business

Blogging and conventions

By / March 29, 2008

When attending a convention, or just after a convention, there is a tendency for bloggers to put up a long list of names of people they talked to, or events they went to. There is an urgency about these posts, as if the writer needs to get it all down before the information leaks out of her brain. Posts like that are little reminder tags to the person who experienced the convention. The mention of a name triggers the memory of a conversation and an enjoyable dinner. The listing of a nick name reminds the author of the whole series of interconnected events that led to the bestowal of the nick name. The reference to an event refreshes the memory of people seen and met. This is necessary because it is truly impossible to capture everything that happens at a convention without expanding into novel-length exposition. There are so many new people and new thoughts that the experience is overwhelming, and invigorating, and sometimes frightening.

Last night I went up to my room to drop off my bag. I intended to head back out with Howard to roam the room parties. The hotel room door closed behind me and I was alone. For the first time all day, my brain had time to assimilate rather than collecting new input. I realized that my inner introvert was huddled up in the corner of my brain and I needed to spend some time soothing her to prevent a major screaming fit the following day. I have to pace myself to last through the three days of convention. I crawled into bed, wishing it was my own bed, and wishing for my kids. This is part of the convention experience for me.

Another part of the convention experience is sitting on a panel with other intelligent people and comparing experiences about the panel topic. The blogging panel was like that. Most people hate public speaking, but I love it. I love seeing the audience nod at what I say. I’m thrilled to think that my thoughts, my words, are useful to others. This is the same reason I blog, because there is a possibility that my words will be exactly what someone else needs today; the possibility that my thoughts will make someone else’s life better. That reward is worth the risk of putting myself forward or having some troll throw nastiness at me. It is scary blogging. It is scary being on panels. It is scary being here. But if I am not here I lose out on the opportunity to meet and to greet. I miss out on the chance to learn things that make my life better. I miss out on the chance to say something that will help someone else. So I am here, at the convention, blogging online, because the rewards are more that worth the risks.

Self publishing and hubris

By / March 25, 2008 / 10 Comments

Jim Hines of the Jig the Goblin trilogy wrote a post today in which he rants about writing “Experts”. Jim’s major complaint is people who take their small experiences with either writing or publishing and extrapolate it into a supposed expertise about the whole industry. Many of Jim’s points single out self published authors. I found myself both agreeing with him and feeling a little defensive at the same time. Withing the next few months I will be releasing a self published book and therefore I’m at risk of annoying people in the same ways that Jim was annoyed.

I think it takes a special sort of arrogance to become a self published author. I look at the traditional publishing paths and I know that the reason they are traditional is that they work. The publishing “rules” are there because they are truly the best way for people to combine forces and create books. It has to be some sort of hubris for me to see those rules, understand why they exist, and still decide that somehow they don’t apply to me.

The one area where I know I will not annoy Jim and other published authors is that I have no intention of advocating self publishing as the wave of the future. It is a hard, lonely, scary path and I would never recommend it lightly. There are no easy paths to publication, but for most people the best choice is to find a publishing house. There have been many times during the Hold on to Your Horses project when I have curled into a little ball of despair because the project was broken and I did not have the expertise to fix it myself. Then I had to go begging among my contacts for help. The only reason it has a chance of working is because of the amazing people I’ve come to know during the past few years. The only reason I am an exception to the rule is because I can piggy back on all the marketing and friendships from Schlock Mercenary.

One thing that may contribute to the “expert” syndrome that Jim noted, is the reactions of non-publishing people to a self published work. When I talk to neighbors about my forthcoming book and I say “I’m self publishing” I get even more respect and approval than I did for just publishing. This baffles me a little because I know that self published works nearly always suffer from quality issues. But America prizes its innovators and trail blazers. Self publishing seems more accessible. People look at my self published project and think that maybe they could do something towards their own dreams. I’m glad of that and I do feel that there is value in self published works, even the ones with quality issues. Perhaps it is to these other newbies that the “experts” are speaking. I don’t think anyone who wants to be a professional in the publishing industry is going to be led astray by newbie experts.

I guess in the end I believe that the path you take should be the one best suited to your goals. Hubris or not, I do believe that this alternate path is going to work for me. I am going to be able to accomplish what I set out to do: create the book that my daughter needed, reward the artist who helped me, and not lose money while doing it.

The forgotten thing

By / February 21, 2008 / 1 Comment

Every time I leave the house for a long trip, I spend an extra minute in the driveway trying to remember what it was that I forgot. Something always gets forgotten or missed during a process as complex as packing. Sometimes I think of it right there in the driveway and I can fetch it. Other times I’m several hours down the road before I figure out what I forgot. Figuring out what was forgotten is always a relief. Once I know what I forgot, I can relax because it was not as bad as it could have been.

I just had that experience with the printing of Hold on to Your Horses. I prepped and planned and prepared as best I could. Then I sent the files to the printer. I couldn’t see anything else for me to do, but part of me was waiting to see where the mistake was. Part of me was worried that the mistake was huge and would ruin the project. The printer found one mistake and emailed me. (files in the wrong format.) Howard looked and found an even bigger mistake. (Files of insufficient resolution for print.) Both of these mistakes are huge, but they are easily fixed now that they have been caught. So now I know what I missed and it has been demonstrated to me that the safety net to catch my errors works very well. I find this very comforting.

Merchandise and experience

By / February 19, 2008 / 2 Comments

On the Chinese zodiac we’ve just entered the year of the rat. On the Tayler zodiac this is the year of merchandise. Already this year we’ve put out a handful of posters and we’re in process on t-shirts. As expected, we’ve had more than a few hassles as we hike up the learning curve for producing and shipping things other than books. Last weekend we sold some of the advanced shipment of shirts. Then yesterday I washed the shirts that we’d claimed for Howard and most of the white print washed off. The shirts had been improperly baked. It is a simple error, quickly resolved and won’t be a problem for the rest of the shirts, but I still had a moment of abject terror while staring at that shirt. Ditto today when the printer contacted me about a formatting error on Hold on to Your Horses. The errors themselves are easily fixed, but I’m left with a creeping fear that there is some other error, some big error that won’t be caught until it is too late. For all that I sit on panels at conventions and talk like I know exactly what I’m doing, I’m really just making this up as I go along. Sure I research and plan ahead, but those aren’t the same as experience. Unfortunately the only way for me to get experience is for me to forge ahead and hope for the best.

LTUE and next week

By / February 17, 2008 / 11 Comments

Conventions are the reward for all the hours of work that Howard and I put in at home. At conventions we finally have faces and voices for people who were previously anonymous hits on the website. Conventions are where it all begins to feel real. It works the other way too. Howard and I become real to people who have only known us through our work. At every single convention I attend I meet several new and amazing people. Most of the time these amazing people are not the ones I hoped/expected to meet when I arrive at the event. LTUE had both Orson Scott Card and Gail Carson Levine as guests of honor. I never had the chance to speak to either one of them. I am sure that they are wonderful people, but they were always either surrounded or rushing off somewhere. Howard did speak briefly with them both and even gave Mr. Card a copy of Under New Management. That’s enough, we’re happy. Among the new amazing people are Darwin Garrison of Darwin’s Evolutions, Joselle Vanderhoof a local poet/author, and Christie Skipper Ritchotte who reads slush for Shimmer. I had marvelous conversations with each of them. Then of course there were all the familiar amazing people. I am very fortunate to live in a place with a strong creative community.

I always come home from conventions exhausted, but invigorated. I want to dive into new projects and take advantage of the new opportunities that I have learned about. But this year I need to be careful. My plate is already so full that stuff is falling off. I can not dive into new things until I have finished off some of the old ones. Even more important is that I not upset the structure that I worked so hard to set up during January. The last few days were chaotic for us all, but now the kids need me to be back to making dinner and enforcing homework. They need me to be available to help them with the hundreds of things that seem little to me, but are big for them. So the primary focus for this next week is to re-establish normal.

In the business parts of normal I need to do the math to figure out how much we made attending this convention and exactly what merchandise sold. This is important because I need to ship merchandise to the two conventions that Howard attends next month and I need to know how much to ship. Also I need to prepare for my meeting with the tax accountant on Tuesday. Regular accounting needs to be done. Regular shipping also needs to be done. I need to figure out how many shirts have been pre-ordered so that I can give a preliminary count to our shirt guy. I want to plan a layout for the Hold on to Your Horses website. And hopefully I can do some work on The Teraport Wars as well. Oddly, I’m not oppressed by the quantity of things on my list for the week, but instead I’m looking forward to it.

LTUE 2008 Day 1

By / February 14, 2008 / 4 Comments

Like so many before him, the man meandered near our table covered with Schlock merchandise. I recognized the body language of “just browsing” and didn’t speak up from my seat behind the table. A person sitting behind a table of merchandise becomes amazingly invisible. He did not even notice me as I watched him. I saw him look at the covers of the books, then his head made a near imperceptible movement. I wasn’t sure I’d seen it, except that he did it again several more times as he read the schlock posters. He disapproved of what he was seeing and the minute movement of his head showed it. At that point I spoke up and offered him a URL card, telling him he could read online for free. I’m not sure why I did so, when I’d already figured out he wasn’t likely to want to read. He took the card to be polite and then left. I watched him leave, and realized that nothing I could say or do would make him like Schlock. Some people just won’t, no matter how much I might wish they would. But at least this guy was extremely polite. If I had not been watching so closely, I would never have known what he thought.

The exchange with Mr. Disapproval was a huge contrast to nearly every other interaction I had at LTUE. Dozens of people came up to me, already knowing my name, interested in what I had to say. I always expect everyone to know Howard, but I did not expect so many people to know me. I guess that happens when you attend the same convention multiple years running. This was our first year really running a merchandise table. During the hours I was there, Howard and I traded off. He would go listen to a panel, or be on a panel and I would sit at the table. Several times I handed out business cards or explained what Schlock Mercenary is to people who were interested. I’m very pleased to notice the huge contrast between today and my experience at a different convention three years ago. I have learned a lot about making conversation with strangers since that time.

I even got a chance to meet some of the folks who belong to the same online writer’s forum as I do. There were good conversations to be had there. Hopefully I’ll run into them again tomorrow. I also hope I get a chance to speak with Orson Scott Card, who is one of the guests of honor. I don’t need anything from him, but I would like to thank him for the books he has written. His writing had a huge impact on me when I was in my early twenties. I still feel some of the effects of that impact. Today, for example, I felt nervous when I realized that he had taken a seat across the room from me. I considered going over there, but did not want to be just part of the flock of people around him, hanging on his every word. It seems silly to be nervous, but I guess it is hard not to be in a situation like this.

Tomorrow is also the day of my panels. I’m looking forward to that. I have some great co-panelists. It should be fun.

Convention season begins

By / February 10, 2008 / 1 Comment

LTUE is this week. I thought I was only going to be able to attend on Friday afternoon/evening, but it is now looking like I’ll be able to be there Thursday until 1:30 or so. I may also be able to make some of Saturday afternoon and evening. Saturday is less certain though because I haven’t set up that babysitting yet.

Friday at 6pm both Howard and I will be on a panel about publishing fiction on the internet.

Friday at 7pm I will be on a panel about publishing with a small press.

Howard will be on a lot more panels than that, but he’ll publish that information on his own blog in the next couple of days.

In between panels, Howard and I are most likely to be found in the registration area where we’ll be selling Schlock books. We’ll also have the brand new Schlock shirts. Internet pre-orders will open on these tomorrow, but at LTUE we’ll have actual shirts that you can walk away wearing. Quantity and sizes will be somewhat limited though. Also Howard has also created some new posters for this event. They’ll probably be available online later, but if you come to LTUE you can get them first and you won’t have to pay for shipping. We’ll also have a copy of Hold on to Your Horses available for perusing and a sign up list for people who want to pre order. So don’t miss stopping by the Tayler table.

LTUE marks the beginning of our hectic 2008 convention season. Let the insane busy-ness begin.

Being busy and handling email

By / February 7, 2008 / 9 Comments

Sometime last year I wrote a post in which I realized out loud that I’d changed from a Stay-at-home-mom into a Work-from-home-mom. This is now the post where I realize out loud that work has changed from a part time job into a full time one. I used to spend 10-20 hours per week. Now I spend about 30 hours per week with occasional dips into 20 hours or spikes into 40 or more hours. This change happened with the shipping of Tub of Happiness, but I did not realize it at the time. Because I did not recognize the increase in my work load, I did not shift the schedule to account for it. This January I did shift the schedule, but I didn’t fully realize why I had to do it until I realized that all the intended spaces in the new schedule were already filled with things.

A good example of this is my email box. It used to be that I’d get 0-3 emails on any given day. Because I’m compulsive about checking my email, I would catch them as they arrived and reply to them within hours. Then we started shipping books. Suddenly I started getting daily statements about credit card receipts for the day. I’d let those collect in my box until accounting day when I’d enter them all into my financial tracking software. I did the same with electronic receipts for orders placed online. Customer service emails began to show up in my box. Those needed quick responses. So that the emails that needed responses did not get lost in the clutter, I’d click the star icon next to it. This worked well and so I did it for every email that I couldn’t respond to right away, but needed to respond to.

Lately the system has stopped working so well. My mailbox gets buried under 20 or 30 emails and many of them have stars next to them. Right now I have a dozen emails that need responses of one kind or another. It weighs on my mind and makes me feel behind to have so many messages waiting for a response from me. And yet I’m afraid of throwing things into a filing system until after I’ve responded. If I don’t have the reminder right in front of my face, I’ll forget to respond at all. I have started pulling the receipt emails out of my inbox. They just create too much clutter. Unfortunately comments to this blog also get caught in this task mess. I’ll read a comment and want to respond, but don’t have the brainspace right that moment. So I tag it for later. Sometimes I actually get back to comment responses. Other times I just have to let it go without responding. I just don’t have enough time to track everything.

I like being involved. I like that I am necessary enough that I’m constantly getting email. I could do without the increasing amount of spam. But I need to pay attention to my handling of email to see if I can manage it better. It frustrates me when I discover an email that has been waiting three days for a response from me. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

Postal Education

By / January 30, 2008 / 11 Comments

Today at the post office I learned several new things about mailing.

1. If you bring in 200 tubes to be mailed, make sure to sort the tubes first according to mail type. This wins you loads of goodwill from the employees who would really rather not deal with tubes at all. If you forget to sort ahead of time, staying to help sort also wins you goodwill.

2. Try to time your arrival with 200 tubes for a not-busy time of day like 8 am. The employees are much more willing to help when there is no line of people waiting.

3. The goodwill from postal employees means that when you make mistakes on allowable types of shipping, they are happy to help you correct them. Not only that, but they will then explain a bunch of information that while technically available online is nigh impossible to find or make sense of.

4. No package containing an invoice can be sent via media mail. The books can be sent media mail, but the invoice has to be sent separately. (This is the end of us using media mail as a shipping option because I use invoices to make sure that the right contents go into the right packages.)

5. Up to four pounds can be sent internationally via first class mail. This is cheaper than Priority Mail which I thought was the only option. I’d assumed that first class mail disallowed anything but letters. This is excellent news for customers abroad.

6. Up to a pound can be sent domestically via first class mail. This is good news for domestic print buyers.

7. Just because you’ve been shipping things for over a year doesn’t mean you actually understand what you are doing.

Happy sales

By / January 22, 2008

Hurray Howard’s new posters are selling! This means that we don’t have to watch our money slowly dwindle while we struggle to get the next book ready to go. I am very happy about this. We have long needed to do things to make our income more steady. The downside is that I’m personally busier with all the shipping. I suspect that will continue to be true as we add more merchandise to the store. I’ll take busier if it gives me a chance to eliminate some debts and squirrel away savings.