Business notes ... why is the coffee gone?

[kinzel]

Note the oneth:

Things move on: yesterday I personally visited several printers around the state while looking for new quotes for Liaden Universe Companion #2 ... yes, the book will mostly likely be over a month late. Forgive me, please. At one good-sized printing plant I happened to be met by the owner who was grabbing a coffee in the front office; his office manager recalled that we'd done other printing at their plant over the years. He looked at a sample of LUC 1, mused that the paper was ... likely "natural" at 50 or 55lbs. And he said, "this is laminated -- you want that, and these blank pages are on purpose, right?" Then he took my info and passed it on to his estimator (who had called for a detail by the time I got home.

At the other plant, it took the front desk person *5* requests and quite a few moments on the intercom to get someone to help me, and that person moved me to the "cold call" office and after a short while began slapping at his chest heroically... trying to shut his cell-phone off but not succeeding. He then excused himself and stepped out of the room and spoke on the phone for some minutes before returning to tell me my page count must be off, and that without a micrometer he couldn't be sure of the weight of the paper. I mentioned I'd several other bids out and gee, could he tell me about "the guy in Farmington" and he complacently said that yeah, they'd bought him. Young sales guy then promised to "feed this into the system" and promised me an answer, probably this week.

Sooooo....
wonder who I'd prefer to deal with?

note the twoth:

in house we have the first round of interview questions from a German magazine, phantastisch! ... and since these are email interviews it could take awhile before it appears. Apparently the rapid appearance of the German editions of Agent and friends is drawing some interest. One informant reports we're getting sandbagging reviews on amazon.de -- but how would I know? Anyone here speak German?

note the threeth:

originally meant to be a travel week ending up at TuckerCon/ARCHON/NASFIC, instead this is a recuperation week of sorts and though I'm keeping busy it certainly is not at the same pace as if I were off to the shadow of the Arch. I have shipped some fliers off to NASFIC ... and am hoping the reach Myles, who took over my room when it became apparent I couldn't go. Friends of Liad -- if you see Myles and haven't seen fliers, ask him: I sent two mixed packages. Meanwhile a repeat request -- if you know you're going to be at a convention, we can ship to you before hand to to your destination, but beware, some places charge absurd amounts for handing over a ream of paper. In any case, with luck, we should have some SRM and Liaden interest flyers. Cross fingers. And BTW, anytime you're at a con and it's closing time, Liaden fans are encouraged to pick up and take with them any Liaden flyers they see that appear destined to be tossed ... you can send them back to us media mail, share them with friends, take them to your next convention/book club meeting/family gathering....
we really prefer them to be used, once printed.

Note the four:

Somewhere around here: ... a blog of note ... especially if you are a writer or interested in writing process ... http://asterling.typepad.com/incipit_vita_nova/ ...
enjoy. If anyone asks, tell 'em Steve sent ya. Meanwhile, if you see a notable blog on a genre-related topic, feel free to let me know....

Note the fivest:

Sharon is apparently not going to Con*Cept in the beautiful city of Montreal this October, while I apparently am. I note Baen authors David Weber and Tanya Huff involved in GoH spots ... it ought to be fun, though I guess I'll have to see how or if my cell service works there...

Note sixish:

I do hope Friends of Lid will be able to put together an FoL breakfast or lunch or party at NASFIC, and if you do I'd love to have some (webbable) photos. I have to tell you that after four or five years of being on the road six to ten weeks for conventions I am going through extreme con withdrawal this year. Attention convention committees: the necessities of Sharon's work schedule these days means we need to plan *far ahead* ... if we win the lottery big-time we may be able to return to a more informal life-style, but the health insurance situation being what it is in Maine, we're expecting I'll be doing more gallivanting than Sharon. If you'd like to see us both, please ask well ahead.

Note the seven:

I have a feeling we're going to hit at least 45 chapters in Fledgling at the current rate, possibly 50. Might be able to get it done, rough, this year. We shall ... see.

Meanwhile, our good (and extremely patient!) buddy Sam Chupp of the Fledgling podcast reports on the order of 150 or 160 subscribers (I guess this is RSS feeds?) to his near weekly reading of Fledgling. Try a listen, do ... and this week, make an effort to tell your friends about Fledgling and the podcast...

Still here? Thanks for reading all this dense stuff! Visit often, tell your friends,
and enjoy!

Comments

note the twoth

[saruby.livejournal.com]

I read German. I will check it out and let you know. I'm afraid my written German is not as good, but "ill work on a good review anyway.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

You can always try online translation for the amazon.de reviews. The results are usually amusing, if not always illuminating, and you can usually get the gist, if not all the details. Translating the one review up for "The Agent and the Soldier(female)" (which gives it 3 stars) gave the following:

"An agent, 2. Speaker of the house Korvar, meets complicated Soeldnerin after a notice one into a fight with the "mafia" and helps this for inexplicable reasons. In the following it determines, which is actual for a Terranerin the Soeldnerin holding a Liaden. She is pursued by the gangster organization. Like already in the first novel again a romance develops. The moreover turns out, which the agent foreignsteered by a brain laundry, this mystery separates however in the novel (still?) not up. By members the escape of the planet succeeds to a turtle-well-behaved race, who are friendly with the agent, after some fights. Then still another journey in a spaceship with unusual drive and its unexpected effects follows and show down in the universe. Although the character designs succeeded again completely and the story also tension elements have, this novel for inexplicable reasons bound me however not as much as the first novel of the series, therefore only 3 stars."

I particularly enjoyed "complicated soldier", "agent foreignsteered by a brain laundry" and "turtle-well-behaved race" myself.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Best wishes for a very happy birthday, even if they're a little on the late side. Cats don't make the most reliable delivery persons. :-)

[asterling.livejournal.com]

Hi Steve! Hey, I was all set for NASFiC -- but due to recent health problems, I can't go. I hope you have a great experience and you and Sharon connect with many fans and friends.

If you guys get a chance, put a good word in with the Young Adult programming and Beth Bancroft. I was able to help Beth some with planning this. These are the future writers and readers of tomorrow.

flyers for Dragon*Con

[(Anonymous)]

I will be attending Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend and could carry flyers over for you. Email me to coordinate kfluhler at aol dot com

Kay

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

One informant reports we're getting sandbagging reviews on amazon.de -- but how would I know? Anyone here speak German?

I do. Although I sometimes read German texts that make me wonder...

The thing is that the English editions - which Amazon.de also sells, at least some of them - get four and five star reviews throughout.

'Eine Frage der Ehre' had five reviews, three 5*, 1x2*, 2x1*.

It seems as if the readers are dissatisfied with the space-romance aspect of it - the characters aren't complex enough; the SFna; element too weak, ('there are spaceships but it might as well be set on a pirate ship 400 years ago.'

I'd be happy to read a German translation for you to tell you how bad it is; but it's pretty telling that the only bad reviews you get are for the German translation. Translating into German is awkward and I woulnd't want to do it; sentences that sound rich and enticing in English end up feeling overwrought and trite when you translate them, so you're only going to get a little bit of that, but still.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

The next convention to which I am going will be in Germany, end of September. Since postage over to Europe is rather a lot, do you have the flyers as PDF that I could get printed out here? Or perhaps someone could scan one and send it? Either English or German flyer would be fine, most of them read English as well as speak it (and I have heard from many of my German friends that they would rather pay high prices for the originals of most books than the cheaper translated ones).

(Email is chris AT {my_LJ_name} DOT net)

If I haven't mentioned it...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I would be happy to put out materials at ArmadilloCon for you guys. I may be pushing the envelope on it this year (we're talking next weekend) but I live in Austin, and go every year, so if there's no time this year, then another year.

Might still do WFC. It depends (partly) on whether I have a sale by then. If I do, I hope I can talk you guys into coming down for a meal -- my treat!

I also regularly do ConDfW, AggieCon, Soonercon...and ApolloCon looks like it may be a regular for me, too.

So let me know...

Flyers

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

Just slip some in my next order since you seem to have Dragoncon covered. I'll be at Necronomicon and WFC in the next few months.

Fledgling chapters

[(Anonymous)]

If Fledgling is going to be 45-50 chapters and our donations only covered 30-some, why not revert to the original rules and ask for donations again when you get to that point? It made sense to close the kitty when you weren't sure of the number of chapters - it might allow you to both slow down the process a little and be paid for your work.

I suggest this as a regular Fledgling reader who misses my fix but wants our authors to be happy, well paid, etc.

And who is Myles? I'm going to NASFIC (last minute decision) and would certainly go to a Friends of Liad event. I assume there will be bulletin boards or other processes to notify people.

B. O'Brien