I welcome challenge. In fact, I thrive on being challenged, but getting my first novel off the ground has been one of the most interesting challenges I’ve experienced in a long while. Here’s the story.
On February 19th, I ordered the paperback version of my novel, and the printing company I signed up with was kind enough to commit to a weeks turnaround time for delivering 25 paperbacks to my front door. I couldn’t be happier, since I was going to Europe to promote my book early March; appreciating having a tangible product in my hand.
Once across the pond, I made contacts and was able to negotiate a deal with a few bookstores to sell my book. Over the past week, I received several emails from so many vendors telling me the ISBN number attached to my book is invalid – meaning (when I asked) is not showing up anywhere. I opted to ‘chat’ with an online representative of the printing company to find out what’s happened, and was told to search blah blah site for the validity of the ISBN number and it should be there. I did and it wasn’t. So I emailed the publisher to request clarification, meanwhile as you know time is money when you are taking the indie route. No reply to my email, so I finally called today, and was told someone would get back to me shortly. Fine. I waited.
When someone did call back, he kindly informed me that they had a backlog in processing ISBN number activations and would get to my request shortly. My eye twitched, since I couldn’t understand how a book is printed February 19 with a unique ISBN bar code printed on the back, delivered by the 26th to me and as of April 2nd, unable to be traced by the said ISBN number? Of course I explained my concern kindly, apologizing for rushing them now, meanwhile inside brewing a little for the embarrassing situation i was put in with potential vendors.
Anyway, the request to activate my ISBN number has been processed, now I wait 7-10 business days for it to become active or valid. I wonder if the interested parties are also willing to wait.
Stay tuned. Next, I’ll explain how I am using social media marketing to promote my book.
mlkilian.com 