Here's the long awaited Christmas Edition of this blog (at least, I waited a long time to write it). As promised last time, I will have more to say about dealing with Lightning Source this time and my own experiences. Before I get to that, however, I need to bring my readers up to date with news from Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC. And there is news, big news. Moonshine Cove has published its second book, No Time to Cry, an exciting romantic suspense novel set in a small southern town back in the era of tail fins and rock and roll. For more details, go to this site: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=G+Dedrick+Robinson&x=10&y=20.
It's somewhat of an understatement to say the story is set in the 1950s. Rose Campion is actually the pen name of a writer from that era. It was actually written in 1957 making it an important period piece. More than that, it's an exciting read with memorable characters. Here's what some current writers of romance novels say about it:
"NO TIME TO CRY may be set in 1957 Kentucky , but it's definitely not Richie Cunningham's 'Happy Days.' Sue Munroe, a small-town gold-digging Lolita, mistress of the con, wants two things--riches and her own Prince Charming--and she'll go to extremes to get them. Filled with intrigue, scandal, romance, betrayal and murder, this romantic suspense novel is a sizzling guilty pleasure read."--Carole Bellacera, award-winning author of Tango's Edge and the upcoming Lily of the Springs
"Rose Campion's fresh and engaging voice comes through loud and clear on every page of No Time to Cry. With its vivid descriptions and fascinating characters, this book grabs you from the start and won't let go."--Heather Huffman, author of Ties That Bind and Suddenly A Spy
Sorry to go on so much about this new book, but I guess you can tell that as the publisher, I'm proud of it.
Now, let's get on with some more more information about Lightning Source International, LSI from here on. First, how can you as an individual, author or not, deal with this company? The short answer is you can't. LSI does not sign contracts with individuals, only with publishing companies. So that has to be your first step if you want to work with LSI—form your own publishing company. How many hoops you have to jump through to do so depends on what state you live in. As I've already described in a previous installment, for South Carolina, it wasn't bad, just filling out an application and paying $125.00.
Once your company exists, there's one more preliminary step that must be completed before you apply for an account with LSI. You need to own a set of ISBNs, International Standard Book Numbers. Look on the back of any book and you will see the ISBN, 13 numbers usually printed on a bar code in the lower right corner on the back of the book. The ISBN identifies the book and publishing company anywhere in the world. Where and how do you get an ISBN for your book? They are provided free in many parts of the world, but in the United States you have to buy them from R.R. Bowker, a private company. You can buy them one at a time, but it's a money saver to buy them in bulk. The price for one ISBN is $125.00 but 10 will cost you just $250. A hundred is $575 or just $5.75 each, a lot better price structure than $125 each. I decided to buy a hundred. In addition to the savings, another big advantage of buying in the bulk is that the six-number sequence of numbers identifying your publishing company remains constant. All books your company publishes will have this same six-number sequence whereas if you buy ISBNs one-at-a-time, the numbers will differ.
After your publishing company legally exists and your ISBNs are in hand, you're ready to start filling out the LSI application form. The purpose of the application is to establish a wholesale business relationship between your company and LSI. You can request that LSI mail the application to you if you want, but doing it on line is a lot quicker and easier, although the LSI website is far from the easiest to navigate. Correctly completing it can be tricky because some of the things asked are not entirely clear, or at least they weren't to me. I found Aaron Shepard's guide to completing the LSI application in his book POD for Profit to be a great help and I recommend it. It's important that you avoid incorrectly answering some of the questions because if you don't, your company might be turned down.
After submitting the completed application, what typically happens next is that you will be emailed a set of additional questions. Answering these correctly is just as important as the first set, but the end result should be that you have a contract with LSI for the U.S. You will be asked if you also are interested in contracts with the UK, the European Union and Australia. If so, there are contracts to complete for each of these. It's a lot to fill out, but worth it because the end result is that the books from your publishing company will be available all over the world through Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Australia, etc as well as Barnes & Nobel and many other sources. Any book store should be able to order your book.
Although not a direct requirement, it's worth mentioning that in reality you need one more thing to work with LSI, technical proficiency. In other words, you need to feel comfortable working with computers. LSI hints at this with one of their questions: “Will you need assistance with editing, book design or cover layout?” What they're really asking is whether you will need help from LSI. If you say you will need help, your application will mostly likely be turned down because they do not offer such help, so just answer, “no.” If you think you might need help, you'll have to get it somewhere else. If you are a person who has to ask others for help with your computer fairly often, then you most likely won't be able to work successfully with LSI. On the other hand, if people ask you for help, you should have no problem.
After a week or a few weeks, if your contract is accepted by LSI, you will receive a welcoming email from the Account Liaison Representative. This is an important email because it will introduce you to your assigned Client Service Representative with her phone number and email address. From here on, you will work exclusively with your assigned Client Service Representative. If things go smoothly, you will have no need to contact her. It's when problems develop that you have to work with her, but it's up to you to contact her, not the other way around. If your cover or you book interior is rejected for some reason, you'll receive an automated email informing you of that fact, but not why. After you contact your CSR, which sometime can take days, your CSR will serve as your liaison with the technician. She will tell you why your book cover or interior was rejected, but not how to correct it. That's up to you to figure out.
Maintaining a good working relationship with your CSI is important, not just to get your book out in a timely manner, but for the bottom line. LSI charges your company $75 to submit the cover and interior. If you have to resubmit either, you will be charged again. Your CSR can waive this charge. Be nice to your CSR. Realize that the CSRs at Lightning Source are greatly overworked with each CSR having to handle maybe 300 clients. That's a lot to keep up with, so don't be impatient if she doesn't answer your email immediately. Try to remain calm and understanding.
Enough for this installment. Next time, I'll get down to some specifics about how to set up your book interior and how you can go about getting a good cover for your book. Merry Christmas Happy New Year and good publishing!
