Ian Alexander Martin

Okay it’s pushing it a bit, because they’re not actually ‘sold’, only pre-ordered, however…

An on-line book-dealer in the UK has ordered FIVE copies of the first book! HUZZAH!

So only 495 more to go until the first printing is sold-out…

It’s a start, right?

So the site is now live and there’s one title there being offered. And so far, zilch in the way of orders. This is typically a big jolt of activity for a title, right after the announcement is when people jump on the bad-wagon and cry “yes! [insert name here] has a book coming out in a few months & I must order a copy right now! Whee!”

And those people are staying away in droves, despite the author’s fan-base. Hu-fucking-zzah…

So things continue to be both confusing and frustrating: while the package of material provided to the bank has everything they want (save for personal tax returns) and there’s a healthy five figure profit shown at the end of the period, they still want a Formal Business Plan using an Approved Format and the budget estimates must include the payment of the loan/line of credit.

Plus, the books I created can’t be sent to the Approval Committee because there’s no way for them to get there. Even though they are the matter we’re concerned with: making books.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, the amount I’m asking for is $25K, but that falls into the “Small Business Loan” category, which is reserved for a specific business acquisition, not start-up or operating capital. Lines of Credit are what that requirement needs, but they’re capped at $15K (unless you’ve got five years of the business operating experience you can present showing performance and so on).

So… it would make more sense if they were saying “you don’t have experience”, or “we don’t think you can make the payments”, or even “we don’t think you can sell as many copies as you say you can”; but what they’re saying is “you’re not filling in the right bits of paper, nor fitting into our tidy slot for whom we want to lend to”.

[heavy sigh]

Back to it…