p1k3-wala/pages/July_30_2006

ChapbookProcess

<[Saalon]> Should I buy this one, or is it worth waiting for your final copy?  I don't want some special edition director's cut coming out three weeks after I buy this one.  ::grin::

<[Brennen]> See, the spin I ''really'' oughta put on this is that right now is your opportunity to own a limited edition preview release.

This is the difference it will make:

* The title might be different if I think of something less stupid.
* There'll be some more text on the copyright/intro page, where publisher info and that sort of thing usually goes.
* I'll put something on the back cover.
* If there are any typos left, I'll fix them. I don't know how there could be any typos left, but there is probably at least one.

<[Anonymous]> I'm curious -- how much did this whole thing cost to publish? Are you getting a percentage of the sales?

<[Brennen]> "Publish" is probably the wrong word; [http://www.lulu.com Lulu.com] is a PrintOnDemand service; you upload some files and they'll turn 'em into a book.

Since I haven't (yet) purchased an ISBN number, I haven't had any up-front costs with Lulu. The downside of this model is that, because each order is printed individually (which usually means one book at a time), and because Lulu wants to make a profit, there's a fairly high per-book cost.

So, frex, ''unrequired poetry'' (iffy title still subject to change) is $10.05. Out of that, $6.05 is  production cost, Lulu takes an $0.80 commission, and we wind up with $3.20. I've also got an option to buy books at "cost", and if it's a sizable enough order there're discounts, but I think I'll shop around before I get a substantial number of these printed. Lulu's just one of the easier / more reputable options.

<[caeb]> By the way, did that "pebble in your pocket" poem ever get touched up?
I know I'm all late about asking, but there you go.
p.s.: Very nice.

<[Brennen]> That's a good question. Let me find the relevant bit of the file.

 pebble in your pocket
 from a driveway in nebraska
 reminds you some days
 of small things left unresolved.
 found feathers dusty as rain
 dances that never brought down
 lightning, moldy bread
 plastic-wrapped on
 countertops and 
 waiting.  wine gone
 vinegar sour, the
 materials of an
 unshared communion,
 the broken nest
 in april,
 the spring
 day lilac-scent missing
 knitted cuff of the second mitten,
 and her hand in yours (it was 
 august).

 they gather weight like
 freezing fog, shaken off by
 northern winds--
 caught at rest in folds of jacket.

 perhaps they are not
 so small after all.

Does that look right?

<[caeb]> We're still losing people on the lilacs line, and I don't know what to do about it.


<[caeb]> Also, H. suggests "Wrote" for a title.

<[Brennen]> "spring day's dead lilacs?" We might just have to let it go.
<[caeb]> "spring day in absence of lilac scent"?  Our problem is we like lots of words too much.  I think even when we're not acting like it, it shows.

<[caeb]> (I realize it doesn't matter over-much, but it's a Thing.)


<[caeb]> Dad says skip the nest and lilacs, and go straight to the mitten.  I am feeling like an idiot for not thinking of that.

<[Saalon]> ...listening to poets talk makes me feel dumb, somehow.  As a story-centric prose writer (and reader, for that matter), discussions of losing people at a specific line leaves me scratching me head.  I really, really don't get poetry at all.

Is there a "dumb" tag in HTML I can surround this comment with?

<[Brennen]> I think it's entirely a function of scale. A short poem, probably even more than something like a song, lives or dies on one or two lines.