Tales of a Frustrated Author

TRUTH BE TOLD was ready to be uploaded to Createspace in early July. I had cold feet. Authors get SENDPHOBIA. It’s a malady that keeps us from readily pushing the send button on our work to SEND it to others (be they be critique partners, Beta Readers, contest coordinators, agents, editors, or publishers (whether they be of the Createspace kind or a traditional kind.)

We went on vacation to Red River, which hopefully, you all enjoyed reading about. This wasn’t a problem. I had plenty of time before August 21 when I’d leave for Tyler and the East Texas Book Fest  

   where I wanted to have print copies of all three of my books.

Toward the end of July I got around to uploading my book to Createspace and made one last glance at the book cover. What did I see but two small words with no space between them– “throughthe” Not a big deal, right, but it was the cover. Couldn’t let it go once I’d seen it.

No telling why I hadn’t seen it before or how my wonderful cover artist, Charlie Volnek, missed it. Oh, right, we’re both human and so are fallible. I emailed Charlie, knowing she would fix it and get it right back to me.

Unfortunately for me, fortunate for Charlie she had just left on a two-week vacation and said she’d get on it as soon as she got back. Okay. I’m happy for her getting a two-week vacation. (Later I learned it was in the mountains. Gorgeous scenery.) As long as I got the corrected cover by Aug. 10, I figured I could get the books home before I left for Tyler without paying extra.

Monday of this week, Charlie sent me two jpgs of the cover with the correction nicely made. I click on Createspace. It needs a pdf. I messaged Charlie on Facebook. Poor woman just back from vacation. You know how it is. Tons of emails, dirty clothes, brain still on vacation time. She’d meant to send a jpg and a pdf, but sent two jpgs. So quickly she sent the pdf.

(As I was looking through my files, I realized Charlie had sent the original cover to me in March. I am totally responsible for the screw up! I should’ve seen the problem, and I should’ve tried to upload the whole shebang earlier–See beginning of post.)

Monday, I uploaded the cover. The book was already uploaded and approved (or so I thought!) It’s takes them 24 hours to run their last check. I’d forgotten that. (Knee is beginning to jump a bit.)

I got a message on Tuesday, saying they found a problem in the content on p. 273. What?

I can’t figure out what the problem is–something about mentioning Amazon as a place to get the book. (Createspace is owned by Amazon.) What the heck?

Next, I signed in to the community section, because there’s no way to talk to a real person at Createspace. A kind woman responded to my query quoting their submission policies saying if you said Amazon you had to mention other retailers. Well, I did, just not in the same sentence.

The kind woman sent me a copy of their manual. I copied the phrasing suggested. Then I contacted my formatter, because I cannot make changes to a pdf document and while I toyed with the idea of trying to convert my word document to a pdf, I restrained myself from going down that rabbit hole. I actually spent time researching and printing off the directions. Yikes!

Tim Toppe  from top.epublishing@gmail.com was in a training and said he’d work on it at his break. (very nice guy) And he did.

When I opened the new doc, I found a different font for my name and the page numbers. Not my favorite, but what the heck, I needed to upload this book.

I SENT the corrected doc back to Createspace. Each time they have to do a check of the work. Rather than 24 hours, in just a couple of hours, I got another message stating I have a problem on p. 273. Well, for heaven’s sake, I used their language from their manual!

So back to Tim. Let’s remove all reference to Amazon. At 6 Tuesday night, I got the corrected (for the second time) pdf from Tim (at home he’d been able to correct the font problem. At training, he didn’t have all the fonts available to him.) and I proceeded to go through the upload process again. Again, they tell me 24 hours before it’ll be approved, and they’ll send an email. Nail biting time for sure.

So now it’s Wednesday. Fortunately when I got on line first thing, there was the email that said all was fine, and I could proceed. Which I did.

Payment time.

One more glitch.

I couldn’t locate the correct credit card. Grrrr! Then in filling out the payment info, I used the wrong code numbers. (I don’t use this card often, and just read the wrong numbers.) Createspace sent a red letter message saying to contact support because there was an error in the billing. (I’m grateful, to know that little code works, but I was freaking because I had to order the books!!)

I backed out and started over. This time, though I never found the page that requested the code #, the order went through. (At least I have a printed confirmation stating that.)

Of course, by then, regular mailing of the books to me would get them here by Monday, Aug. 24. I could gamble. Experience has shown the books get here faster than predicted. But for $50 I could assure they’d be here by Aug. 19—giving me a one day breathing room before we leave at 1 pm on the 21st. And I wouldn’t be on pins and needles worrying the whole time. So that’s what I did. I’ll have 3 sets of books to take with me to Tyler next week and to Denver for RomCon15 in September.

I don’t make money on my books. Maybe someday I will, but not yet. Not with the e-books from MuseItUp Publishing nor from print or e-books by MRW Press LLC.

There are folks who make a living as authors, but just like with actors or artists, it’s a hard business and the vast majority don’t. No one becomes an author to make a killing (though in my romantic suspense books, there’s almost always a killing) (Apologies, just couldn’t resist!) LOL

Of course, no one becomes a teacher to make a lot of money either. We do it because we love the business—whatever the business is.

I’m very fortunate to have a super supportive husband

(Happy Birthday, Bob!)

  (taken on our 4oth wedding anniversary in Camden, Maine) and a small retirement from my years in education. Without those, I couldn’t be in the writing business. I know I’m one of the lucky ones.

I don’t generally blog too much about the business side of writing or the writing process. But my subjects do come from whatever is uppermost in my life at the time—well, this publishing thing fits. LOL Besides, I thought those of you non-writers out there might find the process interesting. If you like my books, please tell your friends and write reviews on Amazon, B & N, and Goodreads. Word of mouth is the best advertising. Thank you. Thank you.

Weight Report: I’ve re-orderd Nutrisystem. Will start in a few days. Just during the week. I’m on my own for the weekends. This should work to get me back on track.

If any of you are in the Tyler Texas vicinity Saturday, Aug. 22, would love for you to stop by. Tell your friends. 100 Texas authors! How fun!

So is there something you do that’s just because you love it so and you don’t get any monetary reward? Love to hear from you.