Humble Request

[CatherineM]

Had a request from the new marketing guy. If you've read Curveballs, and have an Amazon account, could you leave a review? After 15 reviews it moves up on the search list and that will help when the sequel Screwballs comes out.

Thanks

[Theoketos]

Linkage?

 

[CatherineM]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_box_?k=curveballs+mardon

[Lilllabettt]

Self-publishing is the way of the future.

Question: do you belong to a consortium of self publishers that share marketing costs? Kind of like all the stores in a mall will pay for signage/weekly circulars?  Or do you do it all yourself?

[Lil Red]

Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Curveballs-Catherine-A-Mardon/dp/1897472102/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409676444&sr=8-2&keywords=catherine+mardon

 

[tinytherese]

I'll leave a review Catherine.

[CatherineM]

I have a local publisher. I don't pay for any of the costs. They have switched to print on demand overseas but still print big orders out of Calgary. I get a certain number of free copies with every large print. Other than that I get royalty checks and have to meet deadlines for stuff. Mostly what I do now is a book every year, and newspaper articles, speeches and blog entries that are ghost written several times a month. I have to give speeches and do book signings. The next one is in Langley, BC in a couple of weeks.

[truthfinder]

Catherine, is your book not available on amazon.ca?

Edited September 2, 2014 by truthfinder

[CatherineM]

No idea. I know it's on .com. I suppose it's on .ca too.

[Lilllabettt]

I have a local publisher. I don't pay for any of the costs. They have switched to print on demand overseas but still print big orders out of Calgary. I get a certain number of free copies with every large print. Other than that I get royalty checks and have to meet deadlines for stuff. Mostly what I do now is a book every year, and newspaper articles, speeches and blog entries that are ghost written several times a month. I have to give speeches and do book signings. The next one is in Langley, BC in a couple of weeks.

 

My bad. I thought this was your publisher:

https://openlibrary.org/publishers/Golden_Meteorite_Press

which I thought was your self-publishing arm. I mean just cuz everything there is either written or edited by someone with your last name. set me straight please. or if you didn't set them up maybe you could share pointers about how your family established a close working relationship with them. A lot of good stories don't get told because authors dont know how to get that kind of relationship going, and publishing is an industry where its very "who you know." hence why self-publishing is an awesome development imo. 

[CatherineM]

The publishing house was set up 25 years ago by my husband's dad to teach students how to do things like edit, typeset, and graphic design. He's a retired English professor, and it was his way of staying busy. It's grown to the point where they employ a dozen college/grad students full time in summer, and three dozen interns during the school year. Some are better than others. 75% of the work goes to peer reviewed publications and scientific conferences. Depends on the majors/interests of the students involved.

Kids that do really good work get writing or illustration credits. Besides the salary they receive, my husband does a lot of letters for them, to get into grad school or for jobs or scholarships. He's an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in addition to his Order of Canada, so his letters have a lot of pull. As an example, the girl who did the illustrations for my last two kids books is going to medical school next year. One of his interns this fall is a second year med student who wants to be able to get a post-doc research slot and he's teaching her how to get published in research journals.

All of the profits go to the students. The internships pay $1000 a semester, the summer students get minimum wage which is $10-11, I think, for 40 hours a week for 14 weeks. We've also set up scholarships at the U of A, and Norquest College. That's a local community college that trains lots of social workers and nurses. We lecture there every semester on mental illness, so it's special to us. We funded one for Austin's alma mater, the University of Lethbridge, but they turned it down. The scholarships fund students with serious mental illnesses with preference to those with schizophrenia, and the U of L told us that they don't have any students with serious mental illnesses. We are in the process of funding one at the U of Calgary and my school, Newman Theological. Eventually we hope to have scholarships at every major college in Canada.

I stay out of the business side. My job is to write and to help students come up with ideas for writing topics. Yesterday I wrote up an outline for a book on PTSD that is going to be written by 4 interns. They get assigned 3 chapters each. I'll do the first chapter, and probably some serious editing when they're done. One is a journalism major who wants to do medical reporting, two psych majors and a pre-med student. Our new PR person is a marketing grad who's working on his MBA. MBA students all have to have a project. This is his, domestic marketing. We also have three foreign student interns who are doing overseas marketing. Korea, China and I forget the last country. It allows them to start making contacts they can use to get jobs after they graduate.

It's important to keep busy and feel productive when you're disabled. Having the kids running in and out keeps us in our toes. There's two here today. One is finishing up some work from this summer. The other is doing his internship as the Volunteer Coordinator. His job is to make sure all the intern students have their contracts signed, and does their paperwork during the semester. He was Austin's office flunky this summer. Follows him around like a puppy.

He had a kid four years ago who was trying to get into grad school for engineering. He was a B student because he was working too many hours during college. He couldn't even get his professors to write a reference letter to get him into grad school. Austin had him do all these submissions to conferences and journals, and his publication list and Austin's letter got him into grad school at UCLA and a full time job as city engineer in Richmond, BC. He's now working on his doctorate at Columbia and working as an engineer for a international company that sends him all over the world. He's in Qutar right now, last I heard. I think Austin likes helping kids that aren't straight A types because he wasn't one either. He flunked out his first year, and the reason he has two Masters is because he busted out of his PhD program at Texas A&M, so ended up with a Masters in Education instead.

Most important, the students keep him from being bored and following me around the house.

[Lilllabettt]

The publishing house was set up 25 years ago by my husband's dad to teach students how to do things like edit, typeset, and graphic design. He's a retired English professor, and it was his way of staying busy. It's grown to the point where they employ a dozen college/grad students full time in summer, and three dozen interns during the school year. Some are better than others. 75% of the work goes to peer reviewed publications and scientific conferences. Depends on the majors/interests of the students involved.

Kids that do really good work get writing or illustration credits. Besides the salary they receive, my husband does a lot of letters for them, to get into grad school or for jobs or scholarships. He's an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in addition to his Order of Canada, so his letters have a lot of pull. As an example, the girl who did the illustrations for my last two kids books is going to medical school next year. One of his interns this fall is a second year med student who wants to be able to get a post-doc research slot and he's teaching her how to get published in research journals.

All of the profits go to the students. The internships pay $1000 a semester, the summer students get minimum wage which is $10-11, I think, for 40 hours a week for 14 weeks. We've also set up scholarships at the U of A, and Norquest College. That's a local community college that trains lots of social workers and nurses. We lecture there every semester on mental illness, so it's special to us. We funded one for Austin's alma mater, the University of Lethbridge, but they turned it down. The scholarships fund students with serious mental illnesses with preference to those with schizophrenia, and the U of L told us that they don't have any students with serious mental illnesses. We are in the process of funding one at the U of Calgary and my school, Newman Theological. Eventually we hope to have scholarships at every major college in Canada.

I stay out of the business side. My job is to write and to help students come up with ideas for writing topics. Yesterday I wrote up an outline for a book on PTSD that is going to be written by 4 interns. They get assigned 3 chapters each. I'll do the first chapter, and probably some serious editing when they're done. One is a journalism major who wants to do medical reporting, two psych majors and a pre-med student. Our new PR person is a marketing grad who's working on his MBA. MBA students all have to have a project. This is his, domestic marketing. We also have three foreign student interns who are doing overseas marketing. Korea, China and I forget the last country. It allows them to start making contacts they can use to get jobs after they graduate.

It's important to keep busy and feel productive when you're disabled. Having the kids running in and out keeps us in our toes. There's two here today. One is finishing up some work from this summer. The other is doing his internship as the Volunteer Coordinator. His job is to make sure all the intern students have their contracts signed, and does their paperwork during the semester. He was Austin's office flunky this summer. Follows him around like a puppy.

He had a kid four years ago who was trying to get into grad school for engineering. He was a B student because he was working too many hours during college. He couldn't even get his professors to write a reference letter to get him into grad school. Austin had him do all these submissions to conferences and journals, and his publication list and Austin's letter got him into grad school at UCLA and a full time job as city engineer in Richmond, BC. He's now working on his doctorate at Columbia and working as an engineer for a international company that sends him all over the world. He's in Qutar right now, last I heard. I think Austin likes helping kids that aren't straight A types because he wasn't one either. He flunked out his first year, and the reason he has two Masters is because he busted out of his PhD program at Texas A&M, so ended up with a Masters in Education instead.

Most important, the students keep him from being bored and following me around the house.

 

 

How cool. That's taking self-publishing to the next level.  

Are you set up as a non-profit organization? 

Kudos if you run an indie publishing business that is self-sustaining. Rather rare thing. 

[CatherineM]

He has the publishing company as a regular corporation, with business license and taxes. The students are managed by a registered national charity. He gets a government grant for some of the students. He also publishes works by people with mental illnesses. They can't get the attention of mainstream publishers and self publishing companies here charge ten grand to print even a small book of poems. He's got one guy who wrote a completely off the wall story, who prints ten books at a time to sell. The guy is a complete space cadet even when he takes his meds, but he got to see his name in print for around $100. He's sold a hundred of them at least, so made that back a long time ago. Plus he gets checks every year from public lending rights and access copyright for being a published author.

Being married to Austin is a bit like being married to a combination of Dr. Brown from Back to the Future, and P.T Barnum. A crazy professor who is a consummate promoter.

[truthfinder]

No idea. I know it's on .com. I suppose it's on .ca too.

Alright, found it; for those interested the.ca is http://www.amazon.ca/Curveballs-Catherine-Mardon/dp/1897472102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=curveballs+mardon

[TheresaThoma]

Most important, the students keep him from being bored and following me around the house.

 

This is most definitely the most important thing!

 

(When my dad retired but hadn't returned to school full time yet he drove my mom crazy)