Heaven and Hell

Publishing is Heaven for editors and Hell for writers.

Well, maybe it's not Heaven for editors.  I wouldn't know.  Never been an editor.  But I am a writer, and I can state from my experience that PUBLISHING IS HELL.


I have been fighting to publish Heart of Stone.  Fighting.  I fired my cover artist who held me up for 4 months and hired Peter Ratcliffe who produced a cover in . . . lessee . . . first contact was 15 May 2011 . . . approved cover delivered 28 May 2011 . . .  thirteen days. 

Rob Siders, whom I hired to format Heart of Stone, recommended Peter.  I have been pleased to work with Rob and Amy Siders.  Every exchange has been pleasant.  He delivered when he said he would.  For ebook formatting, I strongly recommend Rob.

So if I have had outstanding positive experiences with Rob and Peter, why am I so pyssed off?

Because those have been my only positive experiences.  Everything else sucks.  Sucks, sucks, sucks.

I know me.  I know the way I work.  I am goal-oriented and single-minded.  When I want some goal done, I will drop other tasks until that goal is achieved.  Heart of Stone is the only dymned thing on my DayTimer now.  Nothing else is happening.

In the month of May, I wrote 1,500 words.  1,500 words in a month!?  I can write 1,500 words in a morning.  And so far in June, none, zilch, nada.

I have a short story, Flight Out, ready to go.  Okay, needs to have the cover stuck in, but then it can be uploaded to Amazon.  I have not looked at it in three weeks.

I know in my bones what Joe Konrath means when he says he would pay an agent's fee -- 15% -- to have someone take the manuscript and publish the book for him.

And now I understand why Hemingway drank so much.  08.20 AM and I have already finished my first glass of wine.  I wonder if I'll make it to noon before I break into the 18-year-old Glenfiddich.

Gonna be a helluva teatime today, boys and girls.