Creative Control

This week in publishing adventures: Creative Control!

Yay!

So I was sold on the idea of assisted self-publishing because of the phrase ‘creative control.’ I love the idea that I get final say on what makes the cut and what doesn’t. Unfortunately, I’m an unknown author so I really don’t have complete and total creative control. Let me explain…

If you missed my last update on being censored, you can read it here. It might help put this post in context. Basically, up to this point, I have had to meet a lot of requirements to get my book published. The first hurdle was the fact that self-publishing means you pay them to publish your book. Here is an overview as to why that is the case nowadays. Fortunately for me, I have an amazing group of people who stepped up and crowdfunded my dream to turn it into a reality. Seriously, check it out here.

The second obstacle was the manuscript itself and all the naughty words I used. That’s the link above about being censored.

The third hurdle was the artwork. Here it is in all its glory:

However, my artist friend Kassidy and I spent about the entire last month sending them this cover in a format that met their printing requirements. See, my publishing package included in-house graphic design, but I chose to ask a friend who I knew would be able to capture my idea. He obviously nailed it. Now I don’t think it had anything to do with the content of the image, but for one reason or another, the publisher’s artists were unable to use the beautiful image you see above.

Kassidy and I thought of every conceivable way to get the files they could use. Ultimately, I had to sign a waiver because Jesus’ glasses and nose rings were less than 300 dpi. Basically, I had to fight for over a month to keep the cover I wanted on the book I wrote.

Needless to say, this puts my original release date back quite a few weeks, if not months. I was hoping to have the book out before Thanksgiving, but now I’m not so sure that will happen. Especially given my current predicament.

Here’s where we are currently. I have been given proofs to sign off on, but upon further review, I have seen that my original manuscript was only reviewed, not proofread. Basically, they searched for my naughty words, but not for typos. I was lead to believe that my self-publishing package included at least some editing, but I was wrong.

Now, I will be charged $100 for every 25 alterations I make to my manuscript. So I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I could set some money aside in the next few weeks, pay the publisher to make changes to my book after I edit it myself, or I could approve a book riddled with typos so that I can get it published sooner than later.

I feel I have no choice but to choose the former. As backward as it sounds, I will do an intense read of my own manuscript, use technological helps to proofread it (I am dyslexic so I frequently typo), and then pay my publisher to let me publish a book with no typos, or at least just fewer ones. The moral of the story seems to be “don’t publish a book unless you’re famous.” Then perhaps creative control truly means something

Here’s to surrendering things to God, things that upset me, things that confuse me, things that He can work in and through despite me not knowing how that all works.

If you have suggestions, want to pray, or support my endeavor in some way, I would greatly appreciate it. I feel strongly that this is a story that God made possible, and is one He wants to be told. So I’ll keep grinding.