Only The Beginning

I finally bit the bullet and submitted my ISBN forms. Because so much of that data cannot be changed after submission, it’s *super* intimidating to finally hit submit. Having my ISBNs registered to my title was only the beginning. IngramSpark will not allow you to proceed through to setting up your print until you have that completed. So I figured, easy-peasy, I’ll just go upload my document, my cover JPG, and get everything complete and set.

No. I couldn’t have been more wrong if I tried. Let me go back to yesterday for a moment.

All along, I had assumed that the standard trade paperback size was 6″ x 9″. Whole inches, seemed perfectly cromulent, right? As I was reading through some advice regarding paperback trim sizes, somebody said, “Why not measure some of the paperbacks you have to get an idea of what looks standard?” So I did that. We have a shelf in our bedroom of every size and shape paperback you can imagine, but one shelf stands out from the others in its amazing consistency. I pulled a couple of those and found that they are, in fact, 5½” x 8¼”! On the surface, this doesn’t seem like much, but it has a MASSIVE impact on page formatting and page count. In an instant, Her Violet Empire went from 215pp to 250pp.

Now, back to today. IngramSpark helpfully provides a Book Building tool that can do page setup, cover design, and a whole lot more. Problem is, despite having every print option available, they don’t allow you to select 5½” x 8¼” in the basic designer. At all. Furthermore, and no offense to my future POD service, but the cover designer is awful. What it does for you: shows you trim-safe areas and text-safe areas, estimates spine sizes by page count, and gives you some standard text blocks for important information. This is about as flexible as it gets. If you’ve done your design elsewhere, like Canva, forget bringing it over into the designer. Not possible. To be fair, Ingram lets you bring FULL designs from other sites like Canva or Adobe InDesign, but you’re doing that holistically, not using the designer at all.

Furthermore, I have to completely redo the cover for HVE. The background photo we chose is an interior shot of the Washington National Cathedral. Because it’s not print quality, we did some digging, and it turns out that you may not under any circumstances use pictures of the cathedral for commercial purposes. While disappointing, it is completely understandable and we will abide by the rules. So here we go into the wonderful world of for-purchase stock photography, looking for something that fits the aesthetic. Fortunately, I still have a bit of leftover “free” money from my corporate reward, but it does seem like it’s time to start putting some money officially into Maximum Cat Press. I may even open a bank account this week.

All of this is to say that what I’ve done so far is only scratching the surface of what’s to come. I’m holding out hope that I can meet the release date I put (kind of at random) on my ISBN, 2/22/22. There’s a lot of work ahead.