Number Three

I am in a period of enforced sociability because CStM and I are visiting Wales over Christmas and New Year. That’s why I am so uncommunicative at the moment. I have so, so many relatives…

I also have limited eMail access. I have to do it through a browser and can’t always remember the passwords 

I brought some copies of The Underdog Anthology to spread the word with a few free samples. Unfortunately I was too late to get copies of Hugo Stone’s ‘Cultish’ to bring with me but I’ll order some as soon as I get back.

I had the idea for the publishing business in March, then went through moving house and much procrastination and thereby failed to hit the Halloween deadline I had set myself for the anthology. Still, it’s a learning curve. I now realise how long it takes to put an anthology together so I’ll give myself more time for the next one.

Surprisingly, novels are faster. I had expected long stories to take much longer to deal with but it’s not the story, it’s the authors and all the fiddly finance and legal bits that take the time. With a novel there’s only one author to deal with. Also, with an anthology of nine authors, everything arrives in different formats and on different word processors and I’m sure most will remember the total bugger-up of my attempt to reformat it all at once… next time I’ll format each story before combining them.

The business is running at a loss at the moment but that’s okay. With the UK’s ‘tax on account’ crap, making a big profit in year one will kill any small business because the taxman wants this year’s tax and next year’s too. It’s better to build up gradually and to start with a zero or small loss balance. Being a success is frowned on by our Government, no matter who is in charge. You have to sneak up on them slowly.

So the count at the end of the first nine months of what started as Underdog Books, and is now Leg Iron Books, is two published. I think that’s not too bad for a one man startup with no real idea what he’s doing.

The Underdog Anthology on Amazon and on Barnes and Noble in print and eBook formats.

Cultish, by Hugo Stone, on Amazon and on Barnes and Noble in both formats.

Both available as eBooks on Kobo, Sony, Apple, and other places too.

I’ll move some of my earlier books to Leg Iron Books to swell the catalogue, gradually.

Next up is Justin Sanebridge’s romance across time, ‘The Goddess of Protruding Ears’. It’s not as raucous as Hugo Stone’s story but it’s a good read and even if you get confused by the time switches, everything is neatly tied up at the end. I hope to get enough time away from family to get it into the print process before returning to the Scottish remoteness but if I don’t, it’ll be a matter of days after that. Mid January at the latest.

Cover art is, as with Hugo’s, already done by the author. Here, then, is a preview…

Number three. Once this is done there are two more waiting for attention, so the faster I work, the better.

Who said being a publisher would be easy?

Oh. It was me…