Publisher's Catalog in Publication—Got it!

It looks like the book is a little more official now.

Quality Books created a Publisher's Catalog in Publication for Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1, and it's now printed on the copyright page of both the hard cover and paperback editions of the book. There was a brief burp while the new text files were uploaded to the printer, but that's all finished and both editions are back in stock. And looking pretty official.

A Catalog-In-Publication is usually given out by the Library of Congress, but they're not really interested in working with publishers who aren't yet "established" (meaning they have published less than three books). But it's not like somebody else can't do the work for you.

The Catalog in Publication is there to help the librarian catalog your book. That's it. Here's how The Donohue Group (another PCIP vendor) describes it:

"PCIP gives librarians all the information they need to quickly add a record for the book to their database or card catalog. This means improved service to library users (and happy librarians)."

So if you know somebody who knows what all the CIP symbology is about (like a really cool librarian), they could make one for you, if you ask them nice. Otherwise, there are companies that provide the service online for a fee. I think just having happy librarians around makes it worth it.

Lake Benton Public Library, Minnesota

One of the libraries I sent a free copy of Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1 to was in Lake Benton, Minnesota. Lake Benton is a really small town, but they can still claim an Opera House (the first image below would be it) and a barber shop. The library even wrote about receiving the book in their newsletter, and they were kind enough to send me a thank you note (hand written, of course). That doesn't happen so often these days (and really, they were the only library that did).

So thank you, Lake Benton Public Library, and if another volume of this book ever hits the shelves, watch for your copy in the mail soon after!

(And special thanks to Eileen Stephenson for taking the Lake Benton photos right in the middle of a Minnesota winter and getting them safely to my inbox.)

ePubs and ebooks and mobis

Over the past couple of months I've been teaching myself the ePub thing in Adobe InDesign CS5.5 (a Christmas present from my lovely husband), which wasn't so hard except when you have images that kind of have to be where they are, the way they are. Figured it out, sort of. It just got to the point where I had to decide how much I was willing to give up in exchange for my sanity.

The short version of this is, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1 is now available for immediate download on your Kindle! Yay!

I've checked and double-checked and triple-quadruple checked to make sure this thing works on Kindle, Kindle Fire, Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for iPad. No small feat.

Next victim: the Nook at Barnes & Noble!

As an aside, I just noticed the URL for the book uses the phrase "Twisted-Tales-Your-Brain." I wonder if the "Rot" in the middle of that was too offensive for them.

Cool.

Reviewed at the Madhouse #twistedtales

Sending out a special "thanks" to Stephanie Wytovich for her review of Twisted in her latest post in the Madhouse. It warms my cockles when somebody gets it:

http://joinmeinthemadhouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/featured-author-in-madhouse-nora.html

"...it fuses the worlds of literature and art together in such a macabre fashion where it’s suitable for kids, but still really creepy and entertaining for adults."

If you (or someone you know) are interested in reviewing the book, send me an email, and we can have ourselves a little talk.

Contest entering

I spent a lot of time this month preparing books to be sent out for writer's contests, and I still don't know. Should I be doing that? Does the starburst stickers on the covers of books really make people want to buy them more? And is that what it should even be about? The groups giving out the awards kind of market their award along the lines of "win our award and get yourself noticed." Any stickers that got stuck would be limited to the ones I stick on the books myself anyway, so I'll just go with the "hey, I can tell everybody I won an award" justification.

I'm probably second guessing the whole awards thing because of past experience with juried art exhibits. It's all a crap shoot. In juried art shows, the jury—or rather the juror (they are usually only one person)—may or may not like the kind of art you do. They may or may not have a sense of humor. They may or may not have had their coffee that morning. They may or may not have had a full night's sleep the night before jurying the show you've spent good money to submit your best piece to (that you've labored over in both creating and choosing to submit). But mostly they might just like a certain kind of work, and if that's the kind of work you do, you're in. If it's not, better luck next time. And then, once you get in, the possibility of actually winning an award is pretty slim. So, yeah, a crap shoot. One person's opinion.

I'm thinking I'll have a go at the writer's contests this year, and if it feels like it's been a total waste of time (and it has taken a lot of time), I can always skip it the next go 'round.

I did a lot of research trying to figure out which awards might be worth entering, and here's the list of the ones I finally submitted to:

• Golden Kite Award: This one is given out by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and is one of the more prestigious awards a writer (or illustrator) can get. The awards are geared specifically toward kid's books (obviously).
• Purple Dragonfly Book Award: This award is given out by Five Star Publications. What I liked about this one was that they give you the actual criteria sheet that the judge will be using to rate your book. It's good to know exactly what they're looking for. This award is also specifically for kid's books. I entered two categories with this one: Fiction: Collection of Short Stories and Best Interior Design.
• Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards: Given out by Writer's Digest. I entered the Middle-Grade/Young Adult books category.
• Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Given by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group. I entered two categories: Children's Juvenile Fiction and Best Overall Design.

The dates the awards are announced vary, but they're all still at least a few months away. So now, all that's left to do is wait. And keep writing more.

Author pages on Goodreads and Amazon

I'm learning, I'm learning.

Everything I'm learning about one thing as a publisher leads me off onto another island of things I need to learn about and do which ends up scooting my raft off onto the next island.

Somewhere in the middle of all this Twisted book stuff, I was able to put together a couple of author pages on Goodreads and Amazon. I'm still learning what I need to do to get everything up to speed, but slowly it's happening.

If you're on Goodreads, give me a shout. A review or rating would be excellent. I'll make you a deal: if you let me know that you would like to review the Twisted book on Goodreads, I'll send you a copy for free to review.

Yep. Free.

That's as good as it gets short of cupcakes.

As for the author pages...

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/norathompson
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/norathompson

Business cards for the...business

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working my tail off getting books out to reviewers and submitting for awards. One of the reviewers I sent to (Midwest Book Review) requires a press kit along with their review copies, so I had to back up a little and work on all that in the middle of a ton of mailings.

Let's just say I've been getting a lot of designing done for Hairy Eyeballs Press lately.

One of the things I needed to include in the press kit was business cards. I didn't want to put a whole lot of information on them because I didn't think a lot of that stuff was necessary, at least not right now. I opted for a two-sided card with the Web address on one side (the top card in the photo) and the email address on the other side. I used the same three colors I used on the site, but mixed them around a little on the email side.

For the record, the logo was one I drew by hand. I thought with a name like "Hairy Eyeballs Press", I really needed a hand-drawn logo. It just felt right.

And most importantly of all, I had the cards printed on recycled stock from GotPrint. That's one of the things I've been slowly integrating into my business practices, and I'll write more about that in a later post. Too much to include right now.

So. Business cards. One more step toward migrating toward legitimacy for a little business I thought would be a good idea to call "Hairy Eyeballs Press".