I hope everyone in the States had a great holiday.
A person would think that after thirty-five years in this publishing business (which works at a glacial pace), I would have calculated the time involved a little better with getting the challenge books out to subscribers. But alas, even old dogs must continue to learn.
When I started this challenge, I didn’t really expect, as I said, to be writing much in the first four or five months of the challenge. Other deadlines and business stuff wasn’t going to allow it and I knew it, and I was right about that. But that hasn’t worried me because I figure I’ll make a run at the 100 stories between now and July.
So in the mean time, to get the subscribers enough to make it worth their money every month, I’ve been doing stories in nifty trade paper books, about eight per month, thirty so far since the challenge started. And I’ve been having a great time, to be honest. Yet when I started the challenge I thought it would be no problem to have the books in the mail to the subscribers by the 10th of the following month. I think I hit that date once.
(Someone implied or said in a comment that I had minions. Uh, nope. I do every detail of these books from cover to layout and including shipping to subscribers. All mistakes are mine. If I had minions to help, I might get them out on time.(grin))
October challenge books are just going out on Monday by Priority Mail (and to the electronic subscribers this weekend by e-mail). Sixteen days late from the date I hoped they would go out. Very sorry about my inability to hit that 10th of the month date. More than likely November books will be this late as well. It seems that even after all these years in publishing, I just couldn’t estimate the time it took to do production and get books from the printer. (grin)
So here are the eight October challenge books. As I said, I’m having a great time, and as soon as I get all these into Ella Distribution system, I will have them available in signed editions as well. Stay tuned.
Dean,
I don’t mind you being late at all. After all, you are an artist and I wouldn’t expect normalcy from any good artist. LOL
Also, I would like to thank you so much for doing this. The only books previously of yours I have ever read were your Poker Boy for I am a serial type of guy and never was inclined to read stand alones. Now that I have read some of your other stuff — I like it all and am looking forward to your writings for many years to come.
Wow, thanks for the kind comments. Very much appreciated.
No worries, Dean. I have the same “no minions” issue, and I have a heck of a time hitting publishing deadlines half the time as well (and not nearly so many books to do it with!). I’ll enjoy them whenever I get them (my husband is enjoying them too), though I’ll admit to being a little impatient for the “Dust and Kisses” novel outside the challenge (or did I miss the release for that one?). I’m quite fascinated by that world after reading “On Top of the Dead”…
Keep ‘em coming, whenever that might be.
Thanks, Jamie. And no release on Dust and Kisses yet, but I do have the short story the novel was based on, which was based on a Janis Ian song lyric that I wrote for an anthology she edited. I should have it out in the next month or so. Dust and Kisses is a ways off yet. But I’ll check with WMG folks and see when we can work that in. And I hope to write a few more stories in that world in this push for the challenge this next spring. Thanks again.
I am curious to know what the Ella Distribution system is?
It is an indie publishing company, setting up to distribute WMG Publishing Inc books, as well as other indie press books. It will distribute paper books to indie stores, mostly, and have the books for sale on the Elle web site. Both signed editions and regular books for stores and customers to buy. Again all focused on paper and distributing indie book publishers. I’ll announce here sometime next year if we start opening up to other indie publishers. But right now, it’s just starting up and we have to get the bookstores online and set and make sure Fiction River is the focus for the spring.
Sounds exciting. Thanks for providing some extra info. I think one of the challenges for indie publishers is to get their titles into a bookstores, so this initiative should help.
Dean,
I’ve been reading _The Weird_ by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer; you might look at the book when you get the chance.
- The thing that finally sunk in while looking at it, is that 300 pages cost the same, no matter the trim size of the book.
I can have any trim size, 5×8, 5.5×8.5, 6×9, 7.5×9.25, and 300 pages of any trim size costs the same.
I was shooting for 6×9 for all of the books, and having trouble making large word counts at reasonable price, or having a spine on small word counts. Trying to make the 6×9 trim size be “one size fits all” just kept giving me grief. As I tried to decide if I should split the large books into many volumes, or combine many small books into one volume, I got _The Weird_. HA!
_The Weird_ is about 7.5×9.25, and they have a mix of single column and double column pages. The font is mass market paperback small, in double columns, which is perfect the way they did it. The “Look Inside” feature on Amazon only shows the Kindle view, so you can’t see what I mean. They even mention at one point that the book has 750,000 words of fiction in it.
I then pulled out _The Artist Way_ books which are also about 7.5×9.25, but with large white space in the margins, peppered with quotes in the wide margin. Look at _The Artist Way_ on Amazon, the “Look Inside” shows the layout of the paper pages. She has less than 100k in a book that can hold three times that. The various _Idiot’s Guide to…_ are also 7.5×9.25, with large white space in the margins. I can see many ways to fill that style of book.
I grabbed some books from my shelves, 5×8, 5.5×8.5, 6×9, 7.5×9.25, and made a stack. Instead of worrying about “word count”, I can see each 300 page “book block” as a volume to fill.
- I miss being able to do mass market size, but 5×8 will work now that I understand that it is a “volume.”
- 7.5×9.25 will let me do a LOTR size story in three volumes the way it should be, or a rambling memoir style like _The Artist Way_. HA!
Rough word counts for 300 pages at:
5×8 – 70k to 145k
5.5×8.5 – 85k to 177k
6×9 – 97k to 207k
7.5×9.25 single wide column w/ wide margin – 128k to 265k
7.5×9.25 Double column 132k to 281k