Author: Lupa

Reviews, Color Pics and More

Hi, all!

I’m hoping that by now all of you who backed the IndieGoGo or ordered books (prior to the past two weeks) have your books in hand; if you haven’t yet received yours, please let me know. You can email me at lupa.greenwolf(at)gmail(dot)com.

Also just a reminder that while the pictures in the book are black and white, there are color versions available at
https://www.vultureculture101.com/photos/ – I’ve seen a few people complaining already about the black and white pics, probably because they didn’t see the places in the book yet where I said “Hey, look! Color photos on my website!” So I’m helping to spread the word. And again, putting color photos in the book itself would have made it a LOT more expensive, so this is my workaround.

I know not everyone dives into a new book as soon as they get it, especially those of us who already have HUGE to-read piles. However, for those of you who have read it, would you be so kind as to leave a review? You can review it on Amazon at
http://www.amazon.com/Vulture-Culture-101-People-Things/dp/1092885102/ or on Goodreads at goodreads.com/book/show/45572031-vulture-culture-101. Reviews help me get an idea of how people are enjoying the book. And the more reviews a book has on Amazon in particular, the more it will show up in search strings and so forth. Thanks for your feedback!

Finally, since this is a self-published endeavor, please do let others who may be interested know about the book! You know people I don’t, so you can get the word out to them, and help an indie author 🙂

The Books Are Flying Out the Door!

Okay, everyone! After basically spending most of my weekend packing and packing and doing more packing, I have gotten almost every preordered book out the door! The only exceptions are a very small handful of the IndieGoGo preorders; the rest of those are already sent out, and I also sent out all the other preorders, so if you’ve ordered a copy prior to today your book is on the way. (My local post office is VERY grateful that I used online postage instead of bringing them a couple of hundred packages.)

Aaaanyway, that means you should not be experiencing any more shipping delays if you order Vulture Culture 101. I typically go to the post office 2-3 times a week; if you need your copy to arrive by a particular date, please do email me at lupa.greenwolf@gmail.com.

Oh, and when you go to http://www.vultureculture101.com/buy-the-book you can not only buy the book itself, but also the official Vulture Culture 101 sticker!

Quick Shipping Update and Ebooks

Hi, folks! Just a quick update–I am getting close to the end of shipping out IndieGoGo backer packages, which I said I was going to send out first. Almost all the packages are out, except for: Vulture Culture Starter Kits (waiting for a box of skulls to arrive), Tails (and Ears) sets (just need to sit down and finish the tails and ears themselves), Furs of North America (ditto), and a few of the Book Lover sets for which I’m waiting for either the not-Vulture-Culture-101 books to arrive, or I’m waiting for the person to tell me what book they want. All in all I have less than two dozen packages left, so soon as those are out the door I can get the other preorders shipped out. If you haven’t yet gotten in an order for your copy of Vulture Culture 101, you can do so at
https://www.vultureculture101.com/buy-the-book/

Also, if you are getting an ebook, keep an eye on your spam folder! I had a few people contact me asking where their file was, and it ended up spammed (oops.)

Will keep you all posted, and thanks 🙂

IT’S HERE!!!

IT’S HERE!!!!!!!!

Vulture Culture 101: A Book For People Who Like Dead Things has arrived! This is the first book about the subculture (fandom?) surrounding hides, bones, and other animal specimens. In it you’ll learn about who Vultures are, how to build your own collection, tutorials on bone cleaning, tanning and more, how to explain Vulture Culture to the general public, and much more. Whether you’re just getting involved or have been a Vulture for years, this is a great addition to your bookshelf–and it’s the perfect thing to hand to someone who may not understand your unusual interests, too!

Get the book here: http://www.vultureculture101.com/buy-the-book/

Off to the Printers!

After WAY TOO MANY final edits, the manuscript is being uploaded to the printer for the final time, and as soon as they approve it in the next few days I’ll get my order in for the books. I had gotten the physical proofs last week just before I went to vend at an event over the weekend, but there were a few things I wanted to change before ordering hundreds of copies of this thing.

Now, as I have mentioned, I use Microsoft Word for book layout because I have neither the time nor the money to learn to use a proper layout program. 95% of the time it’s perfectly serviceable–until you put a ton of pictures in. Anyone who’s ever tried putting pictures in a Word document knows the pain of “I’m just gonna nudge this picture over a few pixels WAIT WHY IS IT NOW TWO PAGES FURTHER DOWN THE MANUSCRIPT?” So making any change in a chapter that is photo-heavy means that I have to go back and fine tune everything else that was inconvenienced by the process. As you can imagine, this was very frustrating and there was a lot of swearing involved.

But it’s about as good as it’s going to get, so while this isn’t a New York Big Five Publisher-quality layout job, the pictures are more or less where they ought to be and I caught as many typos as I could. Also, the print quality on the pictures isn’t as good as I’d like, and I had to print the book in black and white since color would have been EXPENSIVE, so I’ll be putting color versions of the pics on the website by the time the book is in your hands.

I’m probably being more self-critical than I ought to be, and I’m sure you all will like the book just fine. I’ll keep you all posted on shipping and the like, and I really, really appreciate your patience as I juggle this book project with about eleventy billion other things going on in my professional life right now. Cheers 🙂

A Quick Shout-Out!

So I need to give a quick shout-out. In the process of putting together my book, Vulture Culture 101, I needed access to a bunch of skulls and hides that I don’t have in my personal collection (yet) for the identification section. I contacted the good folks at Moscow Hide and Fur in Moscow, Idaho last fall, and they were kind enough to give me access to their warehouse, which is not normally open to the public in the way a retail store is.

Not only did they have me send them a list of the skulls and hides I needed pictures of so they could have them already pulled out by the time I got there, but they were exceptionally accommodating in making sure I had enough space and lighting to get the pictures done (like the one above.) AND I got a complete tour of the warehouse, which considering I’ve been ordering from them for something like fifteen years was like getting to go to DisneyLand. (Plus I got to feed their chickens!)

So, yeah. Definitely recommend them both as a reliable supplier and good people 🙂

Layout is Done!

So after pushing myself for one more big marathon session, not only did I get the interior layout of the book done over the weekend, but I also made the cover! You can see the latter in the picture above. (That space in the corner of the back cover is to accommodate the bar code.)

I’ve uploaded the files to the printer, and requested proofs so I can make sure everything is good to go. As soon as those arrive later this month, assuming all is well, I’ll put in the order for the books themselves 🙂 Yay!

Stickers!

I have bad news and good news. The bad news is work has stalled again on the manuscript for the moment while I get my tax stuff all ready to go for this year (whee!) The good news is that as soon as that’s done I can get back to the manuscript! I won’t make my end of March deadline, but I’m going to keep plugging away amid all the other plates I’m spinning.

The other bit of good news is that the Vulture Culture 101 stickers are here–yay! These will be going out with IndieGoGo packages, and yes, the leftovers will be for sale afterward.

Alright. Wish me luck as I continue balancing receipts, Excel spreadsheets and numbers, my nemesis!

Stickers!

Remember the stickers that all my IndieGoGo contributors get with their books? Last night I sent in the final design (which does NOT have the VultureCulture101 watermark on it, BTW) to the printer, and this morning I got the print. I should have the stickers themselves later this month–yay! That way I can make sure there aren’t any problems BEFORE I’m ready to ship them out. I’m still shooting for having the book to the printer by the end of the month, and I’ll keep ya posted!

And yes, I had extras printed which will be for sale, but only after the IGG orders are sent out.

Formatting, Formatting, Formatting…

So I’m back to working on the layout for Vulture Culture 101. I’m in the thick of making sure all the guest essays are formatted the same, which is a challenge since everyone seems to use a different word processor. I use Microsoft Word for layout (since I can’t afford money to pay for or time to learn other programs like QuarkXPress) and while Format Painter does great at making sure the font is all the same type and size and the spacing is uniform, it doesn’t do anything for tabs or hard returns, so I have to go in and do all that by hand, plus make sure the pictures all fit. It’s not my essayists’ fault, of course; they’ve done a kick-ass job of writing their works and getting them to me. I just have to be the one to deal with the picky little details.

Once that’s done, it’ll be on to adding in the rest of the photos for the book. Due to printing costs, the pics will all be in black and white; even a color insert adds a LOT to printing costs, and I want you all to be able to actually afford this book. However, I am planning to add color versions of some of the pictures, like the hide and bone ID pics, to the Vulture Culture 101 website.

Alright, y’all, back to it!