Eadarian Network

Hello my friend,

Welcome to the 18th installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.

Well my friend, the dust is finally settling.

For those who are not fans of The Eadarian Storyteller, Perpetuator, and Author on facebook, a) why not? And b) I have mentioned the need for making decisions and the need for some dust to settle before I could talk more freely about those decisions. Well, the dust has settled.

I must preface this installment by saying that this is about a thought process, the reaching of a decision and NOT about the events that sparked this process. For there are always things in life that cause us to back up, re-think, and change course. Please keep this in mind as you read what follows.

This deals with my decision to scrap the audio book for my upcoming book, Eadar, Uncommon Land, Uncommon Lives. Yes you have read correctly, there will be no audio book. It is about how I came to this decision that I am currently writing.

In January I was able to listen to the audio files of the recording I did last December. You may remember how excited I was to be going to record my book.

Well… there were issues… that could not be resolved. These led to the choice of either allowing one of the publisher’s book narrators to re-record my book, or to scrap the audio book altogether.

Questions with out answers came to me. Questions such as, “Am I making the right call? The wrong call? Should I allow someone else to read or was it vital enough for the book to be read by me that if this could not be so, it was better for the book not to be recorded at all? Just who was I to be making such decisions? Was I not simply a first time and unknown author? Would it be best in the long run to simply have a product people could listen to? Would I be hurting future projects with this publisher if I scrapped this audio book? Would I be hurting this project?

Questions, questions, and more questions; I have made Bufferin a very happy company over the past two months.

I talked this over with those close to me, asking advice from those I trusted advice from on this matter. And… the decision was made. If it were not possible for me to re-record the book – it had to be scrapped. Yes. It was that vital that I be the reader. This was the course to be taken – come what may.

With this decision came peace of mind. There was no more apprehension or second –guessing, nor was there arrogance or pride, it was simply what needed to be done. The correct call had been made. (please note: this was so, even though I was realizing that the outcomes might not be positive) It was the right call.

And then, when I communicated this to the publisher – they understood and offered to create a book trailer for TV adds instead. So it is all going to work out for the best after all.

It is also important to note that my tone and the tone used by those I was negotiating this matter with, were always pleasant, professional and complimentary (when we could honestly be complimenting of each other).

This is not to be underrated in the outcome. It is because I did not get angry, hostile, and pushy while stating my case that they had a willingness to go out of their way to do what they could to resolve matters. There were definitely things they could not offer to do, and they did not. But the did try to resolve things as best they could.

While not having the audio book is not my ideal resolution, I have learned much from this process and have gained an advertising tool I did not have before.

And while remaining pleasant, polite, and professional will not always end matters positively. They will end better than if we had not remained so. This lesson I learned a while ago. But, I was able to see it in action here.

Being polite, pleasant, and professional is not the same thing as being a pushover. I know, that should be common sense, maybe for some it is. Yet, it was a lesson I had to learn the hard way… somewhere along the line.

Stand your ground – but to do so does not mean you have to swagger around, try to be intimidating, or even argumentative. What’s that old adage? ‘You attract more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.’

I wonder if that was ever a Copybook Heading.

Oh well,
Peace my friends.

Live Nobly,
Live Well

Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player

.
.
.

.
To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.

AND

Subscribe to this blog in a reader of your choice, here.