WIP: Dead Tree Publishing

I started work on my publishing website again (Dead Tree Publishing). The idea is to make a really, really convenient way to get a physical copy of a PDF/epub book. Think: “send me a printed copy of this mailing list / tumblr”. Right now things are looking encouraging.

I use a “back end” publisher who does all the actual printing, and the one I was using before charged quite a lot and wasn’t amazingly fast; I just used them because they were the only publisher who was at all up to date. Seriously, order of $100 – $200 for a 100 page book, just absolutely ridiculous levels of expensive. I’m switching over to a new publisher who can offer that same book for something like $7 (maybe $12 in hardback), which is absolutely reasonable, and with similar 2-week turnaround times.

First you upload a PDF:

Uploading a book
Uploading a book

Then I tell you what your ordering options are (hardcover, softcover, color), and what they cost. I’m also supposed to ask you your address to ship the book, and for you to pay for it,  but those aren’t done yet.

Book-buying options
Book-buying options

Hopefully in the next day or two I’ll have something up and running so people can order books, and then make it gradually nicer! I’m very excited about this website existing.

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moreorcs.com

orc

My newest site: http://moreorcs.com/

The site generates orc-themed emails for you, which you can get emailed at (completely insecurely, it’s just a web address at mailinator to see the content). Please check out mailinator’s site, it’s a really neat project.

Some samples:

  • the last small poop orc (thelastsmallpooporc@moreorcs.com)
  • poop gross green blood thirsty orc
  • 49 cross-eyed slightly intimidating poop dumb orcs
  • the last slightly intimidating orc
  • quite a lot of slightly intimidating small orcs
  • 73 slightly intimidating small pretty orcs
  • smelly orc
  • a few orcs
  • lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of orcs
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Money orders

A postal money order
A postal money order

Allow me to introduce you all to the postal money order. For $1.50, you can get the equivalent of a cashier’s check from the post office. It can only be cashed by whoever you make it out to, and it’s basically accepted as cash by every corporation. You can also just give someone a blank one, although that’s riskier to carry around for the obvious reasons.

I was tired of checks bouncing. I can’t be bothered to make sure my account remains such-and-such, which means it happens sometimes, especially times like now when I’m poor. So I asked my landlord if I could pay by money order–he’d never heard of them before, but seemed okay with it when I explained (he’s a really good guy!).

I went down to the bank and got out $2750, and headed to the post office. I asked for 9 money orders, each for $303. The postal worker really only made a couple funny faces about me being weird, although my friend said she was pretty loud about my walking out with that much cash-equivalent, it went pretty well. And I immediately endorsed all the money orders so now they can lie around the hose safely.

Also, they come with attachable receipts (shown in the picture) in case you lose the check and need a replacement, so that’s nice.

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