The Magician, He Sparkles In Satins And Velvets

I managed to get a book up on Kindle today.  I can't even gauge the hours it took.  Then it's not live for 48 hours unlike Smashwords.  But Smash has the whole ISBN thing going on now and I don't want to commit to everything today so it went on Amazon.

Joe Konrath has a stunning sort of new post (it's linked on the sidebar) that reveals the anger writers have roiling just beneath the surface.  I think we're angry that we're mistreated so casually by the people in publishing.  Whether agents or editors, they are discourteous to us.  Writers may be a dime a dozen but without writers, who needs agents or editors.  If I'm going to publish myself on Kindle, why do I need an editor.

This is a book I had submitted to a publisher who has contracted to publish a book of mine next year but hasn't seen fit to pay me.  When I was feeling jolly about them 7 months ago, I sent them a 2nd book.  The longer they ignored me, the more annoyed I became until I wrote and told them (not asked) I was withdrawing this 2nd manuscript from their consideration.  The then (there's a new one in the last 4 weeks) editor asked why.  I said I could publish myself and be ahead of the game.  Never heard back from her. 

Now my agent is going to attempt to find out what's going on regarding the payment (contracted before I signed with him).  Sure, I have an agent (waving!) and am happy about it.  I just don't want to feel my life is bottlenecked because of an agent.  Now that I can work along on my own, I'm free.

I made this background today, with a song playing in my head.

"The magician, he sparkles in satin and velvet,
You gaze at his splendour with eyes you've not used yet."--Donovan Leitch