So my problem with Gotprint was resolved. Sort of. They never admitted they had done anything wrong. There was no apology, nor any attempt to help me get the materials I needed. Instead, several days after my initial contact with them, there was a bland and confusingly-worded email offering me a discount or free reprint. If I returned the order. I really wasn’t thrilled with mailing a six pound box back to them on my dime, so I called and talked to their customer service line, who was spectacularly unhelpful, although they did say I didn’t need to return the whole thing. Instead, I was supposed to open a new ticket (she didn’t tell me where and it’s not clear online) and tell them what I wanted. Since I knew very well they wouldn’t arrive in time, I emailed in reply to the email they had sent me, insisting on a full refund, which was given once I had put my foot down. I won’t be using them again. There are too many other places to get what I want, when I need it, and not looking like someone was asleep at the wheel while it was made.
I am working with a local printer near LibertyCon to get what I need. Fingers crossed, and I will let you all know when I come back how the postcards came out. If all goes well, I will have a recommendation for you all. Or the ones that are interested in printed promo stuff, anyway.
In other news, I am looking at my list for LibertyCon and the trip that precedes it, and adding things to it – not taking away as much as I had hoped! As the wedding plans begin to come together, I am both excited and nervous about it. Not that I’m worried about the First Reader. Just that I want everything to go smoothly and be fun and memorable for everyone taking part in the flashmob wedding in TN.
Speaking of the First Writer, he has an article over at the Otherwhere Gazette today talking about indie publishing and why it comes under so much fire from traditionally-published authors and editors. I like the phrase he coined about being lost of a sea of books and authors. There are day it feels like I am just another drop in the ocean with nothing about me that is special. But what I do have is self-determination. I can decide what I am going to do, and when. I can hire the best editors, not the ones who have survived the bloodletting of the last few years in the industry. I’m not stuck with some poor unpaid intern doing their untrained best on my books.
I was shocked to see the dropoff in the number of people employed in the publishing industry (this data does include newspapers and does not include internet). I’d known it was bad, but not that bad. I can only call that precipitous, and I’m not given to hyperbole. Even Publisher’s Weekly has noticed, although they don’t seem to have put two and two together yet. “Increased workload was the top complaint among the workforce. More work was cited as a source of dissatisfaction last year by 58% of survey respondents, up from 49% in 2012, overtaking low pay—the perennial leader—as the most frequently cited complaint about the industry.” Frankly, as a woman, I would be worried less about perceived lack of diversity than with having a job at all in the industry at this point.
I’m an outsider to all that. One thing about being adrift on this ocean is that it’s a big sea. I have the freedom to make choices, set sail for the sunset, and find out what lies on the other side of the sea. With my worlds? It’s a sea of stars, and I shall explore universes…
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2 responses to “A Small Resolution”
In reference to the publishing industry – the company I work for has laid off hundreds (possibly thousands) of people in the various newspapers it owns across the country, in the past few years.
Yes, I know the newspaper industry is struggling probably more than the book publishing side of it. But we’re over the precipice of change, falling, and I feel like Alice in the rabbit hole, not sure which end is up right now.