It’s been one of those weeks around the publishing office…
The first thing I noticed was an email from one of my cover artists. She was telling me she was pulling out of the project because life was becoming too complicated. Another artist has been MIA since last month…
That was the start and it was followed by the discovery that there had been no (zero) progress on the Johnson Farm Kickstarter over the weekend. On the other hand someone had responded positively to my last blog post here…
The team didn’t stop… A cover solution was found and we worked to help our artists get something in so that they can say they completed the project (and at least one cover still might come out of their efforts!). In spite of a negative start we were still on track.
Then came another round of ‘you can’t succeed’. Someone actually told me to give up on Forever Mountain and come work for them. Well that sucked for the people who like to tell us we can’t succeed! The guy was trying to tell me to give up right after I got the sales report for one of our other books. In addition to Amazon and Barns and Noble we actually sold copies at iBook (I’d forgotten we were selling at iBook!).
It seems like some people love to tell you you’re going to fail. It seems easier to ignore them when you’re feeling the love from readers.
Next came press releases, and dealing with what to say (and what not to say) when announcing a project to the press. There are times that it is possible to get annoyed with the English language (not English people, not English speakers, I mean the actual English Language…), but you work your way through and find a solution.
And then there are edits, and posts to write and all that other ‘work stuff’ that isn’t so obvious when you’re dreaming about royalty checks and book signings… But then there is also that unexpected pledge on Kickstarter; that comment on the YouTube video you forgot you did; that phrase that comes out just right… And that was just Monday!
Don’t get me wrong. Writing is not an easy process. No art worth doing is really as easy as some people think it is. Any project worth working on will be a roller coaster ride. It will mean stretching yourself and learning to be better. It will bring its share of stress and pain. But, if it is worthy, it will bring joy too… And that is why we do this, because for all the frustration, for all the negatives we encounter, there are positives too. And they show up when we least expect them…
In the time since I wrote this initially the MIA artist reappeared with a great looking cover, some funding came through, and four pages I wrote for a project turned out to be one of those “it’s a starting point but not really part of the text” things… No it isn’t easy, but it’s what you have to do if you want to be a writer (or a musician, or a painter, or a…)
Forever Mountain Publishing 