The Deixis Press Weekly - Issue #8
The Deixis Press Weekly - Issue #8
Two months of Deixis Press in existence as a concept! One month in existence as an entity! Two … no, THREE authors in hand (and a fourth likely imminent–watch this space). Two books proofread and (mostly) typeset. Two book covers drafted. 10 ISBNs obtained (this number was a mistake, on reflection, as you are supposed to get as many as you think you’ll need in 5 years, oops, oh well). It’s beginning to look like a real publishing company …
Tuesday, 4 May
The fourth is with me today as I clear up a load of admin, pay my freelancers, and generally come to the conclusion, as I have many times in my life, that Evie from Out Of This World had the right attitude concerning time, and that I should look into whether I can claim any Antarean ancestry.
I’m delighted to tell you that a third author, Adam Saint, has come into the Deixis Press fold. Adam has written a positively nail-biting financial techno-thriller, and I will probably get that one out the door and into your eyeholes in early 2022. (More to come on that front; I’ve got to get my two 2021 books going first, of course.)
I’m also in the reading/discussion/redrafting phase of another potential thriller from a VERY exciting author (whom I mentioned briefly last week), but nothing is firm yet, so we will see how it pans out.
None of this affects my upcoming open submissions window at the beginning of June. I don’t know how many books I want to publish in 2022, but I am pretty sure it will be more than two.
Wednesday, 5 May
Some Rise By Sin came back from the proofreader yesterday, and my book designer has had the audacity (!) to ask me for the barcodes that go on the books, since a finalized cover will be pretty much all that stands between me and the printers for both books by the end of the week. So I head over to Nielsen to try to remember what I did when I bought the ISBNs.
It turns out that, while I have my ISBNs, I haven’t registered them, aha. So in trying to do that, I read the phrase “We recommend independent publishers and self-published authors use our Title Editor service and if you have purchased your ISBN(s) via the Nielsen ISBN Store you will have already been asked to register.”–well, no, actually I have not “been asked” [when? by whom?!] to … register? Register for … the Nielsen Title Editor service?
So I go to the Nielsen Title Editor service–oh, ok, a totally different website? and I have to fill out another online form? But it will verify who I am using an ISBN I provide as an example? Ok then …
The first snag: NIELSEN’s Title Editor service, the ENTITY IN CHARGE of pretty much every ISBN you’ll see in the UK from an indie press, does not recognize “.press” as a valid domain for an email address.
Fortunately for me, I also have a backup Deixis Press gmail address, but whyyyyyy. Anyway, I register using the gmail address [will that be verified against the email address they have for my press, which is different? will it therefore fail??] aaaand … learn that actually I haven’t registered yet; I’ll be registered in five to 1o working days when someone sends me a username and a password …
I mean yes that is literally the most publishing thing ever: being halfheartedly online, but never fully online, simply recognizing that online is a thing, but it’s not our thing, is it, darling?
Almost certainly, Leonard. Almost certainly.
Now, this doesn’t have to be a problem; I can go ahead and generate barcodes given I have all of the information I need to do so. It’s just that, for my own peace of mind, I’d like to be able to test the barcodes that I do generate. I had thought that I could rectify my mistake, get my books properly registered today, test the barcodes, pop them over to Libby, and be that much further down the line to PREORDER PARTYTIME, but hahahahaha I forgot this is publishing.
Thursday, 6 May
Today I met up with Libby in person to talk covers. We worked excruciatingly hard all day–well, I made Libby work excruciatingly hard. For her sake, it must be rather difficult having her client stand behind her going, “Ooh, do that again, but do it in green. No, I liked it better before. Actually, yeah, no, green. Wait can you just abandon this idea altogether? I’ve thought of something else,” all day long. But despite me she did some incredible work, previews of which I am going to show you here:
I’m also pleased to tell you that my printer/distributor generates the barcodes I need as part of my cover template, so that isn’t a worry (that is, they will be totally legit unlike some of the back-alley barcode generators I had been considering)–so YET AGAIN I’m side-eyeing Nielsen and wondering how they justify charging people for barcodes. And not just a little–A LOT.
Friday, 7 May
I’m going to immerse myself in the distinct, weird, obsessive pleasure that is typesetting for the next few days. But that’s not the important thing. THIS, today, is the important thing:
I got James Kinsley’s author endorsement for Richard Gadz’s THE WORKSHOP OF FILTHY CREATION in my inbox last night while I was suffering from an unusually prolonged fit of Imposter Syndrome combined with Fear of Failure, so it’s safe to say that it came along at exactly the right time. It’s also a tremendous endorsement–I couldn’t have asked for more.
This is a good place to note that James’s book, PLAYTIME’S OVER, is being published by Propolis later this year. Will I be providing a pre-order link when I have it?
The gif says it all.
Yours,
Angel