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I manage a number of blog and social media sites that deal with an assortment of aspects regarding The Gnomes of New Hope. 

Here is a link to a recent Facebook post, which you can follow if you like.

The Gnomes of New Hope, 

Facebook Page

In addition to eBlogger, I also post on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and I'm beginning to post on Gettr 

So what's going on ?

Ok, as I said in the last post, ISBN#s. I'm working to properly order the Barcodes on the ISBNs so they be serve both the Shopping Cart (when it gets built) and the Sales Office, Manufacturing and Inventory, not to mention the numerous registrations and book categories. 

As it stands now, there are thirty products which have numbers assigned to them and there are still another six or so needing to be included. For now, we will be concentrating on the Gnome-sized books. I'm trying to balance the budget and determine the margins, but it looks like it will be very difficult to offer a full margin, unless a buyer wants to purchase and entire press run of 25k or more books. We'll see how it goes after all the covers are locked in with the new barcodes. I'm guessing at the cost elements, based on previous quotes.

Although I have some of the production line set up, there's more to do. I'm building tooling for the Hand-stitched binding, but I have come to the conclusion that the cost of the hand-stitched will just have to be added on, no matter what that is. So the hand-stitched edition is being defined as the Custom Edition, while the machine bound books are referred to as the Standard Edition. As I said before, the Custom Edition is only being offered direct from IMS Publishing. If a retailer is willing to pay the higher price, the Custom Edition may be available to them for resale, but I rather doubt that they will pay the extra money for hand-stitched binding. The Custom Editions are limited, mostly because of how long it takes to make them. So, one at a time, or 25-50 is no problem as to turn-around within a week or so, but larger quantities have a longer wait time for delivery. If you are a buyer, keep that in mind. I will take orders for the first book via email at any time, however, there are still registrations that need to take place before the items can be shipped. I can begin making books as soon as I get a prepaid order. So a larger order of Custom Books will need lead time to complete manufacturing.

image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

That's all for now.

AG

p.s. we are working on more art and have been discussing work on the music.

Barcodes

Here's a funny graphic I came up with to imply what the show might look like onstage.

 Regarding publishing the Companion Editions of the Storybooks

     It didn't occur to me that the numbering of the ISBNs would throw me off with my book covers. So now that I have created new barcodes for the books, using the IBSNs in their numerical order, I need to replace the barcodes on the books. Well, this has caused me to rethink how it is that I update the pages. I have concluded that it is easier to do it using the final flattened graphic files, as opposed to upgrading the original layered working files. Mostly the reason for this is the absolute massive number of files doing this layout has generated and the variations between those files.  The reason is that I save new work (most of the time) under a new Revision. That way I have the last file as a backup. It really is just incredibly difficult to find the most recent set of files which do not always contain the elements I am looking for.  I say this because, if I walk away from the layout for even a week, I have to spend the better part of a day acclimating myself to the files again. You wouldn't think that to be the case, after all I was the one who ordered the files, but none-the-less I still have trouble finding the correct files. In the past, I have moved forward with a Revision that I thought to be the most recent, only to find I was working with an old file, thus negating the work done on the previous work session. Don't get me wrong, I have methods of working around this, but I am very cautious. Because strangely enough the "last modified" data does not alway record properly, thus giving me a date that sometimes reflects when the file was created, not when it was last worked on. You would think that the file data would be updated every time you save, but that's not always the case. I don't know why that is, I've only observed it to be true. And my search function is practically useless, because it doesn't follow the criteria that you set for it. Mainly because it searches the entire computer and all the hard discs connected to it and no matter what you tell, it to search for, it searches the content not just the filename. That seems to be the case, I have no real good explanation. I only know that for the most part,  45 minutes later it give me squat and a thousand files. it's easier to just do it manually.  I guess I just need to move all the files that I know are outdated to another disc. Except, sometimes I need that old revision to recover a design element that I am looking for. By that I mean a design element that will allow me to work with it for my purposes. I've even taken to modifying the graphic to give me a working document, more often than not that is quicker and easier than trying to locate the file I want. It' crazy.

    Anyway, that's what I'm up to. Still jerking around with this stuff. Well... you gotta do, what you gotta do.  It's almost done. ( I keep saying that, one of these days it will be true.) Thanks for reading my posts.

AG

Music Thoughts

  I recently bought a CD/DVD publisher. I know that CD's are somewhat passe', but for the price it was worth it. When I figure out how to run it, I'll be able to produce CD/DVDs more efficently and in bulk. (I should be so lucky!) This is good, because, at the least, I can distribute production materials to the crew and others via this method. You know, script, libretto, music score, etc.

  Well, I'm still playing around with the publishing layout. A few days ago I bought another batch of ISBN's because I didn't have enough. So now I have 30, but I still need more. By the time I'm done, I'll have a couple of grand tied up in ISBN's. So as it turns out, right now the published product line amounts to 29 products. I still need to add in the boxed sets, the libretto, and anything else that ends up being published, which can happen later. 

   So, in getting more numbers, I now need to replace all the barcodes on the books. As I was coordinating the numbers and creating a spreadsheet for inventory and sales, I discovered that the numbers I had assigned to the books were somewhat arbitrary. Well, that won't due. So letting Excel put the ISBN's in order, and making a new batch of barcodes, I needed to reorder the books so that they are easy to manage for inventory and identify for sales. I'm assigning an inventory IMS number to each ISBN. That results in needing to replace the barcodes on all the covers. Ugh. 

Better to do it now, than run into problem after things start moving. Well, it does get down to the fact that when the books become listed in the categories, the ISBN's will be a significant factor there. So, being that the collection is a set, it's best that they are in order. I guess now I need a scanner.

. These discs were my way to present the materials. I'm not sure that will work because the size of my file exceeds the capacity of the DVDs. I made these sample discs, only to discover that the graphics covered over an area in the center hole that was needed to write the discs. So I need to rethink that. I know that the entire music score is pretty large. It might fit on a disc if they were all PDFs. So there are a lot of issues with all of this and preparing it properly for it's ultimate use... and people ask me "when will it be done" (which means to say; Why is it taking so long? ) I can't imagine why they would say that. It's only been 23 years. Ha!

  The cover letter above is part of the Industry Review Package, which I some ways is out of date. Those materials still apply, but need review. I expect to post that package on IMS Producing Partners, which is a closed blog, requiring a request to view. If you are an Industry professional or investor, you are welcome to contact me in that regard. I expect that I will refine that package on the blog and address the business structure, so it is pertinent.

  I am looking to develop relationships that pertain to Licensing, Options, Marketing and Sales. Once these product lines have moved into Inventory, I will need a Sales Manager and I need to develop the Online Shopping Cart scenario. I have tools available to me, but frankly the volume of work involved needs a team. It's a reality that is becoming ever more poignant. You can see that if you've been reading this blog.  So if anyone is interested, talk to me. 

   Beyond that, as I've mentioned before, I'm looking for a Registered Literary Agent to pitch this. There are contractual limitations that cannot be surmounted without that, in order to reach another level of operations. We can do it at IMS, if we have to, but I'd rather not.

   The Business Plan accommodates internal operations, but to be honest about it, I'm rather tired and need a break. But I don't want the momentum to be interupted. So... I need to pitch it to external operations.  

Onward and upward.

AG