Help us get the word out

New promotional brochure for Triangulation series (4 pages)

We’ve designed a promotional brochure for the Triangulation series. Please contact me if you’ll be attending a convention and would like to help us get the word out.

Interior pages

Back page (click to enlarge)

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Confluence ahoy!

Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday I held the Triangulation: End of the Rainbow proof in my grubby hands. Now I have boxes of them ready to debut at Confluence tonight.

We’re going to kick off the proceedings with a 90 minute session in which I’ll talk about Triangulation, our reading and selection process, the challenges of selling an anthology of (mostly) original fiction. Young writers in the Alpha program will participate, perhaps reading from their own work, and Amy Treadwell will be reading an excerpt from her story as well.

On Saturday evening, we’re hosting a Launch Party (Willow room, 9pm-???) where we will sell books and hob nob with folks. Peter Beagle should be stopping by and we’re hoping to lure Wen Spencer as well. If that’s not enough, free snacks and soft drinks should seal the deal. There’s also a cash bar. With luck, we’ll convince people they’re a bit tipsy and seeing double when they purchase two copies of the anthology. Don’t worry, it’ll clear up in the morning

Contributor copies will go out next week. Contributors who would like extra copies may order them at a 50% discount. I’ll be in touch about that as soon as the Confluence dust clears a bit.

On another topic, I received a very welcome phone call yesterday. I can’t reveal the substance just yet, but there’s a good chance I’ll be whooping again in this blog soon.

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It’s a whoop

The Triangulation: End of the Rainbow proof arrived today and it looks good. I think I like last year’s cover a little better, but it’s plenty eye-catching and the interior looks to be very readable and cleanly laid out.

Copies are on order for Confluence next week. Wish us luck in selling enough copies to break even this year. The book should be available on Amazon and Barnes And Noble websites and in the Ingram catalog in a week or two. That means it should be available for order from your favorite bookstore. We’re hoping to be stocked in a few stores as well.

Thanks to everyone who contributed work this year. We have some tremendous fiction on tap for our readers.

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The proof is in the pudd… er, mail

Having cleared the title setup hurdles at the printer, I’m told the Triangulation: End of the Rainbow proof is rolling its way toward me this very overnight. Cross fingers it will be here in the morning and that nothing is stupdendously wrong with the book, because I really need to order our copies tomorrow so they’ll arrive in time for Confluence next weekend.

Clap if you believe in UPS! And check back tomorrow for a whoop or a sigh.

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Printing a rainbow

I worked through proof corrections and some additional minor copy-editing last week and processed the cover file and interior file over the weekend. It was an ordeal to say the least, but I THINK it’s going to come out nicely. The cover is striking, though I’m concerned it might be too bright in CMYK. We’ll see shortly. I ended up having to reduce font size slightly in order to maintain our page count while bringing the page header down a bit to comply with Lightning Source requirements. That took almost all day to accomplish, as each text block had to be reset on each page and each section of text re-streamed and checked for orphans.

At any rate, I’m glad that’s done. It will be easier next time around, I think. I’m looking forward to mailing off contributor copies and reviewer copies.

Tomorrow, I hope to get back to work on my novel, at least for a few days. Still waiting on our agent regarding the collaborative fantasy with Sue. I’m thinking of changing my middle initial from “V” to “W” (for “Waiting”).

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End of the Rainbow is closer than you think

We’ve received 15 of 19 signed contracts from contributors at this point. We’ve sent those names and addresses on to Parsec to begin arranging payments.

On the layout front, we’re basically finished, but for a final close read through. We’ve sent pdf proofs to each contributor now and given them a week to make corrections. We should give two weeks, but the end of the rainbow is suddenly nigh. We must get the final copy to the printer by July 15 in order to assure delivery before Confluence (July 25 in Pittsburgh).

We’re set up with Lightning Source and have purchased ISBNs, so it’s mainly a matter of getting files into proper upload format at this point. I expect to be spending considerable time on that in the next week.

We hope you will enjoy reading the anthology as much as we’ve enjoyed finding worthy pieces to put into Triangulation: End of the Rainbow. May it become a shining pot of gold for those who find it in bookstores and on the web.

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Middle of the Rainbow

We met this weekend to judge our progress in getting the anthology out. It looks like we’re pretty much on schedule. Jamie has a preliminary layout of the book and we’re working through line-editing for the next couple weeks. The cover artwork is very nice; can’t wait to see it on glossy stock. Contracts have been mailed. I’m working on the Lightning Source angle, the launch party at Confluence is taking shape.

I’m toying with the idea of offering a free story critique to anyone who purchases the anthology. It wouldn’t be a line-by-line, but a more general analysis, kind of a here’s what grabs me, here’s what doesn’t, here are some ideas to consider in revision.  The reasons I like it are twofold. First, it would encourage folks to purchase the antho who might otherwise sit on the sidelines. Second, and more important to me, it could provide people with a way to improve upon a story in advance of formal submission to the anthology. We do our best to select the best genre stories we can, but anything we can do to improve on that process is good.

Anyone think that’s a particularly good or particularly terrible idea? Comments are welcome.

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Contracts out, contract in

I’ve been informed that contracts for Triangulation: End of the Rainbow have now been mailed out. It’s nice to get that off the to-do list.

We’ll turn our attention to line editing soon, with the idea of making sure authors get at least a couple weeks to review any changes. We’re happy with the stories we’ve selected and hope the community of readers will be too. Suggestions for reviewers, review blogs, etc. are welcomed. We’ll send copies to a good selection of reviewers to hopefully get the book some attention out there in the wild beyond.

On a personal note, my short flash piece, “Cycles” (500 words) is up at Everyday Fiction today. It’s getting rave reviews, but the stars rating is holding around 3.5 out of 5. This suggests to me that it’s one of those stories people either love or hate. I seem to be adept at writing those for some reason. I’m just glad it’s the lovers who are posting comments, not the haters, ’cause my poor l’il ego needs some strokes today.

Because? I got a rejection from Asimov’s yesterday. Sheila basically said the story was “nicely done” but didn’t quite work for her. She looks forward to my next.

I doubt she’d say that if she saw what I have “in stock” right now. A bunch of half-finished stories I keep putting down when I hit the hard spot. Gotta get that focus thing going again.

Those of you expecting contracts for Triangulation, be watching your mail in the next week. If you don’t have one in two weeks, shoot us an email. It could be we (i.e. I) put down a wrong address.

Happy writing and avid reading, everyone!

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Triangulation Update

Well, we’re winding down at last. We’ve got two more rewrites to respond to, but should be taking care of that on Saturday, Jamie has been laying out the issue, and I’ve been checking into a new printer that may make our books available via Ingram. This would mean that bookstores would be willing to special order them; a few specialty stores might even stock titles. Our goal this year is to boost sales as much as we can, in order to alleviate some of the pressure on Parsec, which supports the project year in and year out.

I’ll be in charge of sending out contracts as soon as our editor finalizes the form, which should be Saturday or Sunday.

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Triangulation Anthology Wrapup

We finished the selection process for Triangulation: End of the Rainbow today. We now have 17 stories, 12 fantasy, 4 SF, and 1 horror. Additionally, three rewrites were requested, bringing the total to 20 stories (14, 5, 1).

We skewed heavier toward fantasy than we would like, but the theme has something to do with that, I’m sure. Stories range from less than 500 words to just over 5000 and there’s plenty of variety in approach and voice.

We’re planning to switch printers this year, which should make the anthology available for order from the major book chains as well as Amazon and Barnes and Noble online.  We need to sell more copies than we have in the past if we want to keep the anthology viable moving forward. Any ideas you have for promoting the book are certainly welcome.

Thanks to all of you (yinz, as we say in Pittsburgh) who submitted work to the anthology. We hope you will consider purchasing a copy when it becomes available in late July.

Do you Triangulate?

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