Richard McGowan's Blog: Smashed-Rat-On-Press - Posts Tagged "delight"

The big news of the day is that we have finally released The Mildewed Paper Collection of poems by Shenanigan Cheesefield, which you can obtain on the SROP DIY Project Page.

The collection was announced long ago, but with all the hoopla surrounding National Poetry Month, we thought we'd better wait until things quieted down and nobody is interested in poetry anymore, so we could sneak it to market without anyone noticing.

We also thought, back in the day, that we might elicit some illustrations for the work, but our artist of record has been happily seconded to other fabulous rodential projects, such as the cover of Time Enough For Picnics and plans for the cover of The Girl Who Grew Crutches From Seeds in a Garden of Exotic Delights, so the illustrations never actually got worked out. But that's not the end of the world and Shenanigan isn't around to cry over it anyway. And this still leaves room for an eventual Deluxe Illustrated Edition.

Here at Smashed-Rat-on-Press, we also happened to notice that we have crossed the tipping point. Everyone loves tipping points, right? Our tipping point is that at which we officially have more buyers than books in print. Up to now, you see, we have had fewer buyers than we've had books in print. It works like this. If Georgina publishes one book and ten people buy it, her books-to-buyers ratio is 1:10. If she has published 10 books and one person has bought one, she's sadly at 10:1. Today, post-publication of the above-mentioned Cheesefield work and with the purchase of one paperback by a random member of the public, the SROP ratio has officially hit 36:37—meaning, of course, that in the history of SROP we have sold 37 books (including paid copies of paper and e-book); and we currently have 36 books in print. So far, 2014 has been a bonanza year for SROP, with fully 1/3 of our entire cumulative sales occurring since January 1.

Someday we hope to reach the point at which all of our books have actually been purchased by someone, but that, so far, is merely a pipe dream.

We will be serving champagne, cheese, and spliffs in the lobby of our cramped little office beginning at five o'clock this evening, Santa Banana Time. Just follow the directions on our website. The newest member of the SROP stable, young Sanguinity Hematode, will be present to autograph napkins and dispense drôle humor.