Typography time! We’re in layouts on All the Things!

Pressing Matters: Week of August 5-9, 2013

Acquisitions

1. Still waiting to be able to announce that epic YA fantasy…we’re on the edge of our seat and can’t wait to tell you about it!

Editing

1. Many edits! All the edits! I have a feeling a certain Unnamed Newly Contracted Author is going to either laugh uproariously or weep when reading the margin comments.

Production

1. Illustrations for City of Devils are proving a bit problematic. Anyone out there A) really good at vintage comics-style illustration and B) willing to work cheap?
2. Text design in the works for Infinity Key.
3. Proofreading continues on II Crimsonstreak.
4. Typographer Extraordinaire Alan instantly identified the fonts used in the first two books of the Resurgam series, which means we can now get to work on laying out Grave!

Reviews, Promotions, and Buzz

1. Don’t miss Scare LA! On August 10-11, Justin Robinson will be whooping it up with his creepy compatriots at Scare LA at LA Mart in downtown Los Angeles. Stop by to say hi, and pick up a special advance edition of City of Devils!
2. David Colby recently appeared at the Sunnyvale book festival, and was caught on camera doing an interview!
3. Can’t get enough of Susan Jane Bigelow’s Extrahumans? Good news, everyone! She’s collected the various bonus stories she’s released as the novels have launched into a low-priced eBook!

Sundries

1. A very thoughtful, balanced, rational-yet-impassioned defense of indie bookstores in the face of Amazon, and particularly the backlash against President Obama’s visit to an Amazon warehouse. Worth a read.
2. Proving that bricks-and-mortar IS still critically important, and plays a valuable role in community life, one of our very favourites, the Northshire, has just expanded, opening its second location in Saratoga Springs, New York. Congratulations, guys!
3. However, physical bookstores might have some problems if they threw events like these…
4. Of LEGO and librarians – gotta love this!
5. And speaking of libraries…wow.
6. Our adopted/new home of Philadelphia is part of a thriving book scene – and this roving library on wheels, with Garth Nix inspiration, is pretty darn cool. Rock on, dude!
7. Om nom dinosaur.
8. The cute helps us cope with the fact that the C&G company credit card number was apparently stolen in early July, and used to buy a large batch of plane tickets to Malaysia. We’re mostly upset that the thieves didn’t invite us to come along. Company trip to Kuala Lumpur!
9. (Don’t worry, the credit card company has resolved the issue and we’re on track. It was just a very shocking and stressful day there…)
10. And speaking of financials, we’re trying to get our royalty software working smoothly again. Amazon changed its report structure, and now things aren’t importing. Neither are B&N orders, and something’s gone all funny with physical book order importing, too. And believe me, manually entering all those orders? NOT HAPPY FUN TIMES. Royalties soon, children. We promise.