Saturday, September 22, 2012 – Your uncertainty over a fundamental issue might have made a recent decision rather difficult.
Now, a new wave of confusion can sour your actions with doubt as the Sun enters your 2nd House of Values. However, there’s no need to change your mind or alter your plans today, even if you aren’t sure of yourself.
Hang tight; your confidence will return in a few days. In the meantime, sorting through your options gives you one more chance to make the right choice.
Once again Rick Levine has entered my world (whether by design or by accident) and my horoscope today is exceptionally on point. Or, I hope it is!
I realized something a few years ago: No matter NOW together someone’s life seems, there are times when they wonder if they’ve made the right choice. I wonder this on a regular basis, but perhaps it’s more common for a free-lance designer and writer to go through these self questioning periods more often.
As History on Two Needles nears it’s publication, my sense of relief is quickly being replaced with a sense of being adrift. I’ve been careful not to overbook myself for teaching (I KNOW how a few weeks of teaching can knock me out for months with incessant pain and exhaustion) and I’ve not taken on any design gigs while finishing up the book.
Now I look onto a wide landscape of – what? I don’t have a lot out there right now, which was kind of the plan, but it’s scary to contemplate.
It’s freeing, of course, but girl’s gotta eat! Or, more importantly, girls gotta have something to keep her going and get her out of bed every day.
So, as always, one must get one’s butt in gear and look for new opportunities on the horizon. Luckily I have a bike, so I won’t be walking. The fact I haven’t been ON the aforementioned bike in a week is the source of some of this sadness / pain / lack of drive, I am certain. So I will get on my bike today, and I will ride. Ride, Annie, Ride.
WINNER
The winner of the Buffalo Gold #11 is Sarah Jane! Chosen completely at random
It was hard this week, I really wanted to choose one person for her generous tendency (Tony, I’m looking at you!), but I knew that if I did it would be going down a bad road where every week I began weighing every comment to see who is most ‘deserving.’
So see, this really IS a random drawing! I hope Sarah makes something amazing with the yarn, and sends a photo when she’s done!
For anyone who didn’t win but is itching to make something beautiful, here’s a link to the Buffalo Wool store where you’ll fine more beauty than the internet can hold!
And now I’m off to do a bit more layout / final writing work on History on Two Needles. It seems so close, but there’s STILL so much yet to do. Don’t even TALK to me about what I need to do in terms of marketing!
Will HOTN be available in bookstores, yarn shops, both? Or on-line orders from you directly? I know I have a few self-published books, but have no clue where I got them, I’ve had them long enough to forget.
I have a question (been wondering for a while) on writers and book sales – do writers get their share of a book sale cut when we buy books (new books, not used) from places like Half Price Books or the clearance section of B&N etc., or do they still get their full share? I’m curious if the cuts are across the board when we see new books for 50-75% off the cover price.
Hey Gail,
History on Two Needles WILL be available in shops, Cooperative Press will be distributing it through Unicorn (and any other distributors they use) and it will be available through Amazon, the CP website and my own website.
When books make it to Half Price Books they’re generally “remaindered“, meaning the publisher is no longer printing copies and those that remain are being liquidated. Remaindered books generally fall outside the author’s contract and no money is made on these books by the author.
Whether an author makes money on book sales is due in large part to their original contract, to how much they have agreed to earn per book on the “back end” – or after the book has gone to print. Most knitting authors make most of their money on the “front end”, or as an advance from the publisher, who then retains most of the rights so each book sale actually nets the author just a tiny bit of money.
It’s not so much the $$ per book I’ll earn which compels me to self publishing (although that definitely plays into it) but my ability to determine WHEN my book is taken out of print. A book that sells poorly for a publisher, not making a second printing or even paying for warehouse space viable, would be a GREAT seller for me, and would bring in a nice chunk of my mortgage.
Confessions of a Knitting Heretic would have been remaindered years ago by a traditional publisher, but because I publish it myself I can keep in in print and to date it’s sold almost 90K books (over 10 years – not a great return for a large pub house, but excellent for me!)