I found someone on Fiverr who can (apparently) "fix" cover issues for KDP including hardcover and I've only (so far) have paid 20 odd dollars. I'm foolishly looking into reformatting the interior too with some Australian company but I feel like if they charge me more than a couple of hundred, I should just do this myself. Somehow. I guess that depends on how well this cover turns out when it's updated. This is basically what I would've asked the original designer to do with the cover, I just couldn't knowing she's not working on this anymore and I really don't want to bother her further. I was prepared to do a whole new cover but if I can keep the design, I'll see how far I can go. I'm really jumping the gun already and getting anxious about this, it's incredible how much this shit ratchets it up for me. Like 0-60 nausea, palps, flushed skin, all that shit. Seeing someone who could do a fix-it job quickly and cheaply was my problem, it just looked too tempting to refuse and stupidly me just making a general inquiry meant the seller was quick to ask for the files and I felt obliged when I could have ignored it. It was predatory so it's just as well I never spoke to anyone offering a big package. I don't know what I'm going to do long term, I don't even feel great about launching this just to get a proper print. It's going to cost me more just to get an author copy. I haven't confirmed if the printing is done here or overseas either. Whatever. I just wanted a cheap way of getting this done since none of this comes for free anymore. I get that. All my decrying vanities now makes me look like a total hypocrite but everyone's going down these roads now to get an edge some other avenues, flaunting their end results with pride regardless of their investments, and people are still impressed. If I can impress someone with a Blurb book, sky's the limit I guess? Nobody will buy a hardcover of a book they've never even bought the paperback for. I had to look up how many digital copies people bought vs paperback and I know either I contributed to the paperbacks or one person ordered multiple copies. That was as far as I wanted it to go anyway, if I keep working on it my way I get out of all the adjacent BS I wasn't keen on doing.
Update: This was a bad idea. Considering all they've done is stretch the images for way too much money I was clearly expecting too much. Second that, it works if I just run with what I have. Question is, do I run with it or wait for a better interior? Do I try to do this and just accept nobody will care but me? I could run a poll online but people don't respond to my questions often. Which they've not done so far. I would like the interior to look better, I could make it look better, I don't need graphics, I could spruce up the chapter headings. Maybe. I'll see what they charge and go from there.
The saga has abruptly ended because I didn't confirm a suspicion our printer here was ready to hardcover and I can't get an author copy. I'm assuming I now have to launch it and see if an order will come through. And the quote came back, I wasn't prepared to pay the cost and I'm glad I haven't committed to this. I should've done way more homework than simply going ahead. It's not that big a deal, I'm not angry since I only spent 20 bucks on the cover revision, and by rights, it's pretty much done. I did my own basic bitch revisions. It's odd going on the forum and seeing people who had a deal with Random House a decade ago who are now wanting to self-publish instead. I feel like some people really did think they were being given keys to the kingdom but wound up dissatisfied and terminated later. I keep hearing of people let down by the sales a trad deal got them, the prestige and attention didn't translate into cash. All of this should confirm the fact I shouldn't care anymore. I'm still trying to attack my personal beliefs and dismantle them, I'm really trying to deconstruct my ideals, I really could have ended up here no matter what. I thought I was doing this because I was bored. I don't even know now.
I'm stupidly seeing if I can cram the new interior in the paperback version and get away with it. It might've been a bad idea now I've updated the original document. Apparently it's still fine, I wasn't happy with the interior anyway, I just got sick of reformatting and thought I was locked in with my cover. I still don't understand why a manual quality review didn't pick up the obvious errors previously made. It's not worth getting a headache over. It was all basically for nothing since I can't even get the hardcover copy shipped via normal channels. So, it was largely for nothing but at least I didn't waste a lot of money on it. Putting energy into the other ones would be a stupid waste of time. It's not an impossibility for me, just a pointless endeavor.
So the saga got rebooted and I can now order author copies of the hardcover via the US store, so I'm assuming this was only prevented by the purchase page taking time to update. I've gone ahead and done that with a new paperback since it costs me far less, however they'll be shipped separately. I keep ordering shit despite all the BS going on globally, I'm basically hovering over tracking details of the Last Unicorn tarot set I've wanted for over a year now, it's somewhere in this city and I have to wait for the third shipping party in this debacle to contact me after I chased down their details because the second company dropped the ball.
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