Game Plans and Other Progress

[rolanni]

kinzel and I have brainstormed a bridge that will get us handily across that ravine and connect up with the next bit of known story, happily using a character who had promised to be on their way, but who I didn't realize could have actually by now arrived. So, ist goot and I proceed toward the finish while kinzel deals with the first 94,212 words and the excitement thereto. This will hopefully net us a completed manuscript in reasonable shape on or very near to March 31, which ist also goot, as kinzel's dental adventure begins in mid-April.

On the signing-and-mailing books front, we've got 131 orders yet to fill. Or -- we've filled the pre-orders through the letter Q (pause while Scrabble jumps in my lap to perform Supervisory Head-butts and other morale building exercises) -- remembering that this year's list was delivered from Meisha Merlin in alphabetical order, rather than the order-received order of years past.

B&N brick-and-mortars remain adamant in their belief that Crystal Soldier is a graphic novel, thus most B&Ns are not stocking it (this information gained through a field study performed by members of the Friends of Liad). They will -- according to reports, grudgingly -- special-order a single copy of the book if a customer insists. The few B&Ns who have ordered in a copy or two of Crystal Soldier are stocking it in the graphic novel section.

Several indie SF/F bookstores are carrying Crystal Soldier: Uncle Hugo's; Borderlands; Mysterious Galaxy; Pandemonium Books; Dreamhaven. All of these stores do mail order.

Comments

[jslove.livejournal.com]

I went looking yesterday.

The B&Ns in eastern Massachusetts all do not stock Crystal Soldier, and the guy at the one I was at coolly informed me that it was from some two-bit, insignificant publisher (Meisha Merlin), and they didn't bother with that kind of graphic novel. Verrry helpful. I was already negatively impressed by their gate-keeping the query terminals; you can't look up anything yourself.

So I walked to the nearby Borders. This may be more interesting. The self-service terminals show the book correctly, but the Framingham store and the nearby stores all show no stock. So I went to the desk and asked. Although the catalog I used correctly shows that it had a release date of 2/2005, with the correct authors and category, the version of Books-in-Print that they could query showed a publish date of 2/2004. The people there couldn't explain it, but they said the database appeared to be screwed up. I could speculate that it wasn't ordered because they didn't think it was new. Did you know about this problem?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

it was from some two-bit, insignificant publisher (Meisha Merlin), and they didn't bother with that kind of graphic novel.

Wow. What a sweetie.

the version of Books-in-Print that they could query showed a publish date of 2/2004. The people there couldn't explain it, but they said the database appeared to be screwed up. I could speculate that it wasn't ordered because they didn't think it was new. Did you know about this problem?

Nope, that's a Whole New Problem, and I will let the publisher know -- thank you!

This poor book is Doomed....

[jslove.livejournal.com]

Even B&N said they could special-order the book for me. I had my doubts that they would be able to process the order, but they are just doubts. I got the brush-off when I asked when it would be in.

At Borders, I asked when it would be in, and they told me that, as far as they could tell, there was no order outstanding, and that until/unless that changed, never. But they could special-order it, too.

I told them that, if I were going to mail-order the book, I would order it from Larry Smith Books and get a signed copy. And Larry should be back to Columbus from Lunacon tonight or tomorrow, so that is what I intend to do.

Severely delayed is not Doomed. I hope.