We’re getting less entries than I expected, but man are we getting some quality ones – and is it just me or did a lot of you have fond memories of a certain sugar-coated show before it became cool?  I’ve been running some of these by a friend of mine that used to collect certain ponies in her younger days and she’s been impressed.

So there’s only about 16 days left – the contest is here – [link]

So let’s saddle up and see what we got!

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- Steve Savage

And woah do we have a lot of entries for the contest here: [link]

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Keep ‘em coming – only a month left! And spread the word!

- Steve

“Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers” is published.  Available.  Seen by the world.  Also, it’s only $4.99 for any of the eBook forms.

You want PDF?  Got it.  ePub?  Got it.  Kindle?  Got it.  Give it a bit more time and it’ll be on the Nook and in the iBookstore.

It’s DONE.  Out.  Launched.

Thanks to everyone for your support, my fantastic interviewees, my swift editor, and everyone else!

Now, spread the word, people, let’s help out the cosplayers and costumers we know, or are, turn those edges, experienced, and costumes into careers!  Forward, professional geekery!

Now I’m going to take a month to market the book – then it’s back to the next one(s) . . .

- Steven Savage

Well it’s all ready; books, websites, etc.  Things are queued and ready to go.  Editing done.  I’ll push the button tomorrow and announce everything to the world.

So what am I doing tonight?  Murder Board.

No, the Murder Board is not a weapon in a video game, but it’s at term for people whose goal is to find out what’s wrong with an idea.  Me, I’m a one-man Murder Board, in that I can seriously come up with many ways to figure what’s wrong.

Tonight, I’m on screw-up patrol.

This is a weird time, since I should have some sense of achievement, but mostly I’m looking for last-minute problems.

But it’s coming: “Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers.”  Look for it tomorrow!

- Steven Savage

Well, “Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers” is edited, it’s in my publishing que, and it should be fine and ready to go.  Reviewers have copies (and if you want to review, let me know).

So what’s next?  Oh right – the web.

First of all, there’s updating my sites for my books (Fan To Pro, Convention Career Connection, Best Of Fan To Pro).  See, my sites often have author profiles, so I need to update my work on them.  But of course, not launch them because the book isn’t out yet.

Then there’s the book’s site.  That has to be updated – oh, but not fully complete yet, because I have to process and update a few things.

Then, finally, my site.

So I have to get all this ready and qued up, in different forms of completion.  Then I have to update them more or less all at once when the book is out.

But done yet?  No!  I have to update my LinkedIn profile.  I have to consider some Facebook pages.  I will inevitably find errors.

Then as reviews drift in, I have to link sites . . . you get the idea.

The web is an inevitable part of any book launch self-published or not.  There’s a bit of effort here, needless to say.

I’m starting to think I need to outsource this a bit more . . .

- Steven Savage

Here we are, T-4 days for “Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers”

OK, maybe it was not a good idea to go to Japantown of San Jose today.

Or maybe it was.

Here’s the thing, I needed a break, so I figured why not go there for a few hours for their “Spirit of Japantown” festival.  I had fun and it was nice.

Though now I’m in the final phase of formatting the PDF and my legs hurt.

It’s weird really, there are many ways I could have planned the publishing of this book in a far more anal-retentive manner.  At the same time, I really wouldn’t have granted myself the freedom to . . . well, stay sane.

Planning on something like this is a peculiar art.  I’m not even sure if I’m as good a planner as I could be on creating books – though I suppose doing one in 3 months is a good sign.

So, now the Kindle and ePub formats are basically working, back to PDF.  I know it’ll work, but I have to format it closer to a print book, so back at it . . .

- Steven Savage

Well last night I was busy formatting the ePub and Kindle versions for “Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers”

It worked.

Oh it wasn’t easy.  The books are loaded with links, which required endless checking and editing, and the discovery that some don’t always convert well.  Yes, I probably clicked on 150+ links to test them out.  Through 2 different iterations.

Then there’s the fun of viewing devices.  People read Kindle books on different devices, and the amount of ePub devices  . . . is even wider.  So just to be safe I view my books on everything I can.

This is where I’m kind of bad.  See I got into the habit of knowing when to stop editing, but I get terrified of different formats and potential issues with the – made worse by the fact that, with many devices, I can never be sure my best job of formatting worked anyway.

My guess is all my experience with print formatting made me over-paranoid about e-Formatting.

But, still, in the end, it all looks pretty good.  So next up is a few tweaks and checks, then on to the PDF formatting . . .

- Steven Savage