My tether’s made of leather so I’m not about to fall here

Well, I did a lot of learning yesterday, and I need to order a proof copy of the completed book from lulu.  My, my, aren’t they expensive?  And clever, too!

For those playing along at home, if you’re willing to do your own fulfillment, it really is worth your time to seek out a local printer and order up 200 (or wherever their Big Price Break Point lies).  Depending on the number of pages and extra goodies in terms of color that you want, you ought to be able to easily halve lulu’s price per.

The “distribution to Amazon, BN, and others!” requires the purchase of a “distribution package” — I haven’t tracked down how much that is, but the cost of that is added on top of the manufacturing cost of each book.  The manufacturing cost of Barnburner (130-page digest-sized perfect bound) at the moment stands at $4.48.  That goes directly to lulu.  If I (the, yanno, author/production department) want a piece of the action, I need to add $$ on top of that.  Plus whatever other extra costs are hidden in the small print.  Which starts to add up to an expensive little mystery novel.

So, that!

Regarding the Big List of Words, as requests seem to have petered out, and that’s Some Big list, I’m freezing requests NOW.  Steve and I will be thinking about how to proceed in a sanity-preserving manner.  I expect we’ll break the list down into little lists and post them as can.  Our intent is to at least begin before the end of the year.

This morning, the Cat Eating Machine and I have some bidness to conclude; I’ll order in that proof.  After lunch, it’s all George, all the time.

Hope everybody has a good day!

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

Proof ordered.

To the folks who asked if I had thought about CreateSpace/Lightning Source, the answer is — yes.  But, Amazon is slowing down delivery of Lightning Source books (discussion here), because, um, they can.  And CreateSpace is owned by Amazon and I’d really rather not put all of my eggs in Amazon’s basket (plus, I want to list on BN, too).  So, Lulu looked like a good compromise position.  I note and will look at Booklocker — thank roseaponi for the link — but not this evening.

In other news, the Cat Eating Machine (aka the vacuum cleaner) and I have concluded our bidness.  I note that Scrabble headed for the high ground, as is her habit, but Mozart — Mozart has apparently read Hex’s paper, published in the Journal of Proper Feline Behavior, in which he argues that a Supreme Disregard for the antics of the Cat Eating Machine ultimately nets more points of Cool, and has taken up this new philosophy.  He remained in his cat hammock — asleep — even though I vacuumed right under him.

Pretty dern Cool, I say.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment in town with a person who I hope can (and will) answer my Very Simple Question, then to the gym, and home again.

Who’s got something exciting planned for Monday?

Progress on the Book Presently known as George
53,427 of 100,000 OR 53% complete

“That,” he said in a fierce whisper, “is mine.”

 

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.