#paperback formatting

[e-kathryns-shadows]

Emergency Commissions! This year has been super tough, doing a couple drawings would mean so much right now. I also do indie book formatting, and cant 40% off if you're interested.

[not-poignant]

I was thinking back to the post I made about ebooks being so much more accessible for so many people compared to paperbacks/hardbacks and the other thing I wanted to add is the vast, vast majority of the time, the author gets so much more profit comparatively for an ebook than a paperback/hardback.

That's not a problem for huge huge huge authors either way, but for small-time authors, or authors with small publishing houses, the difference in profits can sometimes be $2.00 or $3.00 per ebook sold vs. $0.50c or $1.00 per paperback. Really. You pay more, but the author gets a lot less.

In the case of indie authors like myself, ebooks give the highest returns always.

This isn't necessarily something most readers think about, but I have had readers assume that because the book format cost them more, that automatically means more goes to the author. In fact it's often the opposite. There are very few exceptions (university texts come to mind). But in the case of your run-of-the-mill indie fiction, if you genuinely want the most profit to go to the author, get the ebook.

[anne-bsd-bibliophile]

The Demon of the Lonely Isle by Edogawa Ranpo

Whatever challenge or hardship we face, it is never as dreadful as that which we are able to imagine.

- Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

Our youthful spirits were still capable of enjoying such adventures and thrilled at keeping secrets. Added to this, the type of relationship that existed between Michio and myself meant we were more than just 'friends'. Michio's affection for me was atypical - although I didn't really comprehend how he felt, I understood it on an intellectual level - and like any normal romantic sentiment it wasn't necessarily unwelcome, so when we were face to face, there was a kind of sweet sexual tension in the air. This tension perhaps made our 'game' all the more pleasurable.

- Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

Nobody can see the plight we're in, we can't see each other's faces. After we die, our bodies will lie here undiscovered for eternity. But just as this place has no light, it has no laws, no morality, no customs. It is another world, where humanity is extinguished. In the short time we have left, I want to disregard all such formalities. We need not feel embarrassment or jealousy, or hide behind good manners or put on a show anymore. We're like two newborn beings, the only living creatures in this primordial darkness. - Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

A little bit of darkness and people fall to pieces. Get a hold of yourself. Where there's life there's hope.

- Edogawa Ranpo, The Demon of the Lonely Isle

Fun Fact:

Ranpo's friend and fellow detective writer Yokomizo Seishi (1902-81) wrote, 'the love for the same sex, which had been a long-standing desire of the author [sakka no hisashiki ganbō de atta dōseiai], had finally been incorporated into this novel.' An insert to another multivolume collection of Ranpo's works published in 1938 and 1939 emphasizes in boldface type that Kotō no oni is 'a work in which the author dealt with the topic of same-sex love.'

- Jeffrey Angles, Writing the Love of Boys pages 14-15

[changeling-press]

Aaaaand my last book for a while! Very proud of this one.

A paperback copy of Captured by @redwingedwhump

I fought with this one every step of the way. Through formatting, and then my printer was in the process of dying. It would print about seven pages before eating my paper and forcing me to start again. But eventually I got it all done! After that covering it was a breeze.

I'm not used to paperbacks, but it turned out great! Again, loving the die cut title. It's a thicc boi and fun to hold.

RIP my printer, died doing what I loved.

[maggiecheungs]

Illustrations by Tai Tun-Pang from the FLP edition of Dream of the Red Chamber

[theygender]

I love thriftbooks so much. My gf and I finally got a new bookshelf for our bedroom and there's a lot of extra space on it so I decided to try and fill in the gaps in my collection of warrior cats books from my childhood. I needed 8 books in total and I just found ALL of them in "very good" condition for a total of only $35 (with free shipping!)

[queenlucythevaliant]

This seems kind of unlikely, but since a few of you have bookbinding experience I thought I'd toss it out there:

I'd like my next practice bind to be a favorite novel, but most of the novels whose full text is easily available are also easy to find as beautiful clothbounds, and thus I already own them. If I bound a favorite classic, my efforts would be redundant. This leaves me with (a) binding a B-tier favorite or (b) attempting to bind something outside the public domain. I'm trying to figure out how feasible (b) would be for me now.

Does anyone know of a method that could be used to harvest text from ebooks into Word or similar? Or can anyone even recommend some less legitimate resources for getting ahold of these texts with the formatting intact?

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

does anyone else get disproportionately stressed out by being given a book they already own. it's like... objectively not a big deal! i can give it away! but also somebody thought of me, and spent money on me, and i cannot benefit from the thing they have given me (even though they objectively got something right because it interests me enough to have bought it already) so i feel both ungrateful and also a little sad that i do not get a new book (and then feel guilty for being sad because i was not, like, entitled to a new book) and oh no those are bad emotions and a gift should be good emotions, help

[lionofstone]

can i just say that ebook formatting is the most annoying thing

[rocket-candy-heart]

Sometimes when a used bookstore is having their going out of business sale, you go into a fugue state and come out of it with like 35lbs of paperbacks that only cost $15

[e-kathryns-shadows]

Commission Info :)

[twisted-tales-told]

Did I just buy a book because of a tumblr post I saw about it

Yeah I did

[virtual-idoll]

I just realized something...

This is volume 3 and volume 7. Why does Iwanome not carry his own flashlight. Why is Arase his flashlight dude. You share one flashlight between the two of you.

[shrikebrother]

i am so excited for the succession scripts to be published

[rwwinton]

One day I will make a collection of short stories just about my favorite secondary characters because I want to give them happiness, too.

[queenlucythevaliant]

A handful of AO3 questions, for those in the know:

Do you typically use the "only show work to registered users" option or no? Pros/cons? (I haven't used it for now because I wanted Knitting Circle folks who didn't have accounts to be able to see my stuff in the tag, but I'm increasingly thinking more private might just be better.) Anyone have strong feelings/opinions on this?

When you get comments, is it considered good form to always reply? Or just if they say something particularly interesting? I feel like I've seen posts floating around here about AO3 comment etiquette, but I'm not finding them.

What types of stories are considered appropriate to post? Most of my work is quite short and often nonnarrative (bc when I started writing about Narnia I had the things I was writing in mind as "creative character studies" or somesuch - I didn't have the word fanfiction - and honestly that's still kind of how I think of them 😆) -- What about pieces that are structured nontraditionally? Do you guys post all your Tumblr work to AO3, or just the highlights? Is there anything of mine that you'd particularly like to see on AO3?

This won't be relevant to me for a while yet, but when you post longer form stories, do you post them all at once or serially?

My understanding is that the advantage of using AO3 is that it's easier to navigate and organize and that people can easily bookmark your work and create their own little libraries. Is this essentially correct?

Just in general - any tips on avoiding the bad/gross/creepy stuff and taking full advantage of the good on that platform? (Edit: If I stay entirely within the Salt and Light tag, should I be good?)

Tagging @holbytlanna and @melliabee because they've offered help in the past, but anyone who had experience with this/knows what they're doing please do chime in. I'm feeling very exposed here 😂 Like I said before, this whole thing is very much an experiment for me right now