Blog entry 63

BIG NEWS!!!!

About my writing process, I’ve been doing Word searches for selected words that can weaken a novel. I’ve been searching for and eliminating, revising the wording around or leaving such words as “it”, “some”, “soon”, “had” (too passive), and “just.” The final revisions are incorporated; the final word count is only 92,768! Apparently I miscounted, along the way. Golden Gate is ready for Prime Time and stands at 190 pages including the glossary.

Other big news – I sent a few questions to the Amazon associates program, planning to grease the skids for marketing. The response took the wind out of my sails briefly. It turns out the Amazon associates program isn’t for marketing a book, and appears to be a cash source based on links with Amazon widgets for visit fees; I’ve decided to drop that affiliation.

Good news - A fellow RWG member suggested www.bookbaby.com as a way to e- market my novels. Actually several RWG members mentioned it. That site/ business provides distribution packages, including editing, marketing and the full range of commercially focused efforts to sell intellectual products. Am investigating it, and will query RWG members as to their feelings of its legitimacy.

Have found out from a rep at BookBaby.com that they require a novel have an ISBN for them to sell it. Am investigating whether a UPC Bare Code is required; it is typically placed on outside back cover of the book. Bar Codes are sold through www.bowker.com, as are ISBNs in the USA. Bar codes are $25.00 each (per title/ISBN). ISBNs are sold singularly, or in blocks of 10, 100, or 1,000. I am researching pricing and availability of a block of ten ISBNs. BookBaby.com charges $99.00 per book to be sold, and coupled with ISBN and bar code fees I’m looking at roughly $250.00 or more to get started.

I’ve decided on an initial price of $3.99 for Golden Gate. At that price point I would receive a 70 percent royalty on copies sold. Have gone with BookBaby.com, as they can provide an ISBN for $19.00 as part of e-publishing package. The GREEN bolded insert below from BookBaby.com rep verifies receipt of my novel and payment today, 01 December 2011.

I can indeed confirm that a payment came though, so this is now officially booked into my team as BK00004838!  Our team will begin to review everything for you now just to make sure it is in great shape!  I am showing that a payment of $118 was received on our side well.

I intend to include bits of Golden Gate, I am calling them “Hints for the Holidays” as part of regular blog posts. They will sequence through the entire novel, not telling the entire story, but providing glimpses that will tantalize.