September has been a big month here at Blackwater Press for two reasons: The first is that we’ve (finally) published a book! I Piped, That She Might Dance by Iain MacDonald exists in hard copy at last … in Scotland, at least …
We didn’t realize what an impact Covid-19 has had on the book production industry, and so the North American copies are delayed, but should be in the American and Canadian shipping locations by the end of this week (they’ve shipped from the printers!), and then off to our (very patient) pre-orders. Thanks again to all who have received or are still waiting for their book; we hope you will agree that it is worth the wait. Steve thinks so!
The second reason is that we’re a year old. In the past year we have, without ever meeting in person, fought time zones and communicated daily thanks to Zoom and Messenger, learned about setting up an LLC under West Virginia law, navigated some personnel changes, got our editorial services up and running, created a successful short story contest, met many wonderful authors and supportive colleagues, hosted a popular online event for Piping Live! with Iain MacDonald and Hugh Cheape, learned about non-United States citizens who own American businesses negotiate with the IRS (not fun!), dealt with the Library of Congress’s control number system, figured out how to turn a file into a physical book, and more. Most importantly though, John now knows as much about pìobaireachd as Vivien and Gaelic names as Elizabeth!
It’s been a steep learning curve, but we are finally starting to see the rewards of all our hard work, and we are looking forward to continuing to improve as publishers in the future. And, by the end of this year, we will have published three books, one of which – Blackwater Press Short Story Collection 2021 – is at the printers as we speak!
