Adventures in Steampunk #5: This one went more or less according to plan! I attended the wonderful Lincoln Asylum for the fourth time, and the weather couldn’t have been better. A perfect couple of days, reeling round the ancient city in my themed outfits, meeting up with people I knew, making new friends and…yes, giving a writing workshop! I talked myself into doing this a while ago, sending a proposal in to the organising committee at the end of May, not expecting I would be chosen (as it’s a huge event with thousands of visitors). But there I was on the programme literally days before it happened; meaning I had to upgrade my outfit straight away and get busy collecting material for the class. I had a workshop scheme dating from just before the pandemic, when I was booked to give a session at an industrial museum – that one was cancelled, but the plan was exactly as needed for a steampunk day. So off I went with a trolley full of resources and a song in my heart. It wasn’t the most relaxing experience, because it was the first time I had used the plan… also my first time in front of a group since January 2024. I had a great time though, and I hope to use the same workshop at a similar event again.

I did it! The second printing for Daughters of the Last Campaign went ahead, and I finally have a boxload of copies which are a) looking good, and b) available to be sold at events. Now, I don’t think people are open enough about the economics of self-publishing, with the end result that many first timers buy expensive packages which perhaps they didn’t need; they might go through a publishing facilitator, for example, which adds to the cost, or they could over-estimate the number of copies they can sell. So, here’s some upfront transparency for you. My typesetter choice was already known through the regional small press network, and they had a straightforward menu of various formats which came at a fixed price. I chose one of these, and the total cost was under £300 for my word limit. Next, I needed a printer where I could collect in person, so it couldn’t be too far away. I’d had one suggested by my college print unit, so I checked them out. They had an online estimator and a set of basic printing options, with mine coming in at £199 for 50 copies. Spread over three months, I could budget for this job over the income from three wage packets. Both companies were easy to communicate with, were as fussy as me over detail, and everything was delivered on time.

The first ‘steampunk’ novella (Daughters of the Last Campaign) had an early printing, just to see what would happen – but at the time, the first boxload came back with calibration and kerning faults, so I sold them off at a loss and decided to do better in future. The next time arrived, and I had meanwhile saved up for a proper formatting job, which The Book Typesetters of Newark on Trent duly did for me. And the camera-ready PDF is shortly to be sent off for printing by GP Print in Peterborough, now that I’ve done the rest of the saving. The one advantage of having a fulltime job is that it’s easier to afford any selfpublishing exploits, and I’m not forced to make the kind of economies which result in poor-quality PDF’s devised on my old laptop. As for the marketing…. I wasn’t going to any steampunk events when I printed Version 1, so I didn’t know that my work was attuned to their genre – I was just having a blast, writing retro-adventure using all the expedition tropes I could remember from those old derring-do kinds of accounts. Now I’ve found somewhere it fits, and the script can have a second chance.

Needless to say, I still haven’t got the perfect sized guitar; although I acquired a lovely appalachian dulcimer recently, and it a satisfying clean and jangly sound. The journey continues.