The Deixis Press Weekly - Issue #26
This is definitely still a weekly newsletter. DEFINITELY.
The thing is . . .
Sometimes I have a week that isn’t that inspiring, where it breaks down like this:
Monday
Took the kids to school. Came home. Sat in front of InDesign for several hours. Created half of a book.
Tuesday
Didn’t take the kids to school. Stayed in my pajamas in front of InDesign for several hours. Created the last half of a book. Scrambled to put some clothes on in time to fetch the children from school. (We haven’t gone full pickup PJs just yet.)
Wednesday
Had a meeting with an extremely kind and charming person who runs her own niche press. She’s doing so well she can afford an office space. I want an office space. I can barely afford the desk I’m sitting at. I guess I’d better listen to her advice. (It’s about finding a distributor.) Came home and began typesetting another book, including some light editorial.
Thursday
Continued typesetting and light editorial. Felt sorry for myself in the spaces between. Fear and imposter syndrome have no particular timetable; sometimes they turn up even more insistently when you are actively working to do the kind of stuff that should dispel them for good. Also, the disgust with self? Yes, self, how dare you do the things you like that you are also good at?
Friday
Met with my designer and finalized THREE ENTIRE BOOK COVERS because she’s a genius.
And the ultimate takeaway from all this?
I mean, did I learn anything on these days that was important to document for you, dear reader? I suppose the idea of a proper distributor is something to flesh out.
The major upside of a real distributor, which I didn’t fully realize before, is that they go and speak to places where they believe they can place your book for real impact, which may equal better sales. This is very different from POD distribution, where there is simply a catalogue of available books that can be whipped up in no time at all when someone wants one.
The major downside of employing a distributor is the upfront cost. You work with a printer to create a print run (how many? 200 copies? 500? 1000? You pay per unit (each copy); you pay less per unit the more units you buy–you know, basic economy stuff. So it’s no surprise that you have to take an educated guess on how many copies you think you’ll sell, which equals financial risk. Oh, and most stores/shops want the right to return books. More risk. This is the kind of stuff you avoid with POD, but you also end up without physical distribution.
Then again, how many books have you personally NOT bought in a bookstore or a supermarket? The answer is: all of them. Sure, you’ve bought a handful, but if you look at percentages, you have personally not bought approaching 100% of the books that have stared you in the face from a shop shelf. So drive-by buying, while it’s a thing, isn’t really, uh, a thing. I need publicity more than distribution, which is why I employ a publicist. But having both would give me, perhaps, a slight edge. If I can afford the print run. And if a distributor will take me on.
So why are you telling me this on a Tuesday?
Lucky you! This is another one of those weeks. I have a major undertaking (finishing Genevieve’s typesetting; her cover is sorted but I need a final page count to be able to generate the template for it to be fully completed), and the rest is just little chores.
I’ve got some promos to sort out (look out for a Some Rise By Sin dress-up competition), some reading to finish, some info to put together for the Workshop of Filthy Creation audiobook producer, and the ever-present world of literary prizes to comb through to find if I can get my 2021 books in anyone’s sights, or if I should go back in time and delay their release to 2022 (prizes are another Thing I Have Learned about, but they are whole nother newsletter). The rest, though, is just typesetting. My Big Fave. I do really love it.
So, off to it.
Yours,
Angel