Welcome back to Redink! This edition is going to take a strange turn, especially when considering the reason why. Today, we discuss my path from soon-to-be published author to soon-to-be owner of a publishing company.

Yes, that's right. I'm starting a publishing company.

Simply put, it's 100% to do with my ADHD and this incessant need to fill out forms to ridiculous perfection (yes, OCD is a legit ADHD coping mechanism).

Due to some marketing reasons, it's best to have ISBNs that you control rather than receiving free ones from Amazon or other marketplaces. For that reason, I decided to directly purchase my ISBNs from the sole US authorized dealer, Bowker.

During the purchase, I was faced with a box that said PUBLISHING COMPANY. Now, normal people who self-publish would just put their name in the box. That's what Bowker suggests in the info help icon next to it.

I am not a normal person and I don't do normal things.

So, I sat there, risking the online form timing out, pondering what to enter. Blake's Press House? Myers & Myers Publishing? Nah ... too boring. After 30 minutes of toying with names, I came up with Coffin & Nails Publishing. Over the top and silly? Absolutely. Nonetheless, that's what I put in the box and completed my order.

Then I realized that this publishing company name would now follow the book for its entire life...

That means people will see this. What if they get curious and follow the little white rabbit down the rabbit hole? Well, I'll need to give them a hole to go down.

Since I make websites, why not create one? And so, I did: Coffin & Nails Publishing

But, wait, what if people think it's a scam? Easy fix. I registered it as an LLC in Ohio. Done. So now we have Coffin & Nails Publishing, LLC.

Obviously, I'll need to get paid. Thus enters Novo banking, with free small business checking, $0 minimum balance, and $0 to open. Great. But I need an EIN for that. That took all of 30 seconds on IRS.gov.

So now I have a website, LLC articles of incorporation, an EIN, and a bank account. Do I need anything else? OF COURSE I DO ... Coffin & Nails also has a Twitter/X account.

What's next for me and Coffin & Nails ... well, first up: publishing our first book!

I'm still waiting for the final cover design from the artist, and once I have it, I can send the book to all my Kickstarter backers and then release it on Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble (though B&N are being boogers about setting up as a publisher). I'm crossing my fingers for a February release.

As anyone with ADHD will attest, we'll do anything to avoid a difficult decision or responsibility. For me, it was the idea that I hadn't formatted the books properly. Instead of fixing that, let's procrastinate by creating a company from scratch—which took about one week. Yes, that's my level of ADHD daily, making the completion of a 93k-word, nearly 400-page novel all the more impressive (at least in my book).

Well, that's it for today. Stay spooky!

PS Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

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