Hilltown Done
Jun. 17th, 2007 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafocI have received my draft copy of Hilltown, and I OKd it. If you want to buy a copy of the book, or the .pdf download, there are three options available to you at http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=933815 You can also get there via my website at http://www.flankers-tale.com
There's a .pdf download, a paperback, and a hardcover.
Now, if you want the hardcover, the best thing to do would probably be to order it from your local bookstore. They can get it for half the list price Lulu forces me to charge on their website. $18 plus a reasonable markup for the bookstore would be fair, in my opinion. $36 is not. Not that I would mind the $13 in profit I get if you buy the book at suggested retail via Lulu, but I ain't going to take it without warning you. You have been warned.
The rest of the things I get my usual $2 on. Or $1.98, if you ordered the hardcover through your local bookstore, but who is counting?
The only problem is that you can't order the hardcover through your local bookstore yet. I have approved the draft copy, but they have to send it to their distributor, who has to check through and make sure I didn't do something that makes it unsuitable for publishing. (It turns out this is more complex than I had thought, so perhaps Lulu wasn't jerking me around after all. The distributor actually prints out books using their own printers, so the fact that the book as printed by Lulu was OK doesn't automagically mean it will work; Lulu isn't set up for fast production, so it accepts just about ANY features of the .pdf standard, but the distributor's high speed printers only accept a simplified subset.) If there are problems I'll have to revise, but I can handle it.
And then they have to get the book into Bowker's Books in Print catalog, so that your local bookstore can find it to order it. It is going to take up to six weeks to get there.
But. I think HILLTOWN IS DONE. I can archive it. I can make safety copies to store here, in my office, and to mail to the longsuffering Athelind and Quelonzia. It is done.
I've never finished a book before.
It is at once a joyous occasion, and a sad one. Sending one of my little mind-children out into the world to seek his fortune. Good luck, little guy.
There's a .pdf download, a paperback, and a hardcover.
Now, if you want the hardcover, the best thing to do would probably be to order it from your local bookstore. They can get it for half the list price Lulu forces me to charge on their website. $18 plus a reasonable markup for the bookstore would be fair, in my opinion. $36 is not. Not that I would mind the $13 in profit I get if you buy the book at suggested retail via Lulu, but I ain't going to take it without warning you. You have been warned.
The rest of the things I get my usual $2 on. Or $1.98, if you ordered the hardcover through your local bookstore, but who is counting?
The only problem is that you can't order the hardcover through your local bookstore yet. I have approved the draft copy, but they have to send it to their distributor, who has to check through and make sure I didn't do something that makes it unsuitable for publishing. (It turns out this is more complex than I had thought, so perhaps Lulu wasn't jerking me around after all. The distributor actually prints out books using their own printers, so the fact that the book as printed by Lulu was OK doesn't automagically mean it will work; Lulu isn't set up for fast production, so it accepts just about ANY features of the .pdf standard, but the distributor's high speed printers only accept a simplified subset.) If there are problems I'll have to revise, but I can handle it.
And then they have to get the book into Bowker's Books in Print catalog, so that your local bookstore can find it to order it. It is going to take up to six weeks to get there.
But. I think HILLTOWN IS DONE. I can archive it. I can make safety copies to store here, in my office, and to mail to the longsuffering Athelind and Quelonzia. It is done.
I've never finished a book before.
It is at once a joyous occasion, and a sad one. Sending one of my little mind-children out into the world to seek his fortune. Good luck, little guy.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-18 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-20 11:14 pm (UTC)Hmmm
Date: 2007-07-13 03:20 am (UTC)This is all to say that I can relate to your situation.
I hesitate to read what you have posted on your website, because you probably would prefer if I buy it. I know I would.
Would you be so kind as to post a one sentence summary of what your book is about on your LJ sometime? I mean, "it's a science fiction novel" would be enough. I have no idea what "Hilltown" is about. Is it nonfiction? Fiction? A western?
Re: Hmmm
Date: 2007-07-13 10:55 pm (UTC)I'd be happy if you bought it. But the important thing is to have people read it and enjoy it. I wrote Hilltown after I became so depressed about getting published that I pretty much gave up on writing for several years. I wrote Hilltown to remind myself that I write for the fun of it, and to have something to give readers to make their worlds a little happier.
I don't do this for money. I needed to remind myself of that.
Read it on the web site. If you want, you can buy it- there's a "store" tab at the top of the web page. The .pdf file download is pretty reasonable- $2.50 from Lulu- and is hopefully a lot nicer to read than the text files I could put on the website.
And oh, by the way, if you're worried about being cheap on me by taking the .pdf instead of a paper copy-- I make just as much profit from the .pdf as I do from a paperback, and two cents more than I'd make if you bought the hardcover through your local bookstore.
If you bought the hardcover from Lulu's site I'd make a fortune off it. But please don't do that. Their price on that website is abso-fricking-lutely ridiculous. Ticks me off they insist on marking it up so high. Trust me, I'd lower the price to match my standard profit for the other things, if I could.