Sandy hit us all where it counted the
most. The strange thing is that I am totally unscathed by the storm.
Not even a minor inconvenience. Nothing, but JP has been without
power and hot water and I don't know what happened to Vladimir and
his company. Yeah, that's right, I sent Vladimir a check to get
started on my web page. Then the storm, and then nothing. He didn't
even cash the check. Nothing. Maybe it got lost in the mail system
which has also undergone some surprising outages and difficulties.
Maybe this is the reason that I haven't heard from him.
I've spoken to JP and she also had bad
news for me. The storm had set her back and it won't be until
December before she can get back to me and start working on my
manuscript. That seriously blows my Christmas release of Cover of
Darkness. This may even get in the way of a New Years release. I have to
say that I'm not stunned or hurt over this. My thinking now is that
the book will be completed, but in its own time. Nothing that I do
can speed it up, or conversely slow it down. The book has a life of
its own, and I'm a simple custodian. My job is done. I wrote the damn
thing. I'm a writer and that's all I do. I'm not an editor, web page
designer, cover designer, proofreader.
That's what you have to understand when
you're becoming your own publisher, you are not in as much control as
you think you are. That is the thing that is most disconcerting.
Further, without good references, you are going out and finding
contractors to do your work for you and you are trusting in them to
get the work done. You are depending on them not to rip you off. That
is the rub. You are just building your manufacturing base. This is
crucial if you want to get your book in the hands of your prospective
readers. Even after everything is finished and done, you are stuck
with marketing and promoting your book. Further areas where you'll
have to depend on others to get the word out about your novel. What
are you going to do then?
You are going to reevaluate what you do
and what you are. You will be wearing many hats, but you will be
managing even more. First and foremost, you are a simple writer. Your
jobs will expand and touch on a number of things in self publishing
but you will still only be a simple writer.
Your book will get done, especially if
you persevere, but the long and the short of it is, it's like a Mars
Lander, which travels millions of miles to the planet, strikes the
orbit, separates its landing portion and down it drops. On Earth, at
JPL, they separate the orbiter from the lander and then hold onto
their hats. The Lander, the Orbiter the trip into the atmosphere, all
under the control of the luck of the draw. Their monitors go static
and they chew their nails. Minutes later their monitors come on, the
radio kicks in, and the Lander reports that it's okay.
Your book is the Lander and you are the
engineers at JPL. You build it, do the best job that you can, and
then others, plus the luck of the draw will do the rest. It's
launched by other contractors, steered into orbit by other
contractors and then landed by luck and other contractors and there
you have it. It goes into space and you watch it leave. The same with
your book after you write it. Other contractors do their part and you
aim for the stars. That's the beauty of it all...
...you're not alone. You're never
alone.
Gregory Delaurentis
