Book marks and bar codes

Dear Reader,

The wheels have been turning very, very, very, very, very slowly here at Good Manners Kids Stuff Press.

Who knew that it would take so long to get my books published?

(Now I can see why it can take 18 months to 2 years or more when an author gets published.)

I am disappointed that I don't have any updates to share with you other than that I received a nice sample package from an online printer who prints bookmarks, among other things.

I plan on using bookmarks as a marketing tool, so I'm glad to have the information. But until I get my book designs finalized, I won't have anything to put on the book marks!

So, I'm still at a standstill!

I am still hopeful that I'll launch by the end of August or beginning of September. The timing could work well for my sports book as it coincides with fall sports such as football and soccer.

In the meantime, I'll just keep proofing and planning -- and enjoy our family vacation. But before I go, I wanted to circle back to something I had mentioned in my last post about bar codes and pricing that would have totally disrupted my narrative if I had tried to explain it then.

(As an English Major, I had to toss in that "disrupting my narrative" stuff to show that I totally and completely should be recognized as the next literary great -- maybe even a JK Rowling!)

So, about pricing and bar codes: I discovered that in addition to showing the ISBN number, bar codes are used to show your price. And, distributors will want one on your book. But what if you don't know what your price should be when you go to print? Or you think your price will vary depending on where you're selling your book. You don't want to print up books with bar codes for a certain price because you can't change it without printing again and using another ISBN number.

The answer is to use a bar code with 90000 -- a code that indicates that the book has no suggested retail price. That way any price can be assigned to it by the distributor.

This will give you two bar codes on your book -- one for the ISBN number and the other to show there is no assigned price.

Good stuff, huh.

Here's hoping that next time I post I'll have more interesting -- and exciting -- information to share.

Happy Reading,

Leslie

P.S. I'm off to get some books for vacation! Got any suggestions?