Ten Pages to Go
One Trick Pony here. More of the same.
** ISBN numbers came yesterday, and now one appears on the copyright page of the book. With the ISBN, I could then retrieve the bar code (EAN 10 digit AND new 13 digit variety) and put it on the back cover of the book. Took me some time to figure why I couldn't insert the bar image: it was a tiff (but after that, in parenthesis I finally noticed, it said BITMAP.) The AHA moment: I converted it to grayscale and handled it just fine from there on.
** Yesterday, I got back contact prints of the five small black and white images inside the book. Clarity: great. Contast: not so great. Image levels show full black and it appears so on the screen; on the photopaper contact prints, the blacks are washed out and limpid. Will talk to someone at Edwards Brothers later this morning about this.
** Have been authenticated by PayPal and have attempted to wade through that very complex relationship. A button is up here in a rudimentary fashion, but I'm not sure what's happening. The log-in page still says I need to complete the set-up for Website Payments Standard. At least I'm dealing with these glitches before I really need them reliably in place.
** Question: If I establish a relationship with Barnes and Noble, does this mean I CAN'T sell the books directly (in competition with B&N)? I have homework.
** I will finish my last edit of the text by 9 this morning, then go back through one more time for a visual inspection to be sure there are no screw-ups in pagination and layout. Then, I suppose I'll ship the files off in as final and perfect a shape as I'm going to get them. Hitting the SEND button will be like firing off a manned experimental rocket into space. Will it attain orbit? Will there be enough fuel to get it safely back on the ground again? And will it land softly or crash nose first with its tailfins against the sky, embedded LooneyTunes in the desert with Wile E Coyote standing by, scratching his head?
This is it, you'll hit the heights
And oh what heights we'll hit
On with the show this is it
Comments
Wow, it makes my head hurt just watching *you* do this stuff. So many details! I'm both proud & pleased as punch that you're doing this: so many mortal folks would be scared away, I think, by all these details.
I'll definitely have to pick your brain when you're through with this. Right now self-publishing seems daunting, so it's good to know that mere mortals *can* do it.
Posted by: Lorianne | March 23, 2006 10:00 AM
I wouldn't think B&N could restrict your selling to their store. We have a Borders Books and a Barnes & Noble within a mile of each other, here in SoCal, and of course all the bestsellers are for sale at each store.
Good luck with the black and whites!
Posted by: Kathy Barron | March 23, 2006 11:01 AM
Lorianne said it.
Pleased as punch. (Or should we say "as PBR"?) We will have to share one in celebration this summer, eh? Congrats, Dad. We're all so proud of you.
Posted by: nate | March 23, 2006 10:06 PM
If you need help with Paypal let me know. You could make a trip over here and I can set it up for you fully, or vice versa.
Sean
Posted by: Sean Pecor | March 24, 2006 6:20 AM