Previously on Shirscribe I began giving an update to my self-publishing journey. This is part two, you can read part one by scrolling down to the prior entry.
I think I may have lost my Titanic correlating point. Dratted! Let’s hope it comes back to me. But in the meantime, let’s pick up where we left off yesterday shall we?
So I hired her…well, actually I commissioned her services, because she wasn’t an employee of mine. And, unlike the previous person I extended an offer to, I actually began working with her. Though I have to admit, I had some reservations about working with her as well. For example, during the interview I asked her about performing a design technique that she said wasn’t possible, that it was something that could only be accomplished during the physical printing process and not in the graphic design itself. However, I distinctly remember another candidate explaining how it could be done through graphic design as well.
I ended up letting that slide because she was a nice girl, did good work from what I could tell from her portfolio, she showed professionalism and her price was good. However on that the we were supposed to meet, our very first meeting she showed up late without an apology or an explanation. Not only that, she didn’t even have her computer with her, just a sketch pad.
It’s funny, once it reached five minutes pass our meeting time and she was still MIA without a phone call or text to inform me, something told me to send her a message and cancel everything. But at that point, I’d already put in so much work trying to find a book cover illustrator/designer, I just didn’t want to have to start all over again. So I waited it out, decided I would give her until the 15 minute mark before I bounced. About 10 minutes after the meeting time she came on the scene. And again, no explanation, no apology, just hi.
So we had our little meeting, and I made it explicitly clear what I wanted for the mock sketches for the cover. I even drew it for her in her notebook. On top of that, that morning, I’d sent her images of book covers that I liked and images that she could use as a model for her work. The morning after our meeting, I sent her clear instructions regarding what I wanted to be incorporated into the cover along with typography examples. The day after that, she sent me subpar work, that almost completely ignored my requests made both in person and via those emails. Needless to say, that was it for me.
I had already paid her according to the terms agreed upon in the contract, so in a sense that was a total waste – waste of my time, waste of my money, just a waste.
I was so upset, just mad with myself for allowing this to happen to me. I felt discouraged, at the thought of having to start all over again, at the thought that perhaps I’ll have to end up spending much more money, and given that I have no income, that’s really scary. So then I thought I need to step up my job search, and start being open to taking what I can get quickly, instead of being picky and looking for something I’d enjoy, ‘cause these jobs are rejecting me left and right. And it’s just one big connected mess.
But there’s a lesson in damn near everything, if not everything, and the lesson that I got from this is to honor my instincts more. Before she ever showed up late to our first meeting, she did several little things that made me second guess my decision to extend her an offer. But I just ended up reasoning it all away. Plus, I had already extended an offer to someone before her and then rescinded it, so I thought to do it again would just make me seem indecisive and crazy. And not only that, but maybe, perhaps petty.
You know, no one’s perfect right? So I can’t write someone off because of the little things. But what I’ve come to learn, not just from this incident, but others as well, that if people are acting in a way that’s unsettling to your spirit in the beginning, even if it is a little thing, not only will they continue to do so, but it will progressively get worse.
You know, people say don’t sweat the small stuff and I believe that to be true. It just needs to be put in it’s proper context, because some small things are indicative of bigger things. Like an ice cube has the same molecular structure as an iceberg. Basically what I’m saying is sometimes little things are an indication of bigger things to come. Sometimes little things are just a chip off the old block of bigger things. And if you’re intuition is telling you something ain’t right, belief it, no matter how little it is.
So anyway, my intuition, aka the Holy Spirit, was right. And instead of worrying about looking crazy for extending an offer and rescinding it again, I should have just gone with my gut. I even had a second chance to do so when she showed up late, that would have at least saved me the money I paid her. But alas, I went further than I should have and I paid for it – literally and figurately.
So anyway, that was a bummer. I have no idea how I’m going to secure a book cover designer now. A budget-friendly book cover designer. I just know that it will happen. I gotta keep the faith. In the meantime, I can work on doing other things, like finishing up my edit, formatting the book (that’s one of those things I’ve discover should be done before you get the book cover design done, so you can have the exact measurements), and yeah. So yeah, my book will not be coming out in June. Now, I’m shooting for August.
Before I go, I just want to share a little Titanic knowledge I learned over the weekend after watching so many documentaries. Now I don’t know how true this is, but according to one of the documentaries I saw, the iceberg the Titanic collided with began to form right about the time they started building the ship. It separated from a larger ice mass in Greenland and slowly floated it’s way to the spot where it would have it’s encounter with the Titanic. What’s even more fascinating to me is when they stated that an iceberg that size usually doesn’t make it as far as it did. That given where it came from, usually it melts down and breaks up before it gets to the spot of the collision. But somehow this iceberg made it, in tact, further than over 90% (don’t quote me on this percentage) or more of icebergs its size does.
Isn’t that interesting?
Anyways, I don’t know if this story is over, or if it needs a part three. We’ll see. What I do know is, it’s done for now.
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