Coming Soon: Dazed and Raving...
...in the Undercurrents
I have finally gotten a go-ahead to produce a collection of my newspaper columns. That is, I think I made enough of a nuisance of myself that the Powers-That-Be pointed me toward the street and said, "Go forth and do what thou wilt. Just don't embarrass us." So that's why I've been kind of absent for a week or two.
The collection is full of Century stuff, including some that have not appeared as entries here. The cover art I'm submitting is a John Russo cartoon of me on a scooter; it ran with a "Bay Book" column I wrote for the Local/State section of The News Herald in 2001. Instead of an author photo on the back cover, I'm submitting a color portrait of me that John drew a couple of years ago.
I've spent the last couple of weeks adding columns from 2004 (this project began in early 2003) as well as updating my info on various publishing alternatives, narrowing the field, and making a Hail Mary -- not really. As I'm up-fronting the funds to do this, and can't afford a printing house's requirements (i.e., thousands of dollars to fill my garage with boxes of books that may not sell), I chose to use iUniverse.com, a print-on-demand publisher that will list the work with Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com, and put two copies in the hands of Ingram so that it is shown as "in stock," rather than "backorder only" and can be purchased by bookstores. (That's the idea, anyway.) If all goes well, I might have it out by Christmas, but January is more likely.
Not that I have any misconceptions about the appeal of this thing. I suspect it will be widely loved by those in my immediate family, a few friends, and maybe a handful of regular readers who find it a "novel" item. (I dream that it will strike a chord with someone who will give me billions to write some more stuff. Hey, a guy can dream, right?) Trusth is, I'll have trouble getting it into Books-a-Million because of their distribution requirements, but I plan to have a few signing parties around the area and sell it direct. We'll see. I'll keep those of you out there listening in updated.
Wish me luck.
Peace.
Tony
7 Comments:
Ain't I special? I have an ISBN number!
Title:
Dazed and Raving in the Undercurrents: Selected Columns from The News Herald
ISBN: 0-595-33694-9
PDF EISBN: 0-595-78490-9
While at a Freedom Communications management training conference last week, I received the proofs of the cover and interior copy block for the book. I proofed them over the weekend and sent revisions this morning. Completed steps to production remaining: 1. I'll let you know when you can view it all online and where to look.
This was posted on my iUniverse account for the "Undercurrents" collection this morning:
"Current Status: In Production"
That should be a period of a week to 10 days. Then we should plan to see some books...
This just in from my publishing assistant at iUniverse:
"Dear Mr. Simmons:
"Thank you for the email and proof form. I apologize for not responding to you sooner.
"You really did an excellent job with noting your corrections. I have reviewed and forwarded it on to the designers who will make the changes according to the details you have provided. Should there be any questions or concerns, I will be in contact with you before preceding any further with the corrections. This completes the proof stage of production and your chance to make corrections has now passed. No new author corrections can be introduced after this stage.
"As soon as the updated proofs are returned, I will verify the corrections to ensure the changes have been made as noted from the proof form and complete the books' production.
"You will be hearing from me once again to finalize completion of your book.
"Thank you,
"Jon D. McWilliams,
"iUniverse Publishing Services Assistant"
And my status info at iUniverse now says the following:
"Current Status: Book Production in Progress ... Production usually takes from 4-6 weeks."
(That doesn't scare me. The original time from submission to author proof stage was said to be 4-6 weeks, and it was closer to 10 days.)
So today I got an email from my publishing sales assistant dude that said, in part, the following:
"Congratulations with having your book published! I have verified the corrections to ensure the changes have been made as noted from the proof form. "Dazed and Raving in the Undercurrents" has finished the production process and will be on the iUniverse website bookstore and available for sale within the next 2 weeks."
...
"Your book information is being filed with Bowkers Books-In-Print and with two of the largest book distributors, Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor, to get your title listed with all major online and traditional bookstores. Each site lists the title differently, however, your title should appear for sale on the sites within 4-8 weeks. Once your title is listed on those sites your book will be available to order from any bookstore that has a subscription to the Ingram and Baker & Taylor."
...
"This 4-8 week time frame allows for our primary printer to set up your book for order fulfillment, as well as allowing for the distribution channel to make it available to the other sites and for them to have time to add your title to their catalogs. It has been our experience that Booksamillion.com and BarnesandNoble.com are usually among the first to display our titles. Amazon is usually one of the last. These companies update their sites independently of each other and iUniverse, and we are not able to control how quickly they add books to their catalogs. Your book will eventually be listed at all of these sites."
My iUniverse account now lists the collection as:
"Current Status: Ready For Catalog"
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