MJRyder.net

CIP and how it works

Things are certainly starting to pick up pace now. I’ve just realised that I should have probably applied to the Bibliographic Data Services people a little earlier than I have. Having said this however, I can’t apply until I know how many pages are in my book, and I don’t know how many pages are in my book until the formatting is finalised with the printers and I can fill in that tiny white box with the correct number. This may well mean that my official publication date is pushed back to December, though preview copies should still be available up to two months beforehand.

For those of you not in the know (and that includes my good self up to about five minutes ago!), Bibliographic Data Services, are the people who provide book data to libraries. From the data they receive, library services then decide what books they want to buy up to fill their shelves. If you look in the front of pretty much any book printed in England today you will see a small little disclaimer on the verso page saying something along the lines of ‘A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library’. This means that the book is on the library database, and this means it should, theoretically therefore, be available through the library if so requested. With me so far?

Once an author is registered thus with CIP (Cataloguing in Publication) an author / editor / contributor can then apply for PLR. PLR – or Public Lending Rights – is an initiative whereby authors whose books are borrowed from the library may, on a yearly basis, receive a small commission based on the number of books of their loaned out through the library. This can vary from £1 to up to £6,000. Naturally, registering for both is essential for an author in a position such as mine.

Hopefully, thing being well, I should hear back from my publishers soon with page count information and with the formatting ready for my approval. Once I have the formatted book ready, I can fill in the page numbers box, send off the CIP form, and thence afterwards, register for PLR.

It’s certainly keeping me busy!

Until next time,

M.J.Ryder

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Writing progress

Well here I am, at the end of another blog and I find myself wondering just how much writing have I done these past few days? Truth be told, not so much. I've now just about finished writing the second chapter of the second part of my book, and still, despite my progress manuscript-wise, find myself gradually falling further and further behind on the typing front. Word count at the last check was 34,000 words. I really do need to get on!