I’m feeling mildly better now. I’ve got this ‘zine and small press fair that I’m getting ready for, and yesterday not only did I not have a bunch of elements I need (like a cover for my new book), I was also not happy with how the binding of my old books was turning out.
I wanted to have plenty of copies on-hand, but I’m out of practice with that kind of perfect-binding. The pages were coming out crooked, the glue was leaking over the edges or not covering the whole spine, and in one book I’d glued in a section upside-down, so the whole thing was waste (even as a novelty; it would not be fun to try and read it that way).
I made another copy of the last book , not ’cause I needed to for numbers, but because I needed to for myself. I just finished it, and it turned out perfectly. Phew.
I also wandered around town this afternoon looking for ideas for the cover of Finitude. I ended up buying a book about handwritten typefaces because I like that look and it’s what I want to use for this project. I’m just not practiced at doing them, and am still not entirely clear what I want to convey with this cover. Something like “Yeah, disaster story, but quirky disaster story that doesn’t take itself too seriously”. So I want handwriting that’s chunky, squirrelly, squiggly. I picked up some type-B calligraphy nibs to practice with. I haven’t used those since I was a kid!
But I still haven’t received my ISBNs, so I can’t finish the inside or the cover of the book anyway.
I’m also going to nuke this website and start over. Watch this space.
Since starting to use WordPress to power my blog, I’ve realised it’s the perfect engine to create a website to which I can dynamically add content, but that means moving the whole thing out of the Blog folder and up to the top level. Starting over, in other words.
The one big roadblock was not wanting to re-do my webstore, ’cause that was a pain in the butt. But I found a commercial add-in for WordPress that’ll let me post new store items just like blog posts, and do payments through PayPal just as before. Yay!
Much as I want to redo the site now, I’m not ready. For one, I don’t have a design. I’m going to use a template this time and just customise it a little, ’cause putting my buttons and other page elements into WordPress was brain surgery.
I also want to get new pictures done (in a studio, with a neutral background and lighting that won’t give me a Klingon forehead, culminating in a standard all-purpose author-shot). But I don’t know where to get that done, especially given the fact that I want to re-use the picture all over the place. I’m open to referrals here.
Basically, I’ve had this panic-attack feeling because in my world I have to do all this, like, today. It’s false pressure, and I need to stop it.
I’ve actually contacted people about my photos and about a front cover illustration; now I just have to wait and see if they respond, and come up with interim designs.
After writing articles aimed at entrepreneurs for years, telling them about the virtues of delegation, not doing everything yourself, and using others’ talents to augment your own, I still find myself being what Strategic Coach calls a “Rugged Individualist”.
I suppose as a creative person who can do a lot of things, I feel like I’m failing if I don’t do everything. But I really have no ambitions about some of this stuff, and I know other people are better at them. It’s just difficult to know whose talents would be the right fit and where to find them. Oh yeah, and then there’s the matter of not being able to demand stuff right now. Paying people actually doesn’t bother me. I spend money on worse things. In fact, I think there’s nothing I’d rather spend money on than talent. Way better than Pringles!
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