1. We’ve reconsidered our list of e-retail channels now that the books are actually up for sale. For the time being, we’ve decided not to go with Smashwords. While we really like what they’re doing and are glad that they’re out there, our vendors were having trouble with the (very strict) formatting requirements. In the end, I decided that it was taking too much time to sort it all out, given how much else we need to focus on right now. Our e-books either are or will shortly be for sale in about 10 other places, after all, which is not a bad start.
2. It appears we finally have a second batch of ISBN numbers! This has held us up for… a couple of months, I guess? Maddening. We ended up reaching a compromise with the Books Registration Authority: we need to change our front matter to specify a little more clearly (even though it was already there) that BookCyclone and Signal 8 Press are imprints of Typhoon Media Ltd. This is understandable, since Typhoon Media Ltd is the legal entity. Still, I wish this had been resolved weeks ago!
3. Another quick course correction: we’ve changed our online payment gateway. The one we were going to use, which was based here in Hong Kong, was just too expensive: high set-up fees and commissions. We’ve identified one in the US, associated with Authorize.net, which seems to be more promising. We’ll have to get that nailed down next week if we’re to stay more or less on schedule with the website build.
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