as “ready.” It now appears on Amazon and Barnes & Noble–but Amazon still doesn’t display the cover image for either bound edition. The Kindle edition’s cover image is uploaded with the book file, but it’s the only detail page that shows the cover. (The Kindle edition of Krymsin Nocturnes is already selling, too.)
I based the Search Inside This Book file on the paperback edition and its ISBN, so I was waiting to upload that until Amazon listed the paperback. Sometimes that solves the cover image problem, which Amazon can be very slow to get in place. Amazon detail pages go up in chunks–it can be rather fascinating to watch them evolve if you’re not too impatient. The Publishers Weekly review is up on the detail pages, and they all cross-link to each other. The Search Inside This Book file is still going through the approval process.
Meanwhile I updated PayPal to handle direct sales of Krymsin Nocturnes, and added links to its detail page on BLUM’s website as they went live and I confirmed them. Indiebound, the listing for independent bookstores, picked up the title; I’m still waiting for Borders and Powells Books. People have been “sampling” Krymsin Nocturnes on Smashwords, and I added it as a paperback and PDF download to BLUM’s Annex on Lulu.com. Just today, I went shopping in Nashua and stopped by the Apple Store again to sneak a look at the demo iPads. I was very pleased to see that Krymsin Nocturnes is already in the iBookstore along with BLUM’s other titles. However, apparently it takes Barnes & Noble six to eight weeks to update its ebook catalog, and as for Sony…let’s not even go there. I am thoroughly peeved with Sony at this point. It was Sony who replied to me, after I submitted multiple “applications” to them, telling me to sign up with Smashwords, and now Sony is just dicking around with Smashwords. Mark Coker says they’re “taking it a day at a time with Sony.”
The short run of hardcover and paperback editions of Krymsin Nocturnes arrived on Tuesday, and I’ve been packing up all the orders I’ve gotten so far from Brodart and a bookstore out in Oregon who placed an order by phone. I have many comp and review copies to send out, as well. I love it when I get a stack of cartons full of books and they quickly turn into empty cartons! Empty book cartons = bliss 🙂 (Cerridwen sure thinks so. I have the worst time keeping her from sleeping in the inventory. As far as she’s concerned, the packing paper LSI uses is heaven on earth.)
Meanwhile, less delightfully, the United States Copyright office (a.k.a. “the beauracracy so slow it actually operates in a different space-time continuum”) contacted me to say that I did the copyright registration for Gideon Redoak all wrong and I have to resend stuff to them…which means I have to do Cat the Vamp over, too, and might as well before the Copyright Office contacts me about that book sometime in the next millennium. *groan*
I’m running an ad on Bitten by Books and an ad on Facebook, but so far, I’m not seeing an uptick in traffic on BLUM’s website or a noticeable increase in sales, which is a bit disappointing. I had set a trial ad running on Facebook with a low per-click “bid” (what I pay for the ad) and low per-day maximum. Apparently, Facebook bases your “impressions” (i.e. the number of times and places it displays your ad in a sidebar) on how much you’re paying them, along with other factors. I raised my “bid” substantially this week and now my ad (which was flat-lined, 0 impressions and 0 clicks) is getting tens of thousands of impressions and some click-throughs, but of course it’s also costing me money as a result, and we’ll have to see if it’s worth the investment. Mortal Touch is still my strongest seller, and the Kindle edition in particular is selling faster and faster all the time.
Today I received the first purchase order from Brodart for The Longer the Fall! I uploaded the cover image to Bowkerlink/Books in Print as well as putting it on my own websites. I’m still waiting hopefully for a couple of cover blurbs, not sure what will happen with those.
I have a church service to do on Sunday (Unitarian, themed around Beltane, Ashby First Parish in Ashby, Massachusetts, all are welcome!) so I’m woolgathering from finishing that right now. I was pleased to find a perfect book for the children’s story at the library today, and I have crafts materials for the “sacrament” to give out. I still have to write the sermon, though! My dad got the first season of Fringe for his birthday, and generously loaned it to me for cycling videos. I’m really enjoying it. In fact…it’s time to go cycle through another episode! Funny how I do so much good writing right before I stop procrastinating and break for workout! Having trouble with writer’s block? I have a suggestion. 😉