Things around here are not as grungy as usual
I might have titled this entry, "embracing my inner slob," but the truth is that my inner slob is already loose, and I have done nothing to make him think that he is in any way unloved. Christina and I spent the evening scrubbing various surfaces and expressing amazement at these here new-fangled chemical sprays what can free said surfaces from grease and grime.
A bit of "Mop'n'Glo," combined with some elbow grease, has resulted in somewhat shiny floors. Mildew-annihilating Tilex has reduced the number of black spots on the wall near the ceiling in the bathroom. It wasn't until I was already on the stepladder erected precariously inside the tub that it occurred to me that such a position might, in fact, be considered dangerous. So Amy and Tanya, when you visit this weekend and you carefully survey the ceiling of our bathroom – as I'm sure you do in every house you visit – please realize that there are fewer black spots up there now than there were yesterday, and that further cleanliness might have been at the risk of my life.
Just how many scrubbing bubbles does it take to get rid of that nasty grey streak in the tub, anyway? Do I have to sandblast the bathtub floor, or what? And it's not until you're scrubbing its side witha brush that you actually contemplate the shape of your tub's outer wall. At least that's the way it is for me.
More boring book talk
I think we're done. Lisa sent me the final version of the index this morning (she rocks), incorporating the changes I asked for. I finished up the cover layout (larger version of the image at right, plus the back cover). I even called our printer of choice (Morris Publishing) to clear up a few technical details. Now all that remains to be done is to print up a hard copy and ship it all off to Morris.
This will involve paper printouts of all 208 pages of the book (yup, the index pushed us up an entire half-signature, not that Morris cares about such things), a copy of the cover's design file on a zip disk, and an order form with all of our specifications. That, plus a credit card number, will be sent overnight to Morris on Friday, so that Monday morning they should receive all of the materials and be ready to go. 35 to 45 "working days" later, we get printed books in the mail. This translates to seven to nine weeks, which is a bit long compared to their competitors, but their publishing guide is impeccable, they have a good reputation among self-published authors, and they're cheaper than everyone else, too. We're hoping that the production falls on the short end of things, because we would really like to take advance copies of the book with us to the New Orleans Worst Film Festival in early June. But things will happen when they happen, I guess, and even books in mid-June will be with us in plenty of time for our September publish date.
Once we place our order for our final books, we will also order about 50 "bound galleys," which are essentially printed copies of the book with plain covers. These should arrive by the end of April, and we'll send them out to book critics, etc., for advance reviews. The bound galleys are actually quite a bit more expensive than the finished books, but the snobbery of the book world is such that galleys are expected by critics. A finished book represents a publisher who was not "serious enough" to buy galleys, even if it arrives in plenty of time to be reviewed before its publish date. It's probably $300 or so well-spent, but it seems silly.
I'm looking forward to getting some of my time back for web site duties; Stomp Tokyo has been neglected since book production began to take precedence. Since Stomp Tokyo is the marketing engine that will help drive sales of the book, we need to keep the fresh reviews coming, and keep the traffic to the site flowing. And heck, I just miss watching the movies and writing the reviews, which is (supposedly) what it's all about.
I might have titled this entry, "embracing my inner slob," but the truth is that my inner slob is already loose, and I have done nothing to make him think that he is in any way unloved. Christina and I spent the evening scrubbing various surfaces and expressing amazement at these here new-fangled chemical sprays what can free said surfaces from grease and grime.
A bit of "Mop'n'Glo," combined with some elbow grease, has resulted in somewhat shiny floors. Mildew-annihilating Tilex has reduced the number of black spots on the wall near the ceiling in the bathroom. It wasn't until I was already on the stepladder erected precariously inside the tub that it occurred to me that such a position might, in fact, be considered dangerous. So Amy and Tanya, when you visit this weekend and you carefully survey the ceiling of our bathroom – as I'm sure you do in every house you visit – please realize that there are fewer black spots up there now than there were yesterday, and that further cleanliness might have been at the risk of my life.
Just how many scrubbing bubbles does it take to get rid of that nasty grey streak in the tub, anyway? Do I have to sandblast the bathtub floor, or what? And it's not until you're scrubbing its side witha brush that you actually contemplate the shape of your tub's outer wall. At least that's the way it is for me.
More boring book talk
I think we're done. Lisa sent me the final version of the index this morning (she rocks), incorporating the changes I asked for. I finished up the cover layout (larger version of the image at right, plus the back cover). I even called our printer of choice (Morris Publishing) to clear up a few technical details. Now all that remains to be done is to print up a hard copy and ship it all off to Morris.
This will involve paper printouts of all 208 pages of the book (yup, the index pushed us up an entire half-signature, not that Morris cares about such things), a copy of the cover's design file on a zip disk, and an order form with all of our specifications. That, plus a credit card number, will be sent overnight to Morris on Friday, so that Monday morning they should receive all of the materials and be ready to go. 35 to 45 "working days" later, we get printed books in the mail. This translates to seven to nine weeks, which is a bit long compared to their competitors, but their publishing guide is impeccable, they have a good reputation among self-published authors, and they're cheaper than everyone else, too. We're hoping that the production falls on the short end of things, because we would really like to take advance copies of the book with us to the New Orleans Worst Film Festival in early June. But things will happen when they happen, I guess, and even books in mid-June will be with us in plenty of time for our September publish date.
Once we place our order for our final books, we will also order about 50 "bound galleys," which are essentially printed copies of the book with plain covers. These should arrive by the end of April, and we'll send them out to book critics, etc., for advance reviews. The bound galleys are actually quite a bit more expensive than the finished books, but the snobbery of the book world is such that galleys are expected by critics. A finished book represents a publisher who was not "serious enough" to buy galleys, even if it arrives in plenty of time to be reviewed before its publish date. It's probably $300 or so well-spent, but it seems silly.
I'm looking forward to getting some of my time back for web site duties; Stomp Tokyo has been neglected since book production began to take precedence. Since Stomp Tokyo is the marketing engine that will help drive sales of the book, we need to keep the fresh reviews coming, and keep the traffic to the site flowing. And heck, I just miss watching the movies and writing the reviews, which is (supposedly) what it's all about.
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