Hindrances

Yet more diversion from actual writing.  The past few days have been spent formatting up PDF downloads for the website and finding out just what the hell is going on with the ISBN on the 'real' book.

There are now 34 products listed on the website, loads more to add yet, and I just published the first knitting pattern via Kindle.  The Union Jack Beanie was a challenge to design, make and format into a pattern that's readable on Kindle.  You'd normally get a chart for intarsia projects, but on Kindle that wasn't going t work.  Instead, I went step by step through the whole thing saying knit x red, y white, z blue and so on.  It works though, so hopefully it'll catch on!  Maybe the Olympics will give it a boost.  In case you're curious, check it out:

The ISBN thing really got my goat.  There are ways around it, but they all involve me buying a block of ten numbers for £120, or going through a UK publish on demand service that charges even more than that.  It turns out that although createspace is a subsidiary of Amazon, if you publish using their allocated ISBN, you can't then list your book anywhere but the USA.  You can't even set up as an Amazon UK seller and list your book because the ISBN doesn't resolve to a physical inventory item.  So get some copies?  No, the ISBN still refers to a virtual book even when there are printed copies in existence.  I might not have been so shall we say 'cheesed off' if this information had been made clear anywhere.  The documentation though says they do not have UK and European distribution channels and in fact tells you to set up as an Amazon seller or go through Amazon Advantage.  Well, the first doesn't work as explained above, and the second requires you to be a registered business willing to pay for the privilege of setting up your Amazon store.  So, if you're just someone trying to raise some money for charity, you're a bit 'stuck'.  What's more frustrating is it's an International Standard Book Number.  These must be international in the sense of the World Series being worldwide.

I suppose when my finances are back in order, I might buy that block of ten numbers, because I will have use for at least a couple more of them.  I say that, but I've written nothing but product blurbs in days now and may have forgotten how to write anything else by the time I reach the point where I can turn my attention back to Max and his exploits.

In the meantime, to complete a collection, I have three more charts to design and many more to format and upload.  Someone might even buy something eventually, but I won't hold my breath.  From what I can tell though, being able to create something quickly bears no relation to how quickly that can then be turned into sales. It's not often I move faster than everyone else and I don't think I like it...