Friday, February 8, 2019

Control


I think one of the things that many weavers have in common is a desire to be in 'control'.  We aim for perfection and we are disappointed when we fail - yet again - to be 'perfect'.

It was a revelation to me just how much control I needed and how much the craft of weaving allowed me to exercise and even feed that desire for control.  I got to choose every thing involved in bringing my vision into material form (pun intended).

From choosing the yarn, the colours, how they went together, the process of getting the warp into the loom and the weaving of it, right down to the wet and dry finishing.

When I self-published Magic in the Water I not only controlled every facet of the samples, but I also worked closely with a local small press printer who consulted with me on every decision in terms of format, paper choice, etc.

It was a massive exercise in controlling All The Things.

For The Intentional Weaver I let loose the strings of control somewhat by choosing to go with an on-line publisher who could provide both digital PDF and print-on-demand formats.

Not only that - they would accept orders, ship them out, pay me my % at the end of the month.

For someone who needed to be in control of All The Things, making this decision was a really difficult one to make.  But it was one that I needed to make for so many reasons.

One of the things I do still have to do is market the book.  It seemed like a good idea to retain control of this aspect because The Intentional Weaver is aimed at a small slice of a small niche market.  Who else than me to deal with getting the word out to the target market?

That said...if people are purchasing from Blurb?  I have no control over their cart.  Zero control over their delivery.  Zero control over their delivery system of PDF formats.  And zero control over their quality control.

If someone has purchased from Blurb, then if they have a complaint or an issue?  They need to talk to Blurb.

If someone has purchased from me during the introductory offer?  By all means contact me.

For those of you who did buy - either from me directly or from blurb - grateful thanks for your patronage.  I really hope that those who invested in the book are finding it useful (some of you have let me know you have, so thank you for the positive feedback).

Currently reading Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence

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