So today I looked into adding “Brigitta of the White Forest” to the Apple iTunes bookstore. Now, I’m a pretty tech-savvy guy, but WOW. Apple is doing themselves no favor by having the application process so convoluted and difficult to get through. In fact, two years after they set this up, you still can’t find any information on what you’re supposed to do!

I tried to sign in to my “iTunes Connect” account and got nothing but an error saying that someone had already submitted an application through this ID. Well, I guess that was me, right? But there was NO WAY to find out. None. No information in my iTunes account, or in my profile, or anywhere.

I tried Googling this problem and came up with very little. Some people had this problem, but nobody had a common method for correcting it. In most cases, they had to write the Apple support team and wait for a response. NO PHONE NUMBER. I even tried calling a random Apple number I came up with and was referred to an email address. Wonderful.

Turns out I had applied a couple of weeks ago and my application was delayed because my EIN wasn’t correct. I only found this out by doing a search through my email for “do_not_reply@apple.com”. I came up with a cryptic email telling me this much. I tried inputting my SSN again, but haven’t received a reply.

In the meantime, I decided to just pick up the phone and call the IRS about my EIN, since they’re the ones who issued it. A very polite man at the other end was all too happy to look me up (nope! you don’t have one!) and issue me a brand spankin’ new EIN. And there you go. I guess I’m an official business now.

I emailed this into the Apple black hole and am now waiting for a response. Apparently, this isn’t automated. There are monkeys at the other end who take care of this. And so I wait, and wait, and wait …

What an ordeal. Just for one book. But this will, of course, allow me to post others.

Life in the internet age. Pah.

 

It is with great pomp and circumstance (please envision grandiose festivities in your head), on this Solstice Day, 2011, that I am proud to announce the birth of Hydra House, a new imprint focused on publishing science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction works by Pacific Northwest authors, with an emphasis on the digital mediums. I chose “Hydra” not because of the nefarious nature of the beast, but rather because of its multi-headed form and its ability to regenerate and grow in new ways when completely chopped off. (Okay, maybe the metaphor IS a bit of a stretch, but I like it.)

The goal is to work not just with the print form of the book, but to work at distributing the text in a variety of forms, including print books, ebooks, audio, and possibly movies, television, and games, depending on the nature of the content. It’s an evolving concept for a press, and I intend to try and stay abreast of emerging technologies.

In the coming days I’ll have more information posted about the press and the services I’ll be offering, including an ebook conversion service. Hydra House will be able to convert books into epub, mobi, and pdf formats, which cover pretty much the gamut of electronic readers.

And finally, the first book to be released by Hydra House, I am very proud to announce, is an as-yet unnamed collection of short stories by West Seattle-based author and 2010 Clarion West school chum K.C. Ball. The book will be edited by Cat Rambo, a notoriously excellent author in her own right.

While en theos press will continue to operate as a small poetry press (granted, probably publishing less frequently), the one work that will be carried over to the new press is “Brigitta of the White Forest,” by Danika Dinsmore. We have received an enormous amount of positive feedback and are looking forward to the release of the second book in the series, “The Ruins of Noe.”

Please stay with me as I expand and grow the House of Hydra!

Cheers,

Tod McCoy
Hydra House
June, 2011