Thought Patterns

Regal Crest Enterprises, my publisher, has negotiated a contract with Bella Books and Distribution. Bella is the distributor for 13 lesbian presses, including their own line of books.

Having RCE now part of this distributor means when GLBT friendly bookstores make their orders, they will have access to RCE books via the website and the catalogs. They did before, only now they won't have to play distributor hop. We all like one-stop shopping, eh?

The book publishing and distribution game gives me headaches and threatens already endangered brain cells. It is not just a simple matter of printing them and sending them out and getting money. It is about sales, marketing, distribution, and waiting a long time to see financial gain for the efforts.

See? Headache now.

Note: Those who use Firefox vs IE (shudder) will experience some menu problems with the new Bella Books and Distribution website. While the site looks freakin' great, I hope they are able to resolve the issue.

Oh, and while you can buy books from the Bella website, I recommend getting them from Star Crossed Productions, a bookstore, instead.

Linkage:
Bella Books and Distributing
– Publishers listing
– RCE listing
Star Crossed Productions

Well, sort of.

THE Lee Lynch and two others (I only know them as Nel and Sue) have published a cookbook aptly titled The Butch Cook Book (ISBN 0-9792701-0-9). It is scheduled to be released mid-January.

The book is part recipes, part hints, and all butch. Consider it a How-To book for butches in the unknown realm of the house known as the kitchen.

I've got a few recipes and some hints/advice in the book. Butch Girls Can Fix Anything is quoted several times in the book, too!

The book has a website that will have more announcements as the time for release gets closer. So keep your eye on ButchCookBook.com!

Head nod to Georgeanna Hancock over at A Writer's Edge: The US Copyright office is lowering copyright fees (from $45 to $35) but raising fees for "collections" such as songs and poems.

The work known as Butch Girls Can Fix Anything holds a copyright. This copyright was bought by my publisher and I hold the copyright. It is common practice among publishers to pay for the copyright. If your potential publisher doesn't, you must ask yourself: "Why not? If they can't afford the $45 (now $35), what else can't they afford? Do I want a publisher who can't/won't do this?"

Some author-y stuff:

My bio over at Regal Crest has been updated. I like this version better.

Butch Girls Can Fix Anything (BGCFA) is on Regal Crest's best seller's list. (I heard a rumor it is the best seller for Jan. and Feb.) BGCFA has gotten two reviews, one thumbs-down and one thumbs-up, over at Amazon.

My publisher is chomping at the bit (better a bit than my ass!) for another book.

Irony lives: I had changed and hated the plot (of BG2) a year ago and I still hate it.

Some Real Life stuff:

We have three goldfish now - Sumo, Kiko, and Sake. They are in a 25 gallon tank and loving the space.

My friend Lew isn't doing so well with chemo.

All our critters (6 dogs, 3 cats, 3 fish, umpteen snails) are doing well. No more fights.

My voice is back; my cough is still around; my nose is clear; my ears still hurt; the nausea has decreased; and I am still on those horse choking anti-biotics.

Lorna had an MRI done to see what was causing the pain and tingling in her neck and hands. Arthritis in her lower neck, the nurse said. PT to start soon. We were sure it was going to be worse.

Another informal review from, of all people, my sister-in-law's mother. Betty said she wanted to read the book because she knows the author. She loved it. She said there were parts where she was laughing that other people might not have, merely because she knows me.

Another good part about Betty's review is how she got the book. She went to her local Barnes and Noble but it wasn't on the shelf. Not that they didn't carry it, but that it had sold out. Of course, sold out could have meant they sold their two copies, but that's not the point. One, my book was on the shelf of a Barnes and Noble near where I used to live. Two, they sold all they had.

As soon as I am over this cold, I have got to get serious again about promoting this book. Although, it is doing a good job of promoting itself.

Many people believe it is the title.

I'm working on developing a title for BG2 and not having much luck with it. I need to come up with the synopsis (even though the book isn't written) and perhaps get the title from that.

I keep an eye on the ranks, even though they don't mean much. The other day the book was not even on the charts for the top 100. Here are the rankings for Feb 3rd, 2007 @ 3:00pm:

GLBT: #19
GLBT/Literature: #12
GLBT/Fiction: #12
GLBT/Fiction/Lesbian: #9
GLBT/Fiction/Romance: #9
GLBT/Fiction/Romance/Lesbian: #8

No one has reviewed it yet on its page for Amazon. I figure no review is better than a bad one, right? I need to ask my publisher how the sales are going so far.

I am a rabid fan of the comic strip, For Better or For Worse. I read it every day and miss it when I don't. I've followed this strip for, like, ever.

Just before I was off-line back in late December, the son's (Michael) house burned. Everyone got out fine, though. He had just finished his book and had gone downstairs when he smelled the smoke. After getting his family out, he went back up to the attic to get his laptop.

They just got some more stuff from the house that was salvageable and they are living at his parents house. So, it's not been long since the house burned and he said "The End" on his book.

Then, in yesterday's strip, he hears back from a publisher. They want to publish his book. Oh, and he's getting a $25,000 (Canadian) advance.

WTF? Unless he submitted it to an indie publisher, there's no way he polished it and sent it out and heard from them.

Yeah, it's not real, Paula, it's a comic strip. But it bothers me that the publishing seems so…easy. The writer of the strip did a good job of describing the writer's life. I liked that. So where's the waiting for the mail? Where's the first rejection? Where's the reality? I know, I know, it's a comic strip.

Gads, I feel like Quayle bitching about Murphy Brown.

The writer, Lynn Johnston, has a page where Mike talks about his book and the writing process. It explains why it was so easy for him. Still, it doesn't sit well with me, and that's weird. I sent my book off to the first publisher and they bought it just under three weeks later. I still feel as if I've cheated somehow since I've got a book for sale and other writers I hang with online, and are better writers that I will ever be, still are not published. This is where being a queer can come in handy. With such a direct readership, it is easier to get published. Not that GLBT publishers will publish anything. It's just that my book was able to go through the process faster.