C= Free Magazine, Issue 98 - Part 13
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delivered to enjoyed some of my jokes; others were crabby people who made sucking lemons a past time they indulged in during off hours didn't care for
my humor. They wanted me to take the package they needed delivered and get
out. The job was a great deal. It was a work when you want; don't work when
you don't want situation. I could continue working on the book at my own leisure and not worry about hitting a time clock. I quickly found out,
however, that when you "don't work when you don't want" means that you also don't get paid. The small settlement checks I got at the beginning of the job became a motivator for me to back off the book for a time and focus on
getting money for food in the fridge as well as food for the cats. I slowed down on the book while I focused on financial survival.
Titanic Books was calling me at all hours asking if I saw their latest
proposal and does that meet with my approval? Between working and Titanic
Books I was getting worn out and fast. The emotional rollercoaster I was on
in July quickly melted away during this time while working on the book, but
at what cost? When I got home from work at very late hours, I would sit down
in my armchair with my laptop in hand and go over the day's emails.
Practically every email was from Titanic Books needing approval for something. Being weary from work does not make one apt with the capacity of making good decisions. "Can't you just publish the book?" I would shout out loud to the empty house. Those outbursts brought the cats in from wherever they were
hiding to check on me. Because Titanic Books was trying to "catch the market
on this genre" the pressure kept on. It was to a point that I was up until 01:30 every night going over emails giving my opinion on what they were
asking of me at that moment.
Later I found out that, while I was in a sleep deprived state of mind, I
signed a contract that gave me only a 2% royalty foreach book sold. I also agreed to having an old IBM PC2 on the cover instead of a Commodore 64 computer. This whole thing was getting out of hand. I needed to fall back and regroup. I contacted Titanic Books and asked them, "What was the deal with the PC2 on the front cover? This is not a Commodore computer of any kind." They responded. "We don't know what a Commodore is execpt that is a computer so we found the oldest computer picture in our files and put it on the cover." I emailed again. "I can send you a picture of a Commodore computer if you need one."
They responded with a bunch of gobblede gook about legal rights and only being allowed to use pictures that they copyrighted themselves. It was a bunch of malarky and I knew it. I sent a final email. "If you didn't know what a Commodore computer was then why did you take on the project?" No reply. In the mean time and behind the scenes, my great friend The Vector was letting his fingers do the walking with research of his own on Google. He texted me via Messenger one day with the following item of interest:
"LENARD, DID SOME RESEARCH ON TITANIC BOOKS. CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE WHAT
I FOUND.VECTOR."
I immediately clicked on the link. Upon my screen came the complaints from other would be authors who published with Titanic Books and their reviews were't good. Many objected to the fact that Titanic Books took their money
and produced little if any results.
Others said that the royalty checks they mailed out to authors once every quarter were so worthless that even the payday loan companies would not cash them. The objections scrolled on for quite a while. I leaned back and started rocking in my armchair. All my effort, all my work, was now in the hands of what reviewers called, "charlatans who preyed on the ambitious writer, promising much and delivering little." I was crushed. I was thinking about pulling my book off of their presses and get my money back all $3,000 of it, but research on this avenue showed that I signed an iron clad contract for publication with Titanic Books and there was no way out. I sat there
wondering what to do next. I messaged Vector:
"CRAP!" Nuff said.
During the next couple of months Titanic Books still kept contacting me
asking if things were right or if I wanted to change anything. Finally, on December 29th, 2010, five months after my divorce from my wife was final, the book went into preliminary printing. Choosing a title for my book seemed to
be the last piece of the puzzle before going full force on the presses. Not thinking twice, I chose the same title for the book as I did its predecessor but with a subtitle to go along with it:
"Run/Stop-Restore: 10th Anniversary Edition."
After all, it was almost ten years to the day that "Run/Stop-Restore" came
off my copier and was bound into book form by a local bindery. This was a bittersweet moment. I became an actual published author but I had no one to share the triumph with except there overweight and lazy cats. I went to the pantry and pulled down a bottle of Pounce cat treats. The cats came running in and started jumping all over the counters as well as myself wanting the
treats they so well deserved after staying with me for the last six months
and not to try to bolt out the door and run out into the yard to escape the turmoil I made for myself with my out of control emotions. Dover, Wellington, and Austin each enjoyed an abundance of cat treats that day, so much so that after a short while of their mewing and purring. I dumped the remaining contents of the cat treats into the feed dish and let them go crazy like piranhas in a meat market.
On March 13th, 2011, a big box was left on my doorstep when I came home from another long day of delivering packages for Flash Delivery. I unlocked the
door and hoisted the box into the house. Man, it was heavy! I put it down on the sofa and quickly tore off the sealing tape. Inside was fifty copies of "Run/Stop-Restore: 10th Anniversary Edition" 25 softbound and 25 hardbound.
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