good...
was just reading bobbles comments on the other thread about PABD.. he says they look and feel like an ordinary paperback. This is a good thing... I presume you can do your own editing too...this is also good. Any mistakes are therefore your own. Hurrah!
Ah... okay, thanks Liana. I was just curious - I've never written a book or am ever likely to so it's all pretty outside my experience.
I thought, maybe, bluechrome was a scam like poetry.com or something like that.
Cheers for clearing that up.
The people arguing for Bluechrome are hardly credible advocates, since they have a huge vested interest in the books concerned. For my part, in my humblest of humble opinions, I think the Bluechrome anthologies that I have seen look utterly gash... but perhaps, as Hen argues, something appearing amateurish and crappy is in fact a sign of greatness.
In which case, the poetry within is truly great.
Oh no, not a scam at all Vicky.
Andrea, no I have not had "dealings" with them, and would never "submit" anything to be "published" by them.
See reasoning above.
If one googles, there will be complaints, then, about
Blue Chrome. (I thought they were legitimate publishers)
I have seen positive comments about PABD, athough
I know they have just started - but
it's as well to know what people are saying, to keep
informed.
(I'll google and see what I can find)
I've just seen the one Andrea... maybe I am being unfair basing such a negative opinion on one book, but my opinion still stands, and I think it's a valid one. I did say "personally" by the way when I gave my opinion. I am sure many others would be more than satisfied with the place, the deal, and the paper - and so good luck to them.
I am not about to comment further on it now, because I have said what I think, and I have to get back to work... you can waste a lot of time here...
*grins*
I can't help it.
I try not to but ... the coshterned things jest ... get away from me
*jumps up and RUNS after a full stop*
MISSED! Infoou -----oooouuuriating!
(colloquial
Spanish)
[%sig%]
Well, that's most odd, Liana, because I personally have about 10 different BC books, the covers of which are beautiful, the paper of which is top quality and the editing of which is excellent.
True the editing of the anth might be a bit shonky at times, but that's because (like PABD) the authors edited themselves, so BC can hardly be blamed for that.
Are you SURE we're talking about the same publisher here?
And yes, you CAN waste a lot of time on here - some more than others.
The 2004 bluechrome anthology was excellent in all respects. True enough, I didn't like *all* of the poems, but that's what I generally expect from an anthology. Their front covers and header fonts are crazy, but distinctive - that they divide opinion, causing some people to reel, can be a sign of something great in the making. Anything's better than a normal cover with a classic font that everyone thinks is 'quite nice'.
Not sure what the fuss is with 'professional design' sometimes. I like a maverick feel to something - photocopied fanzines and pamphlets forever. Bluechrome have room for improvement, but have started off on the right foot.
Sorry Liana - where is your name wrong? Is it not Liana Hemmett then?
George, you are listed as George van Win. And he did email you, he also cc'd to me.
Good manners? The words pot and kettle spring to mind, alas.
I found Bluechrome Publishing; couldn't find anything
in the way of complaints about paper or covers, though,
by googling. Possibly I should use another search machine
instead of Google.
I couldn't read any of the work published as there are no
excerpts, but their thirty day guarantee (return if you don't like
the book!) to their UK customers strikes me as unbelievably generous.
Their covers look beautiful, on the site. Original and kind of gorgeous.
(I found a lot of complaints about PA, Publish America, by the
way; it's not quite clear whether that is self-publishing or not.)
Oh, I saw that Bluechrome are not accepting any submissions. That's
true of many publishers, of course. They might accept at first but receive too many and find themselves swamped. Most publishers then have to go
through agents, or invite authors/poets to publish themselves.
Don't know if any of that is relevant - just my impressions!
Apologies first. I've just come across this thread (quite a trick if you can manage it) after I posted my "They've Arrived" thread above (or below, depending on ..... well, you know).
Right, PABD. This is how it all works. It's all on the website anyway, but unless you actually submit a book, you won't discover all the pros & cons.
First of all, in my opinion you need a minimum 50,000 words. Half a dozen poems isn't going to cut the mustard. We're talking books here, not a collection of poetry. PABD offers proofreading, but I'd read my book and re-read it and figured I didn't need the additional expence. In retrospect perhaps I should have taken them up on their offer because I've noticed a couple of typos. Nothing that's too much of a disaster - just a word I've missed off the end of a sentence, a letter off a word and the word "that" written twice - but these are things a fresh pair of eyes may have spotted. Still, that's life. Your average reader will probably never notice, and I can't do anything about it now.
PABD insists on a particular font (Times New Roman if I remember correctly) and that everything is in 10-point cap. Unfortunately anything in italics or bold is converted to normal font, which I find a real shame. I was relying on italics quite a bit in one of my chapters.
Once you've set your manuscript to exactly how the company wants it, adding page-break for chapters and so forth, you then simply download it. You then move on to selecting a cover. There's a whole selection, some plain and some with pictures. Or you can download your own picture if you wish. You tick a box to assert your copyright, write your dedications and move on. I opted for PABD to handle the Legal Deposit for me - which for those of you who don't know involves placing your book in the six libraries, including the British Library - and also to arrange an ISBN number for the book.
I paid extra money to take a look at the book before it went to print. Just in case a chapter was in the wrong place or whatever. For peace of mind this is money well spent. And finally I clicked on submit.
PABD says the whole process will take up to 10 working days, yet within 24 hours they'd e-mailed my book back to me to take a look at. There were some small alterations I made at this point, but all in all I was pretty excited. It looked the part. Very professional, my name on every page, a new page started with every chapter.
Andrew at PABD was cooperation itself, and we must have communicated 8-12 times a day by e-mail until we'd ironed out everything and I was happy. He almost always answered my e-mails within five minutes and while not wanting to blow too much smoke up his arse found him an absolute pleasure to do business with. I believe he operates out of a very high moral code.
And still, no money had changed hands!
It was at this point, when I was absolutely happy with everything, that I placed my order through a PayPal account which was easily set-up.
The books took about a week longer than expected to arrive because I just missed a print run, but now they're here I am absolutely chuffed. A very professional job. I can hold my head up high and offer these books to anyone. They appear to be of the same quality as any book found in Waterstones or Borders.
You can check the book out by visiting:
http://store.pabd.com/kwiggins
And even read the first chapter for free before you purchase, because your own selling page is include with the price, which I believe to be a great bonus.
I now have to sell them. I've been e-mailing mini-cab firms (I can do about 20 an hour) but suspect that I'm only reaching the owners or controllers. I'm not too sure that I can reach the actual drivers themselves this way. Still, it's free, and I can e-mail cab firms all over America or Australia or anywhere.
The other option is small non-intrusive A5 posters which I can post to cab firms, but there's an expence involved there with no guarantee of them actually sticking them up on the wall. In most cases they probably wouldn't, and I'm not inclined to waste stamp and envelope to find out.
I can advertise in cab magazines, and I intend to find out just how much a quarter-page ad costs. Of course, with that, as with the poster, they have to actually write the URL down, whereas with an e-mail I can simply include the link.
The idea of visiting every cab firm in the country personally is out of the question, although I'm sure it would yield the best results.
All of this highlights something else to be considered before embarking on this route. What options do you have for marketing your book? I believe I have an ideal target market in cab drivers, but what's yours?
However, if you just want to see your name in print, and flog a few copies to friends and family, PABD is such a concept that I believe you can easily make it pay.
I hope this helps. Any questions - except what did I actually pay (you work it out) - and I'll happily do my best to answer them.
Andrea... sadly I can't put my hands on the anthology at present as it isn't in my possession. As I recall (and yep, it's cloudy) my name was spelled with either one M or one T - I really can't recall, and to be honest that isn't really important... my main point is that super glossy covers and pages look cheap, and the font looks hopelessly naff.
IT IS ONLY MY OPINION.
Back to the name thing - the only time I can think it would be totally unacceptable rather than a mere annoyance is if it were the authors own book, which I am sure wouldn't happen...
I can assure you that it was not my intent to cause offence to your good self. However ... I AM entitled to my opinion, and I AM entitled to express it.
(Yes Andorra, Publish America are a bit dodgy, though some people have actually recommended them in the past.)
I can confirm that after getting liana's name correct initially in the author intorduction, her two piece's have her name spelt incorrectly as 'Liana Hemmet.'
Thanks for the information, Liana.
The cover designs and colours do look very attractive on the site, but of course one can't see whether they still have glossy paper within.
I would assume fonts could be selected (?) by the author for his/her
own book, and that the paper would be off white rather than pure white -
but anyway, perhaps they have improved (?) since they seem to be rattling along.
Of course, 'trade paperbacks' all have glossy covers; that is considered
high quality. But perhaps you mean these were TOO glossy; a kind of
'mirror' finish (thank you but no thank you!) or you prefer a soft
matt finish, yourself.
There are a LOT of publish on demand self-publishers in the States.
Quality varies tremendously. Anyone wishing to publish needs
to go over all the options with great care.
interseting. I think the pabd is good for writing groups and other things, definetly. It's then just a case of 'canny marketing', as such. With karls book you could have a field day, think of all them bored taxi drivers all over the uk sitting at ranks, if the poster was in the right place !!!!!!. The cost of printing posters ect is going down and you can really create a lot out of not much in the advertising sense. I think its all good and as i said its the road i'm going down for a couple of projects i'm involved in. Look at the advertsing you can create through technology....
Ah, yes, the Sporting Chance book. I'm afraid I don't have a copy of that one. However, that particular book was, in case you didn't know (although I'm pretty sure you did), released to bring aid to Youth Sports UK, which organisation was threatened with closure through lack of funding. All proceeds from the book went to Youth Sports UK in a effort to keep it alive and open for the kids.
Therefore the book was, indeed, a trifle rushed (as was pointed out and apologised for when submissions were requested), as the organisation might well have folded without the money that SC (and, by extension, Bluechrome) provided. It therefore strikes me George that, in this case, a bit of charity from yourself would not go amiss.
I have sent you a copy of the anthology Liana, in which your name is spelt correctly, as is George's.
Yes, of course you are entitled to your opinion and entitled to express it. But it might, perhaps, be advisable to first see the evidence before expressing it.
And yes, Andorra, the fonts can be selected and the paper is NOT glossy and IS off-white and of excellent quality.
Sounds very good indeed.
I like a nice soft paper, off white.
Thank you very much for the information.
(I rather thought, with those beautiful
covers, they *must* have decent paper!)
Thank you, although there's a lot more in the book than just my Cab Driver stories. I've included all the incidents - well, some of them anyway - that happened to me while I was driving in South-Central L.A. amongst the Bloods and the Crips.
I'm really quite proud of this piece of work.
As it happens I was well aware of the purpose of 'A Sporting Chance' and have nothing but admiration for it's effort to raise cash for kids. However, I emailed Delgrado in plenty of time to correct the spelling of my name and I also emailed you at the same time. You replied along the lines that there 'will be hell to pay if it isn't corrected, leave it with me'. (I have the email in my archive). I trusted you to sort it out but when it was printed it was still wrong. When I asked you about it you rather curtly told me it was too late to do anything about it. Delgrado never acknowledged my email, so you are wrong on that point too. I never spoke to you about the spelling of my name in the anthology or indeed anything else in it after it went to press, so your recollections of the whole thing is wrong. My name in that book although spelt correctly has the wrong capitalisation in the index. I wasn't unduly perturbed by that but thought it a little sloppy, especially as it was printed correctly in the text. I don't really care whether I'm published ot not to be honest; if I wanted a book with my name on the cover I would do what Karl has done, the money is not excessive or beyond my means, BUT if I'm going to be printed I expect my name to be correct. That is the very least anybody has a right to expect. I don't think that there is anybody that knows me that would question my charity either.
Karl, they did you a favour if they got rid of the italics. Italics are really reader unfriendly. There's evidence to suggest that most people skip long passages in italics. Italics should only be used for text you don't want people to read.
I'll vouch for that. George has fed me in the past when I havn't eaten for a week or so and even lent me a bob or too and he hadn't known me all that long at the time.
Come to think about it I really should be paying him back at some point.
Deborah,
May I be the first to welcome you to our ABCtales community. I think you can add a lot to these discussions.
(Shall I tell them all who you are, or will you?)
The two pieces of evidence I've seen of Bluechrome's work - the UK Anthology and the Sporting Chance were, in design and layout terms, utterly shocking.
I personally would think at least twice before choosing to associate with them again.
These books are not cheap.
If these publishers are planning to sell their stuff to anyone other than their authors or people intimately related to them, they have to have high production standards.
To be fair to Bluechrome, they seem to be well-meaning enough people, unlike the unscrupulous POD publishers who tell wannabe authors that their books will get into every bookshop in the USA, but they could certainly do with making some slightly wiser paper selections and taking some basic DTP lessons.
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