Soon at an online bookstore near you...

I just finished a project that has been in the works for over ten years. I abandoned it several years back when interest in ventriloquism had about faded away. Then, in the last three or so years, interest regained momentum as Jeff Dunham, Terry Fator and others achieved prominence in mainstream entertainment. So I pulled the manuscript out and got to work.



I am self-publishing this one. It has a small targeted audience, and I know how to reach it. The perfect candidate for self-publishing.

I did everything that publishers used to do. The edit, recruited proof-readers, did the layout, made the index, and designed the cover.

If you ever plan to use Word to lay out a book, and the book has any kind of non-fiction style formatting--bullets, photos, graphics, headings, captions, index, all that--be prepared to pull out some hair.

Headers and footers will drive you nuts if you separate chapters into sections so each chapter can have its own header. With mirror pages, inside gutter, no header on chapter beginnings, etc. It will drive you nuts.

I am using createspace to get it onto amazon, but most of the sales will be at conventions and from online suppliers of ventriloquist items.

The final copy is being reviewed by createspace now for compliance with their submission guidelines. This is the second review. After that I get a proof copy of the book, and then it's done.

I'm exhausted. What an experience! I could write a book about it. Hmm...

One more thing: Other than time, I have zero dollars invested in this book. All the software I used was either already here or free. It will cost me about $7 per copy and will sell for $25. Now, if only all those folks who pestered me over the years about finishing the project will come up with the dough...

LOL! Al, I've no hair left after formatting nine self-published books! Good luck with this -- it certainly looks good!

Best of luck, Al. You did it.

I got submission approval for my interior and cover content this morning. I ordered a proof copy, which will be in a little over a week.

After that, who knows? Pulitzer, NYT best seller, doorstop of the year?

Congratulations Al.
Isn't it great when a plan comes together?

Yes, Abe, particularly when I had given up on it altogether.

Dear Al,

I will buy a copy. Just post the link.

Love,
Betty

The Kindle edition is up and available now.

http://www.amazon.com/Ventriloquism-Art-Craft-Profession-ebook/dp/B004W0NMFO/

I am working on the description, but it takes amazon forever to post changes to a listing.

Still waiting for a proof copy of the print edition.

The proof copy of the print edition arrived today. This is my first hands-on experience with a POD book. From Createspace.

The first thing I noticed was that I could have used a smaller font. 12pt is okay, but 10 would have delivered as readable a book with fewer pages.

The next thing was that many of the old pictures don't print very well in the digital POD format. They're okay, given what they are, though. For the Kindle edition I made many of them larger and tweaked the brightness/contrast setting to make them readable on the smaller, monochrome Kindle. I could have done that with the print edition, too.

Then, the publishing model does not use "signatures," which is a 32-page bundle of 8 folded sheets. It's an advantage because you don't have that cluseer of blank pages at the end to make the page count evenly divisible by 32.

I look at it and see things I'd do differently. And I can do that if I want to re-layout the pages and submit for another proof copy. I don't want to do that, though.

Guess what? Even though the proof copy cost me the same as a production run copy will cost, they printed PROOF in big letters on the last page. I guess they didn't want me to sell the proof copy. Go figure.

Congratulations!!! By the way, you won the www.dkchristi.com Ghost Orchid contest. Send me an email with your choice of ebooks from those listed on the www.dkchristi.com web site - and double congratulations!!!

I'm not announcing the origins or definition for Neev so it can be a mystery to other readers.

Thanks, DK. I sent you a PM.

This is agonizing. I found a messed up line in the index and a misspelling of Burgess Meredith's name. I'd have let the name go by, but the index thing really stood out. So, for two little glitches, I have to go back to square one: upload the pdf to Createspace, await their review, get another proof copy, and hope I don't find anything else.

But every time I make a new pdf, I have to skim it looking for more printing glitches. Word has a way of munging up the headers when you least expect it, and CutePDF Writer sometimes ignores spacing specs between titles and text.

I'm glad the ebook doesn't have an index or headers.

I have an idea, and I thought I'd toss it out to get some opinions and some advice.

We all know how difficult it is to arrange book signings in bookstores for self-published books. My thoughts are that I'd like to try a new twist and approach bookstore managers with this idea.

Since this is a book on ventriloquism, how about a book-signing that features the author and a dummy sitting at the table interacting with the customers?

Questions: Should I provide the books myself? If so, what would be the store's commission? Do you think it would even work?

Al,

I think it is a great idea. I wish we could come to it.
Provide your own books, that will make it hard for the store to turn you down.
They are out no money and will make on the deal.

I wish you could be there, too, Alice.

I believe in building a website dedicated to a book. I've begun to build one for this book.

http://www.alstevens.com/ventriloquism/

The book itself refers the reader to the website. And the website will refer the casual webbrowser who finds the site to how to buy the book. A two-way referral.

I will place on the site errata to the book and links to places where readers can get more information, products, etc., related to the subject.

It's published as of today. My blog (link in my signature) has an announcement and links to the bookstores. The print edition isn't at amazon yet, but should be soon. I've already sold three dozen copies to dealers, and put in the order to have them shipped today.

On to the next project.