Progress

These posts are becoming shorter because the work is becoming busier. This is the problem I have with blogging: I can only seem to get round to doing it when I have nothing to say.

So what has been going on in the Manchester Anthology secret lab?

- Story/extract layout. The copy is nearly all in, and the pages are being cranked out at top speed. There's some great stuff in this collection, there really is. And I can exclusively reveal that although we're coming from a creative writing MA there's not a single story about a divorcing university lecturer in sight. They're not even all about middle class people. Take that, Guardian comments section.

- Cover design. There'll be a draft up here soon. Suffice to say it's looking pretty foxy.

- ISBNing. The forms are off and the application is being processed. This in turn led to two other areas of mild havoc:

• The copyright page. This had to be done, at least to a preliminary degree, before the form could be sent off. This was interesting and tricky to get right, so it should probably be written about at some point.

• Barcoding. This happens after the ISBN arrives, and is easier than I was expecting: it basically consists of sending twenty of your shiny English pounds to the printers. 'It will cost extra' is one of the most terrifying phrases in the English languages, after 'presented by Noel Edmonds', but in this case the number that followed was the sort of pleasingly small number our budget could handle. Hurrah!