The Booklocker Blacklist: What We’re Up Against

To: pod-questions@booklocker.com
From: stevencoy@gmail.com
Date: January 11, 2008
Subject: POD QUESTION

Hello Booklocker!

My name is Steven Coy. I run a small press in San Diego and am looking to make the switch from regular printing (storing the books in my apartment and shipping myself) to a POD service, as my publishing concerns are operated and managed by me alone and I can’t really handle the shipping and storage anymore.

I should also mention that I work for a bigger (mostly e-book) publisher as a day job (xxxx Group International), so I sort of know my way around using POD as a printer, etc. My employer uses, among other companies, Lightning Source. I’ve seen some samples and know their setup fees and all that, and I’m considering using them to publish my next book through my small press, Better Non Sequitur. The samples through Lightning Source looked relatively good, especially with the heavier cream stock. However, they only offer glossy finish for their covers. I think glossy is sort of tacky and am hoping to go with a matte finish.

To clarify, I will be providing whomever with the finished PDF, and all I am interested in is printing and other services, that I believe are standard, like ISBN assignment, bar-coding, entry into Amazon and like databases, etc.

My Question Is Basically This: Could you point me in the direction of a POD service, like Lightning Source, that could provide similar services at similar costs, but also give me the option of matte finishes for covers? Or perhaps tacky gloss is standard in the POD world and just something I have to accept?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Sincerely,
Steven Coy
Editor

From: angela@booklocker.com
To: stevencoy@gmail.com
Date: January 11, 2008
Subject: Re: POD QUESTION

Hi Steven,

We use Lightning, too. I’m not aware of any POD publisher that uses matte, but I could be wrong. :(

Angela

From: stevencoy@gmail.com
To: angela@booklocker.com
Date: January 11, 2008
Subject: Re: POD QUESTION

Thanks for the response!

P.S. are you happy with Lightning? Any advice or things I should watch out for/avoid?

From: angela@booklocker.com
To: stevencoy@gmail.com
Date: January 12, 2008
Subject: Re: POD QUESTION

I’m sorry but I really don’t get into a habit of giving advice to potential competitors. ;)

From: stevencoy@gmail.com
To: angela@booklocker.com
Date: January 12, 2008
Subject: Oh, please.

I’m a grad student with a hobby. Is the name of your company booklocker or cockblocker?

Thanks,
Steven

From: angela@booklocker.com
To: stevencoy@gmail.com
CC: orders@xxxxgroupbooks.com, meta@xxxxgroupbooks.com
Date: January 14, 2008
Subject: Re: Oh, please.

Hi Steven,

You introduced yourself as the owner of a small press, not as a grad student. You also admitted you work for a bigger publisher, xxxx Group.

If anyone ever asks me about you or your company, I’ll be sure to share your email below with them. I am copying this to your employer as I’m sure they’d be interested in knowing that one of their employees is calling another publisher a “cockblocker.”

I’ll also be publishing a warning about you in WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings.

Don’t contact me again.

Angela Hoy
Booklocker.com
WritersWeekly.com

From: stevencoy@gmail.com
To: angela@booklocker.com
Date: January 14, 2008
Subject: Why You Gotta Be Such A Stinky Stymie?

Hi Angela,

I realize you’ve asked me to never contact you again, but what can you really expect after such a nasty tattle? Besides, you’re sort of representing The Man here and I’m afraid it’s my job to, you know, stick it to you. For the record, I am writing this on Better Non Sequitur’s time. Feel free to CC and BCC them to your heart’s content (bnsmedia@gmail.com).

It appears I misinterpreted your winking emoticon as an invitation to speak casually. I suppose I also hoped, as one who works closely with words, you might be able to appreciate my extremely clever play on your company’s name. When you publish that warning in WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings, be certain to include how this is exactly the type of unnecessarily competitive kick around I like to avoid when working in my field.

Incidentally, if I were the nervous type, I probably wouldn’t be publishing (without alias) an anthology of fifty 1,000-word sexy stories called See You Next Tuesday: The Second Coming. Feel free to post about all this en masse. Readers might be interested in Booklocker’s sundry threats and general professional power trippin’ against foul-mouthed student-sustained presses. But don’t forget to mention our book will be available in April (hopefully with matte finish!) for $10 plus shipping and handling.

Truthfully, Angela, I never intended to pick a fight. I only sought assistance re: POD! Which your site practically begs its viewers to request! It seems to me your serious need to lighten up confirms my punny speculation. I understand you must remain professional.

Thanks for the exchange; this is certain to amuse the multitudes.

Steven

From: angela@booklocker.com
To: orders@xxxxgroupbooks.com, meta@xxxxgroupbooks.com
Date: January 15, 2008
Subject: Fwd: Why You Gotta Be Such A Stinky Stymie?

Please tell your employee, Steven Coy, to stop harassing me.