Tales from the Ragged Edge

Putting on the Publisher Hat

Technically, Cobalt City Timeslip closed for submissions this weekend.

I say technically because I have a pair of stories straggling through the gate in the next day or two. Yeah, I could be a hard-ass and say “A missed deadline is a missed deadline,” but who does that benefit? Answer: no one. Anyway, one is the only story that slips forward rather then looking back. The second is a early cold-war piece staring one of my favorite — and under-explored — characters, the Wrecker of Engines which is being written by a good friend and proven talent.

I’m going to let the deadline slide a bit for those. Isn’t that what Timeslip is all about anyway? Flexible time?

In the meantime, contracts have been drawn up for the accepted stories and are going out with the requests for revisions, courtesy of Timid Pirate’s crackerjack editor. She and I are batting the back cover copy around like a wounded vole. I expect to have a finished draft of that within the week. Revisions will be coming back from the authors in time to get this all formatted and sent to the printer by end of month (or early September, at least). We should have a few ARC’s available for review in September, and PDF review copies even earlier.

The cover is done except for the contributor names. We have 2 pieces of interior art, and we hope to have more before we launch — as many as 5 interior illustrations, which is a first for us.

We really hope to have it all handed off to the printers as early as possible in September, as we’re opening the next anthology in then. I was thinking of announcing that one earlier, but until we have the our website how we want it, ain’t no point in rushing it.

That reminds me. Need to figure out the website. Time to change hats again! Ah the exciting life of the small publisher!

Nathan Crowder

9 responses to “Putting on the Publisher Hat”

  1. Carrie Cuinn Avatar
    Carrie Cuinn

    I am torn between putting out Cthulhurotica as an anthology myself, and shopping it to a publisher. I’d love to talk with you sometimes about the pros of being your own small press.

    Reply
    1. nathancrowder Avatar
      nathancrowder

      The pros are being your own boss, and getting to make all the decisions.
      As fate would have it, those are also the cons, plus having to set up distribution, etc.
      That said, the pro of being able to put out exactly the product you want is a pretty huge deal for me. And it’s allowed me to create a good, stable home for the Cobalt City universe which was kind of the cincher.

      Reply
      1. Carrie Cuinn Avatar
        Carrie Cuinn

        Are you using a middleman in any part of the process? How did you decide on what formats to offer your books in?

      2. nathancrowder Avatar
        nathancrowder

        I’m really partial to the prestige square-bound feel of the 6×9 softcover. As for middleman, I’m a huge advocate of Print-on-Demand. That way I can be a publisher and not a book warehouser. I’ve used Lulu in the past and been very satisfied with them for smaller endeavors, but I recently made the switch to Lightning Source because they are better suited to my distribution needs. There are others out there, but I’ve had no personal experience with them. My suggestion is to talk to other small publishers at conventions, etc. and see what they use and how they feel about it.

  2. greengeekgirl Avatar
    greengeekgirl

    The geek in me has perked up her figurative ears–what d’you need to figure out about the website?

    Reply
    1. nathancrowder Avatar
      nathancrowder

      Well, what we have up now is a place-holder page. We have some content, but not tons, and we don’t have the look or layout we want because none of us does web design. I need to add in the portal for online sales, and put up a Field Guide to Cobalt City Heroes, and then do a general site spiff-up with the right colors and branding (like our logo, for instance). All stuff that I’m going to be wrestling with in the next few weeks. 🙂

      Reply
      1. greengeekgirl Avatar
        greengeekgirl

        *cough* As a matter of fact, I happen to do a little web design. So if you need any help, I could help a bit. I’m not a professional, but if I don’t know I can ask my friend who is majoring in it 😉

        This is one I’m working on.. it’s extremely girly and it’s still very much under construction.

        http://matchyourcolors.com/index.html

      2. nathancrowder Avatar
        nathancrowder

        I like the basic layout. Top menu tabs with drop-down menus. Very sleek and functional. I might be in touch if I need a hand. Thanks!

      3. greengeekgirl Avatar
        greengeekgirl

        There’s a lot one can do 😀 I put that one together fairly simply because it’s functional–for shopping–but there are a lot of fun ways to put together a website.

        So much work left to do on it, though… sigh.

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