You may notice a loose organization to
my product listing. In general, the farther down the page, the older
the offering. However, books are all at the top in their own loose
chronological order. In general, the older recordings are more open
mic, and anything with “Myth” in the title is more studio oriented.
I began print on demand publishing online with with CafePress. Those
titles included Sounds from the Village of Carlisle, Il Est Né, On the
Woad, Shakespeare: All the thrills..., and Huzzah! CafePress’ original
offerings included books and CDs. They spoiled me in that respect. They
offered either Data CDs or Music CDs, but what they did not publicize
was that they used the same process for both, so if you sent them a
hybrid CD, they actually produced a hybrid CD. That was awesome. Add to
that the fact that on personal bulk orders, they initially charged the
same amount for a CD in a sleeve OR a CD in a jewel case with backing
and booklet. I even called them on that, and they confirmed it. I don’t
think that the pricing department was their strong suit. Then they
started having software glitches on the interface side, and finally
discontinued both books and CDs. Sigh.
So, I switched my books and CDs to a newer service that was called
CreateSpace. Although they could put my Books and CDs on Amazon, they
could not produce a hybrid CD. So, I had my hybrids that I made at home
for faires, and the print on demand versions that were listed online
without all the extra files. I managed to get all of my own titles
moved to CreateSpace, and I produces Playing in the Water and
Antiephemeral while I use that service.
Then CreateSpace was purchased by Amazon, and it all went downhill from
there. My books transferred over, but my CDs were in limbo. They were
still listed on Amazon, but I had no control over them for several
years. While I did get them listed in my Amazon files after the better
part of a year, I had no actual access to them in any meaningful way
for several years after that. I couldn’t change the price, description,
or anything.
All I got were bad links and error messages when I tried to access my
own materials. Whoever the project manager was over there, they got
several earfuls from me via emails. It would literally have taken one
programmer an hour or two to just go in and fix the individual problems
with my Amazon files that were initially caused by Amazon’s poor
conveyance software. And, I believe that after a year or two of me
ranting that was all it would take, someone actually did just that. I
got control of my CDs back... Just in time to produce
Mythinterpretations. I had already produced Mythtakes while I was
waiting for them do something with my already existing CDs. New titles
were possible, but the old ones were screwed up.
Shortly after I released Crit or Myth, Amazon decided to discontinue
all CD production. If you have trouble locating music on CDs, it’s
because Amazon is actively promoting their streaming platform by making
it harder for small publishers to produce CDs on demand. First they
purchased the best production house in the industry. Then they
literally screwed it up. Then they purposefully tanked it.
So now, if you want physical copies of the CDs that I have produced,
you sort of have to see me. As for streaming, I have several studio
collections online. You can purchase the streams, or the digital files.
As for my books, I have a few on Amazon, but evidently Amazon cannot
handle heavier papers, so not everything is there. Amazon is not a good
production service.