2004.04.19 quick note:
i fully intend to write a longer post soon, as i've had one brewing for a while, but no time to actually sit down and write it. 'til then, how's about this:
i finally got the Lucifigous Prick online store up and running this past thursday night, and, as simple as it may be, i'm pretty damned pleased for it to finally be in operation.
also, for another shameless plug of a commercial project, i'm getting my first poetry book re-printed by a professional printer, and i hope to have those available in the next 3 or 4 weeks (i should be getting a proof copy on monday or tuesday). so again, i'm really excited about this as well.
coffeemonk.com hasn't been updated in a dog's age, but it looks like i might have to move that up on the timetable a little bit (most recent project schedule had coffeemonk.com being updated some time in the next 100 years or so).
ok. enough with the gross commercialism.
Go Buy Something! (ok, now that's really enough)
| categories :: | Calls to Action - Cool Links - Happy/Love - Lucifigous Prick - Personal Projects - x:13 Family |
Jennifer said:
How's it goin Matt? Been meaning to ask you – how did you go about getting you poetry book published in the first place? I'm illustrating a poetry book for someone, and am interested in how you managed it. Btw I never got a copy from your first printing, so if you let me know when it's done, I'd be happy to buy one.
Was checking the Rud dates and noticed you guys have a gig on the 10th. Good luck y'all!
m@ said:
Hey Jennifer, it's going alright here aside from a mild case of the unemployment blues.
When i published the book the first time, i did it entirely by hand–i did the layout/design on the computer, printed out a master copy of the interior pages and had them copied and cut at a copy shop. I printed the covers on my DeskJet at home. Then i assembled the books using a book-press i built with instructions from this book ( http://www.gigabooks.net/thebook.htm ). It was something of a bitch doing the first run of the book–building 20 books by hand isn't an easy task! But, they were perfect-bound and looked very professional. Aside from the strong smell of the glue i used (which mostly wore off after a few weeks), you'd have been hard pressed to tell the difference between my books and a professionally produced copy.
Now that print-on-demand publishers are more prevalent, i've managed to find one ( http://www.opm.com/home.html ) that will do the work for a reasonable cost on very short runs. I'm getting 50 copies in this first re-print, and they're only costing me a little over $2.00 per book. The interiors are black and white only, but this printer has a lot to offer beyond b/w interiors if you're willing to part with a little more dough.
And don't worry, i'll be sure to let you know when they're available. 😉
And thanks for the well-wishes. It'll be our first show with a drummer, so we'll see how it goes. It'll be interesting at the very least.
Jennifer said:
Whoa, sorry to hear about the job blues, man. I hope it's just a short "hiatus".
The job market in Louisville has really sucked for a while (yeah, we've been looking -Columbus really blows), but it seems to be getting better lately.
Thanks for all the info on self publishing. There's a guy in Spain (on the MB at forum.frankblack.net) that supposedly makes his living as a writer, and who seems to only publish ebooks. One interesting site he pointed me to was http://www.absurdist.cc/author.cfm?a=Owen%20Kilfeather
(linked to his story). I need to just spend a few days chasing down all the resources -that homemade press sounds great! Especially if I can get to an etching or litho press for the art. I'll have to look over the contract at opm.com, and see if it's copacetic.
Anyway, best wishes, Matt! "Illegitimis non carborundum" 😉
Jennifer said:
Jennifer again (who's had too much sake) I just noticed your mp3 of the moment (Kerouac), and thought you'd really like http://www.ubu.com – great free mp3s of poetry, stuff from Burroughs and gazillions of other poets/artists/musicians.
m@ said:
I've seen it coming for a while, but i've been trying to ignore the signs… we've not had a lot of paying work around the office of late. So, the whole company's shut down. But yeah, hopefully it'll just be a temporary thing. I've already had a meeting with a rep from a local IT staffing firm, and they've set me up with a telephone interview with a big local company looking for someone with my particular talents.
Really, the hardest part about self-publishing is marketing and sales. I'd love to be able to get Savant-Garde Press and My Favorite Martyr off the ground in a real way and have them carry some real weight in the marketing and sales aspects of the business. Group marketing would be much easier to accomplish (& fund!) than doing it on an individual basis.
And not to worry, i'm in a relatively chipper mood what with the impending trip to France with my best girl and all. I don't think the bastards would be able to grind me down if they tried!
m@ said:
I did have to look up what "Illegitimis non carborundum" meant, of course. I'm not that smart without a little help. 😉