After quite a while resting on my more or less laurels (past listings) it's time to get a move on and put up some more listings. My goal is five books every day from now on. This should be achievable, but not according to my past performance.

These books get listed in three places: on Amazon, Biblio, and Half. Books without ISBNs (older books) generally will not be listed on half. My prices might vary between these three places. Amazon and Half tell me competing prices, so I peg mine on them. Thus, if the lowest price for Deadly Percheron is $98 on Amazon, I might peg mine at $95. If it weren't my only copy maybe I'd be more reasonable. In fact, I think my Biblio listing is more reasonable.

Going forward (and possibly backward), links to titles of books will send you to the main Amazon listing. My listing will be somewhere amidst the other maybe 237 listings. This is where my photo of the book can be seen, which will probably be a better one than the one Amazon features. Half doesn't let me attach my own photo—at least I don't think it does. Photos are also at biblio. Lots of older listings still don't have photos. Nor updated prices.

I've been lousy at selling direct via email. Sorry about that, if you've tried me. Listing through the major portals keeps me honest—also prompt and reliable.

Monday, December 11, 2006

12/11/06 MON:
---Word from Aio:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Zoran Zivkovic's 'Seven Touches of Music' Wins Design Award
Aio Publishing Takes Top Design Honors for its Second Consecutive Year

Charleston, SC – Aio Publishing Company’s book design for its hardcover edition of World Fantasy Award-winning Zoran Zivkovic’s mosaic novel Seven Touches of Music took top honors in its category at the 55th Annual Chicago Book Clinic Book and Media Show on November 9th.

The design won the Award of Excellence in the General Trade Category. The Book and Media Show honors excellence in the planning, supervision, and execution of the physical and visual aspects of publishing in all genres across fourteen U.S. states. The General Trade Category heads the list of thirteen award categories.

Prior to winning the award, the author and publisher both won kudos from reviewers and readers. “The finished version of Seven Touches of Music is a masterpiece of understated style and elegance... the whole product oozes quality," wrote reviewer and founder Cheryl Morgan of Emerald City in a review of the novel. "This book, Aio is saying, is not just a collection of stories; it is a work of art." Editor Rick Kleffel of The Agony Column wrote, “Aio has managed to create a package every bit as striking as the writer's work, no small feat when it comes to a writer as distinguished and talented as Zivkovic."

Book printer McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., which prints more than 6,000 titles per year and manufactured Seven Touches of Music as well as Aio author Ian R. MacLeod's novel The Summer Isles, which took top honors in the general trade category at the 2005 Chicago Book Clinic Book and Media Show, nominated the book for the award. The book retails for $23.95.

The design was produced in-house by Aio publisher Tiffany Jonas and art director Patrick Jonas. It was the company’s second book design. Incorporating a supple European-styled, premium-grade Skivertex cover in a deep charcoal color custom-mixed for this book, foil embossing in black and green, and ridged black end sheets as well as black-edged interior paper, like other books at the publishing house the novel was produced using animal-friendly materials and recycled, acid-neutral paper.

“Cheryl Morgan has it exactly right—at Aio we strive to present fine works of speculative fiction to readers in designs befitting the high quality of the stories themselves," said Tiffany Jonas. "We're enormously gratified to think we may have succeeded with Zoran's novel. It was very a tall order indeed to develop a design that would do justice to his very innovative work."

"Zoran has been called one of the world's greatest living fantastists," agreed Patrick Jonas. "He's often compared with the masters of not only speculative fiction but literary fiction and fiction as a whole: Stanislew Lem, Italo Calvino, Franz Kafka. To be considered to have framed his work in a design worthy of it is a tremendous compliment."

Seven Touches of Music is the first in a three-book series bringing Zoran's work to a wider readership in the United States and Canada, where his books have not previously been widely available. Mosaic novels Impossible Encounters and Steps Through the Mist will round out this particular selection. The design of the two books will be similar to that of Seven Touches of Music to allow a closely matched set for Zivkovic collectors and readers.
__________________________________________________________________________________

About The Chicago Book Clinic The Chicago Book Clinic was founded in 1936 to encourage excellence in publishing by providing a platform for educational, social and professional interaction of its members. Its members are professionals in book and media publishing, printing, editorial, design, and all business aspects of the publishing industry. For more information, see www.chicagobookclinic.org or call (773) 561-4150.

About Aio Publishing Co., LLC Aio Publishing Company was founded in January 2004 in Charleston, South Carolina. Dedicated to broadening speculative fiction bookshelves by adding works of a literary and sociological strain, the company seeks to publish complex, satisfying fiction in a high-quality format encompassing visually striking covers, quality paper, graceful typesetting, and innovative design. Its flagship novel, a limited edition of World Fantasy Award winner Ian R. MacLeod’s The Summer Isles was followed by novel Nocturne by first novelist Jus Neuce in 2005, and 2006 saw the publication of Canadian author/artist Dana Copithorne's debut novel The Steam Magnate and World Fantasy Award-winning author Zoran Zivkovic’s mosaic novel Seven Touches of Music. The company has received top honors for book design at the Chicago Book and Media Show each year it has published books. For details about the company and its books and authors, see www.aiopublishing.com.
---Another book to put on my list of things to get! I believe it was published in September but somehow I missed learning about it until now.

---Comment rec’d:
I like the design of that AIO book you blurb in your blog. And this
guy sounds like someone I should try. I think I'd like to start with
the PS collection, though: IMPOSSIBLE STORIES

http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/cat/is.asp

The entire contents of the AIO collection is contained in this
omnibus (admittedly without the exquisite packaging) along with a lot
more material, so the PS $45 hardcover edition just sounds like a better deal to me.


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