This is the magical creature--look, you can just see one now, peeking his head out from a repository at Wikimedia Commons:
Mine will, of course, bear my own unique ISBN.
My application for an ISBN has been sent to the ISBN Agency in the U.S., which will register GroundMark Press as a publisher and provide my ISBN. It usually takes 3 to 4 business days, I understand. When the ISBN has been assigned to my title, my book will be updated with an ISBN and a barcode can be added to my book. Once the update is complete and I am satisfied, distribution begins and the book is listed in Bowker's Books In Print, Nielsen BookData and other sources so it can be picked up by book sellers.
The PR and marketing of the book, however, is up to me.
Along those lines, I recently had an article on Witchvox published. The article, adapted from the introduction to my book, has been up 2 days so far and has had almost 1100 impressions and 6200 RSS views. In some senses those numbers are meaningless... they don't indicate unique users; nonetheless, it's encouraging, and I've actually received some positive email in response. I hadn't expected the article to go up until after The Art of Magic Words was available on Amazon; normally it takes about two months for an article to be posted from the time of submission. However, they either had very few articles in the queue at the time I submitted, or they liked it enough to approve it quickly.
I had to scramble to create a book listing on Witchvox quickly as well, so any readers would be able to find out where to buy the book (since it can't be found except in the Lulu marketplace at this point). I did that Monday. There are an unbelievable 6500 impressions on that page; surely this must be due to spiders mapping out the links on the page; it can also be due to counts generated from pictures and other things on the page that aren't necessarily connected to unique visits. My hits at the marketplace (where I can check for unique visits) aren't anywhere near as high. An additional 30 people, perhaps, have looked at the page there.
Once I receive the ISBN, I'll begin contacting the individuals on my media list to see if I can get reviews and coverage for the release. Word of mouth is nice, too, though. If you know anyone who might be interested in this book, please point them in the right direction!
