Mary Sisson's Blog, page 71

Progress report

Here's the new cover for Trust: 

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Progress report

So, the Trang cover is pretty much done--I'm going to sit on it a bit and do Trust before I upload it, but here's what the full cover looks like now:[image error]

Progress report

OK, I've been fooling around more with GIMP, and here's more or less what the front cover of Trang is going to look like now:

The text has an embossed look, thanks to GIMP's bevel tool--what I like about that is that it helps the text stand out from the background art. That allows me a freer hand with where I place things--before I had to be really careful because the text would just vanish into the artwork. The downside is that the Copperplate Gothic I was using before just doesn't bevel well, so it's gone.

Also you'll notice that my name is a lot larger now. Some would argue that my name should be larger than the book's title, but my title has five letters and my name has ten, so that's not going to happen with my limited design skills. But now you can read my name in the thumbnail, which is an improvement.

Know your freaky sub-genre

This is an (awesome) article in the Wall Street Journal on what is called hick-hop, which blends hip-hop with country music and delights me to no end. (Some of it's straight-up novelty rap--coughcough"Rodeo"coughcough--but some of it's true fusion, which is always cool in my book.)

What's interesting about it from a business perspective is how they've figured out how to sell it. They're using services like Pandora to literally map places where people like hick-hop, and then they're holding concerts and selling CDs there.

Selling CDs? Yeah, well, it turns out that country-music fans still buy CDs (you know, because CDs are so homey and traditional), so Wal-Mart was willing to try carrying hick-hop, and by George, it worked!

It's fascinating to me because not only does it once again prove that people don't just want to eat Big Macs no matter what the "experts" think, but it also shows the fallacy of one-size-fits-all marketing strategies: If you look at the music industry as a whole, CDs are a dead end, but if you look at the country-music industry, CDs are doing great. The more you know about your particular audience, the better off you're going to be. And if you don't know that much (perhaps because it's such a new genre), try to find out what fans of similar genres do and see if yours do the same.

Progress report

Oh, yes, despite it all, I did make progress today--I recreated the cover for Trang in GIMP, minus the text (since the new title is going to take some tweaking). I feel much more comfortable working in GIMP now, I have to say. It's not the most intuitive thing, but it's very robust, and if you do it right you have a lot of flexibility.

I have been in a position all too frequently lately where I have to wait on someone else to do X before Y can happen. So I am going to remind myself that one of the main benefits of working for yourself is that you don't have to do that. Which is good, because I HATE IT.

P.S. I also recreated the Trust cover, minus the text.

I just want to kill them all and let God sort it out

No, the new domain name hasn't gone through yet, even though I was PROMISED last time that it would go through by now. Yes, I had to call again, even though I was PROMISED last time that that would be my last phone call. We're at the juvenile finger-pointing stage, which is always extra-delightful with tech people because they do it by throwing around a lot of nonsensical jargon, which all basically translates as "It's not my fault! Those other people are crazy, and it's their fault! Boo-hoo!"

Here's how it's going to work: If I don't have a useable domain name by the end of next week, I'll switch registrars.

F B&N

So, I got an e-mail from Barnes & Noble that was all, "OMG!! You have to switch your books from Pubit to Nook Press!"

Now, I have had a problem with this ever since the whole Nook Press nonsense started: Why do I have to do anything? WHY? If Barnes & Noble feels compelled to change the name of their self-publishing program or add new features to it, why are they making that my problem? Why am I being asked to lift a finger, when anyone who has ever had any experience with business or economics will tell you that if you ask people to bestir themselves to make something happen, a sizable hunk of them just won't bother.

If you want people to do something, you ask them to opt out. If you don't want them to do something, you ask them to opt in. Barnes & Noble is asking me to opt in to Nook Press. Ergo....

But anyway, in the interest of at least appearing to be remotely engaged, I attempted to switch from Pubit to Nook Press.

And it won't take my password.

It says you can use your Pubit user name and password for Nook Press. I can log into Pubit just fine. But even being logged into Pubit, I can't log into Nook Press.

No, of course you can't move things into Nook Press from Pubit. Why would they make it so you can do that?

You know, if you haven't gathered, I haven't been having the easiest time these days. I've been distracted and upset and emotional, and I am just too fucking drained to deal with Barnes & Noble's dumb-ass bullshit this time around. I barely sell anything there anyway. I would feel more motivated if I thought there was a better chance that they might continue as a going concern, but I don't.

I may change my mind in six month's time, but for now--oh, look! It was so much easier to just delete my links to B&N and suspend the ads. Whodathunkit? 

Where are our robot overlords?

You know, getting this domain name set up was really a snap--no one owned MarySisson.com, and setting it up was a breeze. (Yeah, I didn't map it onto the Web site properly for a really long time, but that was my fault.)

Getting BlockB.com set up--oy. I had to buy the domain name, which is a few extra steps in the process, but the main issue is that in order to actually complete each extra step, I have had to call and follow up (sometimes more than once) with the two tech companies involved. All these steps are supposed to be automated, except that they're not, so you fill out on-line form #4,587,536, click "Submit," and then . . . nothing happens. Until you call. And call again.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I'm always struck by the irony of how completely technology firms are dependent upon actual human beings doing things like checking their e-mail in-boxes. The reliance on human beings wouldn't be so bad if it weren't apparently illegal for technology firms to hire more than one customer-service representative who actually knows what they're doing. You get the Lone Magical Dude, you're in luck. You get the Massively Stoned and Confused Dude, you gotta keep calling.

Linky links

This has been all over the place, but hey, read the Wall Street Journal's coverage: Barnes & Noble is spiraling down. The future does not look bright. I'll just reiterate that if you start having problems with B&N not paying you, don't be quiet about it--let other writers know.

This is a post about NBA draft picks that underscores the perils of managing a one-time big payday. The majority of professional basketball players file for bankruptcy within a few years of retirement. It's just human nature to not deal very well with windfalls--it takes serious planning. And honestly, nothing says "Thank you" to Mom and Dad like not having to file for bankruptcy!

Fonts, fonts, fonts

Since I'm a little better with GIMP now, I thought I'd work on making the cover font a little fancier.

My first thought was, Hey, why don't I go buy a nice, fancy cover font! So I went a-hunting, and I found a ton of very nice, science-fictional fonts.

Aaaannnddd...I decided not to use them. Not that they aren't really quite lovely, but the thing is, the Trang series is a very specific kind of science fiction, and I've run into trouble before confusing people's expectations. So if a really cool font makes it look like military sci-fi or high-tech sci-fi, well, I've been down that road before....

So I think I'll stay with the vaguely Star Trek-looking font, since that seems to work (and I really don't want to go with the many "I totally ripped this off of Star Trek!" fonts out there--it's just tacky). I'll just fancy up the letters a bit.