More than 17 years ago, I wrote a poetry book titled "Periwinkle". I know it was more than 17 years ago because it was published that long ago. I wrote some of the poems well over 40 years ago; it's a process. So, I had the book published with Xlibris and it was a tiny thin book. There are only about 80 poems by me and another 5 by Reuben. There are about 6-8 pages of prose; so the entire book is literally only about 62 or 63 pages if you count pages; and 123 or so if you count the fronts and backs of those pages. It's not a thick book.
Issues occurred with the book from the very beginning, but I dealt with them. First, I had to find a cover photo because the publisher wanted to charge me way too much for their assistance. I found a cover photo I liked, and I wrote to the photographer to ask permission to use it. I told her I would give her credit, and she agreed. Then, after the book was published I sent her a copy, and she was really very rude to me. Because our politics didn't match up she wanted me to retract the book to not have her photo on the book. I refused. She gave me permission to use the photo, I gave her credit, and she can stuff the rest of it right up her nose. It was silly, senseless, and stupid for her to even dream that our politics have ANYTHING to do with sharing art.
After the book was published I realized there were two spelling errors, and that upset me. Again, unless I paid for a revision, I couldn't change it. Time goes by and I understood more about the artist's reasoning for not wanting to be associated with me. I became upset with the person for whom the title poem was written; his politics, his mannerisms, and his extreme disrespect for Christ and others who follow Jesus were just incredibly sad! I decided to pull the book from the publisher, take the dedication of the book out of it, correct my mistakes, and then also discard the cover photo and of course the credit for such; it was time. She would appreciate that I'm sure; especially now, 17 years later when our politics are absolutely on opposite sides of the aisle.
I tried to upload the original PDF with a different cover and Ingram Spark refused it. They sent it back over and over again, claiming that the spine width was an issue. Hello, I used their template to create the book's cover. No worries, we talked through email several times (they don't call you, they only give you vague reasoning through email, which is very annoying) but it didn't work. Finally, today, they sent me the eProof and I thought "Wow, they accepted it, good!" That was until I looked at it. NO...it is NOT good.
The cover was great. The interior was trash! They had previously approved the interior, but somehow something went quirky and oh-so-ever wrong. The pages were cut off, they were not the same as they were in the original publication, and this just simply BAFFLES me since for 17 years it was fine, and now, because it's with a new publisher perhaps, there are dozens of issues. C'mon people! Pick up a damn phone and tell me what you need me to do to fix it. They won't do that, so I'm just going to literally have to re-type the damn thing, and I'll end up adding poems to it, but I won't include Periwinkle. Sorry, that one is no longer valuable to me. I may re-write it, that may be a way to remedy it in my soul. It feels like a wayward child who has left my home and refuses to accept my instructions.
Yes, that is my decision. I will chuck it. I will revamp that book entirely, and add about 50 poems to it, so that the book is thicker, and I can say "This is a good book" whereas before I said, "Wow, this is a thin book". I love the poems, I really do, but I hate that Xlibris and Amazon were charging more than they needed to, and now, with it being completely discombobulated and unable to be reproduced from the original PDF...I'll just change gears. I can do that. I'm flexible. I'm actually even happy about it. It gives me another project to do on top of all the other projects I have to do now! Yea me!
So, I won't call the poetry book "Periwinkle", just so you know. If you go online and find that one for something stupid like $41.00, I hope you don't buy it. It has two misspelled words, and it's way way way too small to pay that kind of money for it. Maybe it will be a collector's item. I probably sold 100 or so; in 17 years. LOL.
No one expects anyone to become rich off poetry. Just sayin'.
Photo Credit: Amazon.com
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