Proof!

Yesterday afternoon saw this apparently unremarkable package arrive at the Russell Residence in one of the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
A short while later a certain individual (known to the followers of this blog as “Al”) could be seen happily perusing the contents of the package.
So what is it that I was so happily looking over?

I deigned to come out from behind the book, for book it was, and hold it up so Deb could snap me with it.Veiled in Shadows, Allan Russell, emblazoned across the cover.

It’s here, it’s finally here! A proof copy of my very own book!

To hold my work in my hands… what an amazing feeling!

It looks fantastic, exactly as I imagined it. The cover (my design) looks even better than I expected.
To say I am over the moon is an understatement. Publication is just around the corner. I just have to check this proof for errors in layout etc. Once I am happy, I give the go ahead to my printer Lightning Source. Then it will be somewhere between two and four weeks before Veiled in Shadows is available on Amazon, The Book Depository and to wholesalers.

Of course at that point the hard work of marketing my baby begins.

Wow, amazing. A bit scary too, but amazing!

News!! (and a Request)

As promised a little while ago I have some news of my book Veiled in Shadows.
Essentially my news is fairly straight forward.

Finally, after much hair tearing, endless delays caused but the intrusion of other aspects of my life, going back over my MS I don’t know how many times, I have all my files for the book ready for uploading to the printing company Lightning Source.

Notice I say “printing company” rather than “self-publishing company”. That is because Lightning Source is plain and simple a printer.

Unlike many vanity presses masquerading as “self-publishing” Lighting Source is a printer. They don’t try to sell you various “services” to “improve” your manuscript. They don’t sell you packages to market your book.

You have to do it all: editing; layout; cover; uploading the files for the cover and body; supplying an ISBN. Also, you set the retail price and decide on wholesale discount and returns policy. In short you are the publisher. (Some of you will remember I registered a business as a small publisher a while ago)

After that they list the book on Ingram (of which they are a subsidiary) so book stores can order it and they make it available to mobs like Amazon and The Book Depository (in Aussie English a mob is not a group of gangsters but any group).

So after tonight I have to wait for Lightning Source to send me a “proof” copy of the bound book to make a final check. Once I approve that (assuming I don’t need any last minute changes) I am in the market.

So that is my big news. I am on the way!!!!

This is such a relief after far too much time bogged down in the last few details.
I am really excited, in fact I should probably say ecstatic about having got this far.

I have a little fantasy that once this all happens I will be able to spend more time working on my WIP. In reality I guess that if I want Veiled in Shadows to work I am quite likely to have less time to spend on the WIP.
I am going to have to market my baby myself. And that is going to be a big job!

The trick over the coming months is to come up with clever ways to increase my visibility. In terms of efficiency that effort has to be mainly targeted on the web.
In comparison to markets overseas, in Oz the market is tiny (there are only 20 million of us in the whole country).

SO now for my request.
As I said I have to come up with ways of marketing my little piece.
Now last night I came up with a few words that I hope are punchy, brief and raise interest in the book.

But I am no marketing expert, so I was hoping to ask all my blogosphere friends to do me a big favour and have a look and comment.

Here we go:

In a world divided by conflict.
In a storm that consumes friend and foe alike.


In a war fought in the shadows…
those who live may do so at the cost of their humanity.


Two lovers united by passion
…and divided by hate.


As they fight for survival…
their most implacable foe might be one another.


What do you think?
Would that attract your interest?
What kind of book does it sound like?
And are there any improvements I could make?

Finally a couple of piccies I took yesterday arvo/evening.

A rainbow in the Yarra Valley
After so many years of drought it is a real luxury to see the decent rain continuing past the occasional downpour. A rainbow is just icing!

The Sunset over Yarra Glen

I look Very Hard For Nothing.

I swear I am getting square eyes.

I have been doing final preparation of my manuscript and cover of Veiled in Shadows.
I have decided to run with Lightning Source as my printer. They are more than competitive in terms of cost per book and they give some advantages in terms of distribution.

Like CreateSpace, the Amazon subsidiary, they have an easy path onto Amazon listings. A presence on Amazon is a vital part of my planned marketing campaign, and my main target will be the American market because it is so big in comparison to anywhere else.

Yet, if I want to sell Veiled here in Oz (or in the UK) Amazon is too expensive. It can cost as much (or even more) than the price of a book to airfreight a paperback from the US to Oz. Lightning Source is an Ingram International subsidiary, which means the potential of international distribution.

I don’t really expect many (if any) shopfront resellers will pick up Veiled, not unless I can get some real sales and interest happening. More to the point, from my perspective, is if Veiled is available at Ingram (which it will be) I may get it listed by the Book Depository. The big advantage of the UK based Book Depository is they don’t charge postage for air freight. And that’s anywhere in the world!

They are well worth checking out, I buy nearly all my books from them. Their prices are competitive with Amazon and no freight cost.

Now I am digressing from my square eyes. I have to submit my MS to Lightning Source (LS) as a PDF. No problem I thought, I already have converted it to PDF using some open source software.
Wrong! LS will only accept PDFs formatted on Adobe Acrobat.

So after a lot of hassle I manage to organise a copy of Acrobat. All good.

Wrong again!
My MS, which happily converted to a PDF using the other software, wouldn’t convert with Acrobat. One of the fonts I have used wouldn’t embed in the PDF using Acrobat (fonts have to be embedded so the printer can access them and I was using an odd one for a few pages of “letters” in the book) .

OK change the font to something similar that will embed.
Still won’t work. Acrobat reports the dodgy font is still in the document.

Much rending of clothes and tearing of hair!

When I calmed down I began a search of the MS to find wherever the font was hiding. No luck on a hard copy. So I begin trawling through an electronic copy. I can’t find it anywhere.

I realise with dismay I am probably looking for a few stray characters (of the font variety, not even Acrobat has taken a dislike to my villains).

No luck. I break the MS into separate chapters and test the most likely (the ones where I know I used the font).

Hallelujah I narrow it down to one chapter and scour that with a fine tooth comb.

Still no luck.

Then, as I contemplate retyping this chapter in a blank document, I look one last time.
I find it, a single solitary space in the wrong font. No wonder I couldn’t see it. I was effectively looking for NOTHING.

Just for your enlightenment I have included the offending space. Here it is. See there? There in front of the last carriage return. See it?

No, neither could I.

So finally last night I got the whole MS into an Acrobat PDF.

Ahh, sighs of relief all round.

Except now, I have to do another line by line check to make sure no errors in formatting have crept in with the change of font and PDF software.

At least this time I’ll be looking for things I can see.

I hope.



Now a totally random piccie, this time from my archive.
Another variety of Banksia
From the leaves I’d never guess this was a banksia, but these beautiful flowers are very distinctive.

More on Self Publishing

More browsing the net about self publishing. More thinking.

A couple of self publishers Neil Slade and Morris Rosenthal talk about using Lightning Source as a POD printer and selling through Amazon.

This is all looking very interesting in terms of reasonable quality and hopefully reasonably priced manufacture and distribution of a finished book.

All I would have to do is sort out; editing, layout, cover design, and marketing.
Sweet!

Actually, it really doesn’t seem too daunting except for the marketing bit.
I have already had the book copyedited and a full edit doesn’t look too terrifyingly expensive.

Of course I could edit myself.
Hah! That is laughable. Am I the only one who sees what I think is there rather than what is? At least when it comes to my own work, all I can see is what I think I have written, this makes self correcting almost impossible. As a side to this please forgive me for all the typos I no doubt have on this blog.

Cover design, do it myself? Start with a stock photo and build something in Photoshop? Maybe not, but I do know a few artists.

Marketing how on Earth do I do that? The Internet is obviously is the way to go, but how? I have done some press releases and a minute amount of development work seeking sponsorship for various charities I have worked for, but a full fledged marketing campaign?

An awful lot to think about.
My brain hurts.

Time for brain easing photos

This was taken July 2005, I wonder if anyone can guess where?

Doesn’t it look summery, just the thing for a cold winter day in Melbourne.

And just for a but of fun:
Does anyone have any idea of how this boat

Might have got to here?