OK What Newbie Mistake Did I Make Today?
Believe me there is always some newbie mistake I'm agonizing over. Fortunately some aren't very big but add them up altogether and, well, it's agonizing.
So I get the proof of the new book in the mail from the printer. The printer happens to be in Minnesota. (Did you know Minnesota was a hot bed for printing companies? Who knew!) Anyway, I couldn't bear to be the only one looking at it so the book designer/formatter graciously looked at it, too. She says hardly anything can go wrong with a book these days because everyone uses a PDF format which doesn't break. "OK, but could you look at it?''
Anyway, despite my wanting to rewrite every chapter, we gave it the OK and I sent a signed piece of paper back to the printer. Well, turns out the printer needs all the pages back, too. Apparently they use the text they sent me as a guide in the printing shop. That takes a couple extra days which isn't much except every day counts in getting the book from the printer, to the fulfillment people, to the wholesaler, to the bookstores. And now I've cost us crucial time over a newbie mistake. And everything adds up.
Oh well. Another newbie mistake I'm becoming more aware of is that I under priced the children's books that we did last year. At the time I established the price of the book I didn't know much about distributors and wholesales and the enormous percentage they take. Thus the profit margin - if you can call it that - on those books is negligible.
Damn.
Michael LaLumiere
www.whyiscraterlakesoblue.com
1 comment:
Mike, if the printer didn't tell you up front that they needed the pages back, or if they buried it in the fine print, then it's not a "newbie mistake." It's poor communication on the printer's part. Don't beat yourself up for their failure. Unfortunately, it's still a delay regardless, but perhaps you could use it as leverage to get them to come down on their price -- after all, their mistake is costing you business.
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