Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas – One Day at a Time

The 4th Day of Christmas

The Four Calling Birds are meant to represent the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Also, the Fourth Day of Christmas is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and it is considered a day for children. The feast honors the male children who were killed by King Herod in his quest to find the potential usurper (Baby Jesus) to his throne. Today, the youngest member of the family is in charge for what to do, where to go, what to eat for the entire day. The day is also known as Childermas.

Some say Four Calling Birds (song birds). Some say Four Colly Birds (black birds). And then, there is this person’s interpretation of Four Calling Birds on Reddit:

Is this a conference call?

“But Jiminy Crickets, it’s after December 25th! Is it not too late for the 12 Days of Christmas?” you say.

Not to fear, Chanticleerians! The 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 26th! And it continues to the 6th of January – Three Kings Day. The four weeks leading up to Christmas are known as Advent.

So if you haven’t finished wrapping presents, sending out those cards, and baking cookies—don’t worry. Just get it done. Eight Days left until Three Kings Day! 

Happy Holidays to You from the Chanticleer Team! 

On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love sent to me

Four Calling Birds

Three French Hens

Two Turtle Doves

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree 

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Chanticleer brings to me…

Four ISBNs! (not ASINs)

An ISBN is the identification number that is unique to your book.

ISBN is the International Standard Book Number

Authors in the US need to pay for their ISBNs from Bowker, but in Canada they are provided to authors directly.

Why Self-Published Authors Need to Own Their Own ISBNs

1. Owning your own ISBNs gives you complete control over what is entered into your book’s metadata.
   1. Metadata is the descriptions and categories that help libraries, bookstores, wholesalers, distributors, global supply chains, and, most importantly, readers worldwide discover your book.
2. ISBNs are non-transferable from the owner. ISBNs establish your book’s identity and authorship.
3. ISBNs never expire and there are no renewal fees. However, you cannot reuse an ISBN once it has been assigned.
4. ISBNs come with unique barcodes.
5. In the U.S., Bowker is the only official source of ISBNs.
6. Bibliographic immortality

As you may surmise, there are many details to learn about ISBNs about when and why they are necessary along with the few cases where they are not.

Here are a few handy links:

• International ISBN Agency
• Bowker ISBN US

Your Book’s Many Forms

One thing to keep in mind is that each version of your book’s publication should its own ISBN. This means that each of the following needs a separate ISBN to be easily distributed:

• Hardcover Edition
• Paperback Edition
• eBook Edition
• Audiobook Edition

You can see on Bowker, where ISBNs are sold, that there are huge savings to be had by buying ISBNs in bulk. Of course, this ISBN information is most applicable to the United States. Other countries have different rules and costs associated with an ISBN, so if you live outside of the US, you should do your research on ISBN rules and expectations. The discounts can be pretty sudden!

• 1 ISBN is $125
• 10 ISBNs are $295
• 100 ISBNs are $575
• 1,000 ISBNs are $1,500

ISBNs are non-transferable, and if they’re bought in someone else’s name, they can’t be transferred to another name. That’s why it’s always good to be cautious when buying an ISBN from a third party from anything under the standard price.

There is one type that doesn’t require an ISBN is your book on Block Chain / Bit Coin because each block chain book has its own unique code. If you decide to have your book available on Block Chain, our advice is to check out BookChain, out of Montreal, Canada.

There are three basic ways to sell your book, print, ebook, and audiobook. For print, we’ve already discussed several ways you can go through that formatting, which also applies to ebooks. 

We’d also like to pause and take a moment to mention Bookchain. Bookchain is one of our close affiliates who uses a unique blockchain (the NFT technology associated with Bitcoin) to track books and book sales. You can learn more and sign up for Bookchain here.

For Audiobooks, you’ll also want to consider professional help. This isn’t just for voice actors, but also for audio software. Many people may be familiar with Audacity, a free audio recording software that was designed with music and mixing in mind. It takes a little bit to learn how to use it, but once you have a few basics dialed in, it becomes much easier to use. In a pinch, like Microsoft Word, Audacity can work to create an audiobook recording for your story, but it’s not what the program was specifically designed for. 

What we recommend is Hindenburg

Hindenburg is audio recording software designed to create excellent, professionally mastered audio for your stories. There’s plenty of support to learn how to use it, and longtime Chanticleerians like CC Humphries are experts with it, creating Audi-worthy creations regularly. And Hindenburg will format your audio book for the myriad of audio book platforms that are out there. Hindenburg is known for their incredible customer service and support team. 

Stay tuned for the 5th Day of Christmas!

And just for fun: 

We now have: 

• Four Partridges and Four Pear Trees
• Six  Turtle Doves
• Nine French Hens
• Four Calling Birds  

Our favorite part about having the 12 Days of Christmas is that we can have the time we need to celebrate with our loved ones. We have time for wrapping presents, meeting with friends for hot cocoa, and continuing to prepare the Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2023 CIBA Banquet and Ceremony.

Wishing you Happy Holidays from Chanticleer from Kiffer, Sharon, David, Dena, Vilina, Scott, Anya, and Argus!