Happy New Year

Every publisher has been looking to January 1, 2007, for another reason altogether. That's the date that ISBN-13's are now required for every new book. No more ISBN-10's. You'll still be able to search and order previously published books through the old ISBN, as stores will deal with both types for some time, I imagine. With the burgeoning used book trade, (and thus the growing long tail) the dual system may never cease, as Amazon and other stores continue to sell past titles alongside the new ones.

For small publishers who need to convert their unused ISBN-10s, Bowker offers an online converter for free.

Great Auk Cover

I've just finished up formating the text and putting together the cover for The Great Auk, or Garefowl, by Symington Grieve. It's a neat reprint with a wealth of early data on this extinct bird. I may hold off sending it to the printer for a month, but in the meantime, here is a glimpse of the cover. I decided to add a color print of Audubon's painting of the Great Auk to the front; it was that or track down a copy of Morris' print in his text on British birds.

Google Books

Though the online access of print books (via Google Books or Amazon's SIB) has always seemed more of a gimmick to me, I've gone ahead and submitted 5 more titles to Google Books. At present, I already have 5 titles up, which you can search through 20% or so (including Cryptozoology: Sci & Spec, Natural Theology, Compleat Angler, That Little Game, and Herper's Life List). I've submitted Stick Insects, Shadows, Historical Bigfoot, Forged Egyptian Antiquities, and Men, Fish and Tackle. Hard to say how long it will be before they're online. Could be weeks, months, etc. Should be quicker than before, as I submitted them in pdf format.

Also, I've enabled print purchasing for full online reading. It's $5.00 and may or may not include print capabilities. Some texts I don't mind being printed, others I'd just as soon not, at least for that price. If I see any jump in revenue from this, I'll consider adding further books to the Google program. They're pushing it strongly right now, but not sure how effective it will be for a small publisher.

It's a shame that Amazon dropped ebooks from other providers - I was just about ready to try those; but it's too much of a hassle right now to fool around getting set up with the French company Amazon bought out.

Cryptofiction

Having a long-standing interest in cryptofiction (emphasizing historical material and short stories in general), I've wanted to publish anthologies of historical and modern stories. (Cryptofiction, for the uninitiated, is fiction that focuses on or has major elements of cryptozoology, usually involving new or rediscovered species.) You can read a number of historical short stories I've collected at StrangeArk.com.
As fiction is a hard sell with print-on-demand (or small press in any format), I'm leery about spending money on something with so many obstacles for sales. I've been discussing the possibility of a cryptofiction short story contest with Craig Heinselman, and we will probably announce this sometime in January. I'd like to open it up to short story writers everywhere, but need to do some research into contest expectations (e.g., prizes), while figuring out a way to publish the top stories in paperback format. We may look at Lulu.com, or I may go ahead and just publish it as I would any other Coachwhip Publications title.
There's a great deal about cryptozoology that could be explored in art and literature. I was disappointed to see a recent cryptozoology art exhibition completely sidestep cryptozoology in many artist's cases, rendering bland interpretations of fabulous animals, hybrids, or imaginative fantasies, as if a rendering only needed fur and an unrecognizable shape to be "cryptozoological." We'll be a little more selective in this venture (and have the parameters more firmly set), I think.

American Spiders: Sample Chapters

I probably should have waited until 2007 to put out American Spiders and their Spinningwork, as I just haven't had time to properly market the books. But, I'll get around to it soon enough. In the meantime, you can view four sample chapters as pdf downloads from the title page for Volume 1: Text and Figures. Just click on the cover at CoachwhipBooks.com.

Little Jimmy

Before Dennis the Menace, before Calvin & Hobbes, there was Little Jimmy. One of these days I'll get around to putting out some more of the old-time comic strip collections. At present, I haven't figured out how to market them effectively to such a specialized audience, but I've always enjoyed reading back through them. I've got a fair number of "Little Jimmy" strips scanned, just need to clean them and organize, but that'll probably be something for 2008 or so.

Lake Champlain

Dwight Smith and Gary Mangiacopra, regular contributors to various Fortean and natural mystery publications (including NABR and CRYPTO) are working on several manuscripts of cryptozoological interest. It looks like the first one to hit the pipeline here at Coachwhip Publications will be a book-length transcript (with commentary) of a Lake Champlain "monster" conference held in the 1980s. The conference was taped, and necessary permissions to publish have been given, so barring any unforeseen problems, I hope to have the manuscript in front of me within a few months. This should be of interest to cryptozoological enthusiasts for both the historical value and some interesting information about the Champ phenomenon.