(Below are a collected month’s worth of posts from CJ’s private Publisher’s Diary, which is available to read live as a reward tier on Ackerly Green’s Patreon.)
February 9th, 2018: Covered
This has been a crazy week.
It’s all boring, publishing inside baseball but I swore I’d chronicle all of that here, so here’s what’s up.
Book cover designers.
I’ve now hired and been deserted by a half-dozen of them.
There’s something about this particular corner of the publishing industry.
I think that all cover designers want stellar covers in their portfolios. Makes sense. But I also think that, in their minds, and probably across the industry, if the covers in your portfolio are for books from Harper Collins or Simon and Schuster, or Random House or Penguin, they make your portfolio even better.
Ackerly Green doesn’t quite have that gravitas. So when some other opportunity presents itself, AGP covers are the first to be given the heave-ho. Even though I’m paying the same rate ($$$$$.) Doesn’t matter. Like everybody else, they’re hoping each project is a stepping stone to a bigger, better project. And better pay.
So far, seven designers have bailed on me. Which makes four books coming out in the next six-eight months, none of which have finalized, or even in-process, covers.
[Also, I’ve finally compiled the (massive) finished draft of EVERYTHING that happened in TMP, and just received the full draft of FoDG, and am in the middle of “renovating” and editing BoB. And those all need to go to my editor Nick, like, two days ago.]
So that’s where I am. Uncovered, and nineteen plates spinning…
The good news is that this situation forced me to start looking for designers who have worked with indie publishers in the past and are eager to again. Enter Reedsy. A resource for indies, it also has a marketplace where you can submit cover design briefs (among other things) to several selected artists and get bids back within a week. You can set a deadline, payment schedule, AND it’s all covered and protected by Reedsy.
So I gave it a try, and had three solid bids with interesting concepts within three days.
So we’ll see.
February 12th, 2018: Vlog?!
Where I discuss:
A Photoshoot
The App
The Ackerly Green Secret Society
New Merch
The Hermanbot
February 13th, 2018: Hamster
I discuss:
AGSS
The Book of Briars
Mindfulness
Creativity
Illustrator
And I wear a shirt that is the same color as my skin: a hairless baby hamster.
February 22nd, 2018: The ASSEMBLY LINE!
I discuss:
The Book Publishing Factory
Secret Society
Stuttering
Continuity
Sharing the Burden