I’ve put together another children’s photo book based on safari photos taken last year in Kenya. It’s called “Ndovu the Elephant – an African Tale.” 36 photos of animals in their natural habitat with a cute story about a baby elephant lost on the Serengeti looking for his family. I contracted with a company in Korea to do the printing and planned a big book debut for August 20. I kept asking my agent since March “Are you CERTAIN this will be ready on time,” and she assured me there would be no problem.
So I planned the big debut including sending out 1500 postcard invitations. The agent said the books would be in my hand by the end of July which meant they would arrive in Gulfport while I was in Africa. What could possibly go wrong with this plan? Even when the date was pushed back to August 6th I was sure everything would be okay.
On July 8th she wrote me saying there were further delays and probably wouldn’t be able to deliver the books until August 17th. OMG! I’m going to have three or four hundred people coming to a book signing and not have any books! What a disaster! For $700 more I can have them air ship me 250 copies. What choice do I have? Thank God I don’t make my living this way.
"Ndovu the Elephant -- An African Tale" www.NdovutheElephant.com
$20 + $5 shipping, personalized autograph.
Ah, the business side of writing. Wouldn't it be nice if all it was was just to sit down and WRITE and not have to deal with all that other stuff!?
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new blog.
Thanks Melisa. Writing is definitely fun, but so is the marketing ... meeting people, promotion events ... and, heck, selling some books!
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