Metamorphosism

Just shipped the last of the first edition of “Little-Known Facts About Various Marine-Dwelling Animals”. If it’s not asking too much, please let me know when your orders arrive. Comments also welcome on the flickr thing. Recipients of complimentary booze included in orders of 5 or more also of course let me know if bottles break in transit and ruin books, still wondering if that was a good idea.

The first batch of “Little-Known Facts About Various Marine-Dwelling Animals”  orders ships this morning. That orange envelope, for example, contains 3 copies going to the illustrator, Bran. The one on top is addressed to somewhere in California. The one on the bottom, the first one ordered, is going to Denmark.

So far I have bound 40. I am waiting for some more Washi before putting covers on the rest next week. The rest will ship then.

It looks like the limited first edition of 50 copies will sell out this week.  There are about 10  left right now. Or so. Give or take. I haven’t checked my email in the last two minutes to see if any new orders have come in, so one never knows.

More info on the book and ordering on this page here.

The book, Little-Known Facts About Various Marine-Dwelling Animals, is being released today. It is written by me and illustrated by Bran. I know some really critical people and they like both the texts and the illustrations.

You can read a little more about the book here. You can also order the book online from that page, and there is a flickr slide show of all the covers so far. There is some variety, and if you have any preferences you can let me know, but orders will be filled on a first-come-first-serve basis so there is no guarantee you will get the exact book you want.

Only 50, give or take a couple, copies of this hand-bound first edition will be produced. So you might want to order soon.

There is a flickr set showing the covers etc here.

The book is 82 pages, unnumbered, and chock full of neat illustrations by Bran.

The price is €16, which is about $23.50 depending on exchange rates, and includes shipping and handling to anywhere in the world.

Any nice comments may be posted in the comments to this post. Any questions etc should probably be mailed to metamorphosist (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

Can we all join hands and think positive thoughts?

You too, kids. Oh, hang on. Start without me. I have to go take care of something real quick.

(Loots Halloween candy stash)

K I’m back.

Positive thoughts, like, you go to yoga and your wallet doesn’t get stolen. (Poor Alpha)

You don’t yell at the dental hygienist on the phone, or at the skinhead bank director who whacks your car with his door in the parking lot, or at the lady who almost backs over you in the other parking lot. (Poor various people)

No sick kids.

No barfing cats.

No all stressed out about stuff.

No stomache ache.

Book release!! Woot!

There’s something to look forward to. This weekend, probably. I might buy some wasabi nuts, open the deluxe bottle of Jameson and have a release party with, well, the cats I guess. Alpha will be in Japan, Beta seems to be ill and Gamma doesn’t drink whiskey yet.

Since some people were asking:

• The book (Little-Known Facts) is back from the printer
• I am currently binding it by hand
• Bookbinding is a lot more work than I expected (the red thread never wants to go through the needle, the other colors are okay)
• But also fun
• I am working on a site (page) where you can order and pay online, using Paypal, which accepts all major credit cards, I think
• This also requires me to set a price, and decide how to handle postage
• Despite my tendency towards unnecessary complication (every one of the books has a different cover (I will be posting pictures soon)), I’d like to do this latter as simply as possible.
• Some of the covers, so far, are made of Japanese paper. Some are made from handmade watercolor paper. Some of the latter are colored by me. Some are embossed with a fish. Some have an imitation gold-leaf fish on them. One has a genuine gold-leaf fish, and paw prints.
• Last night I carved a squid mold from some linoleum to emboss some with a giant squid. Gamma thought it looked cool. Alpha likes the fish better (she also thinks I’m overdoing this). Something for everyone.
• More soon. I hope to have the order page online by the start of next week.

In time for holiday shoppers, I am planning to make a book of around 2 dozen “Little-known facts” pieces previously published on this weblog. It will be professionally printed on off-white paper and hand-bound by me in the traditional Japanese stab binding style. I’m running to the art supply store this Friday to look for some nice paper for the covers. The format will be roughly 8″ square, and if the current layout is maintained it will be around 50-60 pages long, with illustrations.

I may also include a bonus surprise in each book, but not sure about that yet.

I would charge around ten Euro per book, which is about 14 U.S. dollars at current rates of exchange, plus postage. Payment would probably have to be via Paypal, unless someone trusts me with cash or has a better idea.
I have a figure in my mind, a certain number of books I would produce. They would be numbered individually. What I would like to know from you is if my number is high or low. How many of you would be interested in buying how many copies of this book?