Cryptofiction: Beyond the Great South Wall

Here's the wraparound for a classic (1901) cryptofiction novel, Beyond the Great South Wall, by Frank Savile, sent to the printer.

Mussels Cover

The Pearly Mussels of Pennsylvania, by Al Spoo (coming soon)

Pearly Mussels Sent to Print

I've sent Al Spoo's The Pearly Mussels of Pennsylvania to the printer. Full-color plates of 66 freshwater species, extant and extirpated, from the Keystone state. At about 210 pages, 8.5 x 11, it will retail for $59.95. (And, believe it or not, that's about average for shell books...) A 40% discount will be made available to booksellers who order direct from Coachwhip Publications.

More Crypto

I've been wanting to do a cryptozoology atlas for some time, but royalty-free maps are incredibly expensive. Thanks to NASA, though, there are some very interesting options, so this is going to be my next major project. We're not talking about full-size 8.5 x 11 map spreads, of course, but they'll be accurate and in color...

SITB Up

Amazon has the Search Inside the Book for my two recently submitted titles up already. Quicker than expected, just a bit over a week, so I guess PDF is the way to go.

Also, submitted a revised internal for Gosse's A Year at the Shore to clear up the narrow gutter margin.

Two Free Ebooks

I've set up free downloadable (and printable) PDF versions of Herper's Life List and Herper's Survey. I've actually got a few other potential ebooks that wouldn't be commercially viable for print, but haven't decided if it's worth trying to sell them or just give them away...

Ebooks Again

I've decided to integrate ebooks into the publishing again, just added 10 titles as printable PDFs, using Payloadz for payment/delivery. Of particular interest, included both Historical Bigfoot and Boss Snakes, at $9.95 each, and included a $3.00 affiliate referral fee.

Proof Approved

I just approved the proof for my reprint of Gosse's A Year at the Shore. Overall, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. Colors look good, and the paper is a sturdy white, a bit thicker than the standard creme used for b/w. My only minor reservation was that the inside margin is perhaps a bit too narrow. I've seen discussions on this subject that argue for "less is more," but I think in the future I'll increase the inside margin just a tad. I also went with a smaller leading for the font (I think it was size 9, leading 11). Usually I use a 3 point difference, but to save some space, went with 2 points here. It actually looks better than I expected; might need to keep that in mind for future books even when page count isn't an issue.

A Year at the Shore will be available from online bookstores soon.

More SITB

Uploaded two titles (Historical Bigfoot, Boss Snakes) to Amazon's Search Inside the Book -- haven't really messed with that beyond CZ:S&S. We'll see if this makes any difference before I do any more. Google Books hasn't helped much.

A Year at the Shore: Cover

And the wraparound for the cover. Nothing fancy. This is a small book, 5.5 x 8.5, but runs about 182 pages or so. Being a "color" book (to allow for the color plates) it is a tad more expensive than most of my titles, but it's a book that is rarely reprinted. (The only other available right now is little more than a black-and-white photocopy...)

A Year at the Shore: Plate Samples

Some of the images from Gosse's A Year at the Shore.

Color in the UK

LSI now has their color printing available in the UK, so that will help my titles from being so "one-sided" distribution-wise. This means that as of June (I've just submitted the changes, so it takes a little while before it comes into effect), the color plates volume of American Spiders and Their Spinningwork and Forged Egyptian Antiquities will both be available in the UK. Several more color books are on the way.