Notes From the Lab (jan11)
I’m using this blog as productive procrastination since I’m in the middle of final revisions for Guilty. I like talking shop, so bear with me since I don’t have a podcast.
Back in November, I released the “Expanded Edition” of Gorgeous. By now, that title is ten years old. The expanded edition was less an acknowledgement of its age than a test run. Dig, if you will, a picture …
Writing Guilty necessitated major updates to Gorgeous since it was so raggedy compared to what I’ve been working on. The goal for both titles was to get everything in print and widely distributed with owned ISBNs, which wasn’t the case when Gorgeous was straight to Kindle Unlimited many moons ago. After making those updates I temporarily sold the digital file through Squarespace’s commerce features. I just parked it there as a test run. Now, there’s a fun lady I’d encounter in a bar after work. She’s an artist who also works in the food hospitality world, so we had a lot to talk about. She was adamant that I had a print version of my book.
I wasn’t ready; I didn’t own my ISBNs, which are a major component of retail and print distribution. I wondered if I could just do a “quick” print product as proof of work and settled on publishing directly through Amazon using their free ISBN. Only thing is, it had to be a different product from what I planned for wide retail. I decided on a larger trim size plus “bonus content.” I used it to test Amazon’s print quality and upload flow. I also tested Bookfunnel and Payhip integration on the digital side. That’s why that “expanded” product exists. It being an anniversary edition is all happenstance.
Fast forward to today: I own my ISBNs (a lot of ISBNs) and was able to publish the intended version for wide retail. I’m not only on Amazon (people have valid concerns about Amazon on all sides), but B&N and Bookshop. Next are Books-A-Million and Allstora and whoever else picks it up by way of refreshed data sets. Readers can also order the print version directly from the manufacturer at a discount and skip retail entirely. This benefits both me and you.
In the meantime, I’m still getting Guilty print-ready, monitoring my retail presence, committing to a holiday title and getting my product pages as professional as possible with formats and retail links unified. It’s been tedious but necessary and I trust things will land exactly where they’re meant to.
-RC