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Link for your Wednesday, via

rm: "If you want to improve circulation, run cat pictures."

Carl Gossett Jr. was clearly a man ahead of his time.

Speaking of circulation, does anyone know a good Australian print-on-demand company? (Please don't google and send me links -- I've done that, I'm looking for reccs from folks who've used them, since self-publishing is only now emerging from the realm of conmen and racketeers.) CompletelyNovel are sweet kids; using Lulu and then using CN, CN just comes off as adorable, like a Mom and Pop store. But they won't ship to a lot of places, including the southern hemisphere. I'm contemplating cancelling them entirely, in part because I cannot find anywhere on their website, literally anywhere, that will let me set up payment information so that the money I make can actually be sent to me. Plus their postage is just plain not that much cheaper.

I've been thinking a lot about publishing and writing, which is probably some kind of coping mechanism in order not to freak out now that we're near publish date. I don't have many illusions; my work is good, but if it were good enough to stand out from the crowd and if I were bold enough to sell myself the way authors should, I'd have an agent and a publisher by now. I'm okay with that, because I like the freedom I have with self-publishing and I get a kick out of doing my own typesetting, but I am always conscious of the "self" in self-publishing. I'm aware of the fact that there are no gatekeepers in print-on-demand and that without a preview nobody can tell the difference between my reasonably awesome book and the hack job below it in the listview.

Still, sometimes when I run into issues like the ones I'm facing now, I think that real publishers must have these kinds of problems too. I wonder if the people who read about my issues think of me as providing some kind of mysterious inside account they couldn't get themselves, not being in my position -- like when I (rarely) read the blogs of professionally published novelists and television writers and such.

This is likely untrue, but it makes the whole thing feel more professional.

My life is...unique. Stranger than I ever thought it would be. I like it, and it suits me, but it's definitely different. Society doesn't really provide us with many tools for being adults, but even of the tools it does provide, very few of them are of use to me in the place I find myself. It keeps me on my toes, learning as I go, and the ability to learn and adapt is a highly prized one. I'm surprised to find myself neither the man nor the writer I was three years ago, though I shouldn't be surprised, and probably wouldn't even have noticed if I didn't have a journal tracking me.

As a LOL to close on, yesterday I contacted a high-rise building in Chicago about looking at the condos they had for rent, since Mum wants me out of the cursed wasp building and I begin to agree with her, even if it means moving away from R. The website said "Call us at this number, or use our handy email form!"

So I used the handy email form, because I hate phones, and asked if I could set up a time to view the condos. This is the response I got:

Thank you for your e-mail. Please call our office to set up a showing.

Really helpful email response there, guys. Thanks for that.

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Oh, man, that response is sort of the evil twin of only being able to set up an appointment for the busted computer ON-LINE...

even if it means moving away from R

... (speechless) ...

awww .... That'd be like putting your teddy bear in a box and stuffing the box in the attic...

*is sad *

Wow-I love that cat picture! I'd go so far as to buy a print to frame & put on my wall.
And I mean either the original, or the throw down on the manhole version-the recapture of it is really visually interesting as well.

Oh no. Your lovely (though infested) apartment! R! R! Can't you move in with R again, wait till the current roommate leaves or get R to throw him out? ;)

I could move in with R again, but his current roommate seems pretty stable and frankly I never want to be beholden to his mother ever again :D

Trust me when I say that other publishers also worry about things like international postage and distribution. I've had personal glimpses into the workings of three (smallish) publishing companies, and all three had to deal with issue of printing, international postage/shipping (you think one book is difficult? try a pallet full!), and distribution.

Be very grateful that you aren't dealing with a distribution company--one publisher folded when the distributor went into bankruptcy along with at least six months worth of book receipts (and author royalties!), and another had to force the distributor to do a hard inventory count when the publisher discovered that the distributor had no clue how many books they had on hand.

*nods vigorously* I can certainly concur with your first paragraph, though I've thankfully never had to deal with experiences like yours distribution-wise.

Not that it helps you in the immediate future, Sam, but I happen to know that a reasonably well-established POD company that already does distributed printing in the US and the UK, and has experience with what they call "mom and pop" publishing operations in the States, is planning to open a printing plant in Australia, so that it would be theoretically possible to upload and check over files for a book in the US and run off as many copies as necessary for the Australian market.

Oh god, I can imagine. And it's really worse for small presses and magazines, because I don't have to care about postage -- I'm not the one covering it as part of my expenses. I choose to, because I care about not drilling the cafe for all they're worth, but it's not a life or death decision at least.

You know, I've often thought the same sort of thing as you just said when I think about getting original work published, something like, 'Ah, I know my writing is okay, but it's not like it's fantastic'. I know my faults as a writer and they are many. However, one thing I always remind myself, is, think of how many TERRIBLE published novels there are out there. I mean, I know you self-publish for more reasons than one, but if you ever consider going the agent-etc route, don't forget that CRAP novels get published all the time, and your writing is completely outstanding compared to some of that.

Just sayin. :D

The website said "Call us at this number, or use our handy email form!"

So I used the handy email form,

Maybe the management is German? ("Handy" being the German word for mobile phone.)
;)

Oh wo ist mein Handy, ich habe mein Handy verloren.

EG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayk3oxOqYXU :D

LOL, I didn't know that one!

For what it's worth, working for a magazine with a distribution of 70,000 copies a month, we are CONSTANTLY fretting about postages, weights, printing costs, etc. And we only distribute within about a 100-mile radius.

My day job involves working on four magazines with massive national and international distribution. I nearly CRIED when I found out that we were going to have to go up a postage class on one publication because they just don't MAKE the thin onionskin paper we use anymore. International shipping is even worse.

It's a hell of a gig,as you well know!

Yipes, not having payment info for author royalties is a pretty big glitch. I can see why they might want to bury it, from a cynical perspective, but that really helps no one!

And you might not necessarily have an agent and publisher by now, dear boy, but not because you don't stand out from the crowd or have some damn fine work. Keep in mind that many, many extraordinary - and extraordinarily well-sold - authors were rejected many times over before they finally got their break. IO9 just did a feature on 15 classic sf/f books that were initially shot down - I knew about Stephen King and some of the others, but I had NO CLUE that Dune was initially published by the folks who put out car repair manuals. I mean, hell, that's one big bloody leap. Standing out and becoming a publishing success really can come from anywhere, it seems.

And wow, that's a really handy email form there. *headdesk*

Keep in mind that many, many extraordinary - and extraordinarily well-sold - authors were rejected many times over before they finally got their break.

It's true. Many authors also get in through the back door - that's what I did. I posted a creepy comment-story written on the fly to a friend's LJ. She responded, "I have serious chills right now. More?" I filled out the story a bit and posted it to my website, then linked her. She IMed me a few days later and told me how much she loved it - and went on to say that she's actually a published YA author. Her publisher was apparently looking for "the next R. L. Stine or Christopher Pike." She'd shown my short story to her editor, who (she reports) also got chills. The next day I got a call from him, asking if I had an agent. I reported that I didn't, but I did have a lawyer and a few leads on agents.

I called my best friend from middle school's mother, who has over two dozen published YA novels to her name. She read my story, passed it on to her agent, who signed me less than a week later. I put together a book proposal with a sample chapter and she shopped it around. We ended up going with my original friend's publisher.

My first two books have been published, a third is in the mill, and I'm to start writing my fourth on November first - since I write YA Horror, right now is our big promotional time. :)

Once I get a few more books under my belt, I'm hoping to be able to branch out and write some adult sci-fi/fantasy, which is more where my interests lie. Right now I'm filling a gap and tapping into a skill for scaring the shit out of 10-15-year-olds - something I attribute to being a big sister with a couple of younger brothers I love(d) to torment. :D

DANG. Go you!

...and this just goes to show how connections work in the publishing industry, and how random chance can be responsible for so much.

Yeah, I mean Lulu's wasn't easy to find, but at least it wasn't IMPOSSIBLE. Jeez.

When I was a kid my parents took me to the Jack London museum and I remember staring at this big glass case FULL of his rejection notices; I'd just read Call Of The Wild and The Sea Wolf in quick succession and adored them, so I was stunned by all the rejections. It's certainly difficult to get a toehold, even more so now than it was when, say, Stephen King was writing.

I'm happy telling my stories, so it's of little concern one way or another. It's just one of those things, I guess :)

And you're living in the era of the internet and Extribulum, which means that you can tell your stories TO people, instead of to your wall and/or wasps. Really, that makes a huge difference.

http://www.ipoz.biz/ is an Australian run online publishing company, and I can personally recc the Director, haing met him and discovering that he's not only a nice guy but also passionate about technology and future potential.
Wow, that sounded like an advertisement.

Hope this helps.

Oooh no, it sounded like a great recommendation! Thank you. :)

(Commenting anonymously as I am not out as a published writer on my livejournal - online/real life separation!)

I fret about a lot of the things upon which I see you write, as well, with the added pressures of publisher's deadlines, reproofs, and fighting with big wigs in corporate offices about what I will and will not rewrite in my stories. I write YA creepy, so my stories are going to be scary. I have actually been told, "This is really scary. I don't think kids will like to be this scared."

I have a much-younger brother who is fourteen and he is my first set of eyes, even before my editors, agent, or anyone else. At least with him I can turn around to my editors and go, "E loved this. It scared him witless and he loved it. I'm not changing this." He is their target audience, so they generally listen.

So far, being stubborn is one of the great traits my parents passed on to me. I know when to dig in and when to acquiesce. My two books, so far, have sold pretty well. Number three is at the mill and I'm starting up on number four once Hallowe'en is over. I wait tables, too, horrifyingly enough. I get the best horror stories, working in a restaurant and interacting with the public.

If it makes you feel any better, some of the shit my publishers put out is really, well, shit. I don't always know how I feel about having their little icon and name on the spine of my books when I know a crap author who wouldn't know a dictionary if it were put in front of her shares the same publishing house. (Holy ironic run-on sentence, Batman!) The best you can do is be confident in your story-telling and hope that your talent combined with good marketing and word of mouth will give you the opportunity to say "Time did tell."

Oh I get the online/meatspace separation, believe me :) Thanks for commenting though!

I can't believe someone in YA publishing told you kids don't like to be scared. Have they ever met a child?

It's nice to know that the worries I have are at least ones other people share, uncomplicated by the opinions of editors and publishers. I mean I do get opinions from the Cafe, but nobody in the Cafe can actually order me on pain of no-publication to do something.

As for waiting tables -- I can just imagine. The closest I've come is working in a coffee shop and that was well horrifying enough :D

Sometimes I think having a YA brother is the only thing that's save major plot ideas from the chopping block. Fortunately, my lit agent is also my white knight in a lot of ways; she's always happy to champion my cause if I want to dig in. Now that my first two are doing well, hopefully the people upstairs will give me a bit more understanding and leeway. I'll listen to good ideas, but some things I just won't change.

Waiting tables is great and I actually (a bit masochistically) enjoy it. It gets me out of the house and I get to talk to people. Keeps me human, gets me away from the computer (and that blinking cursor!) and forces me to get perspective. It seems to be my writer's block breaker, too! If I'm having a bad day for writing, I know that when I go to work and come home I'll be teeming with frustration and dislike for humanity, which will make it much easier to find a way to torment my characters. ;)

That, and I love getting free food.

D:
You sent me your rodents! I just discovered a mouse scurrying around on my bedroom floor. I have dubbed him Arthur.

I really hope you don't send me wasps next.

Augh! I hope Arthur departs your bourne soon.

Forget moving in with R and the attendant horrors of his mum as landlady.

Get R to move in with you, at this spiffy new condo you are looking for. :D (Unless R has some kind of contract where his rent is mortgage payments to his mum.) I'd suggest a third, preferably not-a-bluesman, roomie, to make sure rent payments are on time, except I don't think you'd like having a stranger in your place.

Alas, that is EXACTLY what his setup is -- he pays his mum, she pays the mortgage. :/

Every time I hear about these various infestations you've had, I think of Shadowrun (http://wiki.dumpshock.com/index.php/Insect_Spirit).

...It could always be worse?

LOL! Remind me to get out of here by 2055.

Not necessarily! You could move to Wrigley Field, described as "one of the most hospitable and secure havens in the Containment Zone" by the ~~travel guide~~ sourcebook.

(Other such spots: The University of Chicago campus, the Field Museum, and, weirdly, Cabrini Green. Personally, I am going to the Field Museum when the bugs come to eat our souls.)

Oh, if it's a choice between Wrigley Field, the UofC campus, and the Field Museum, first choice is NOT Wrigley :D

ALTERNATELY you could sell all your possessions and life to Northwestern, which apparently owns Evanston and has turned it into a walled city with armed guards, and is thus entirely free of bugsecution. On the other hand, then you owe your soul to the company store.

...Yeah, stick with the aca-fortresses.

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