My new book is good to go, except for one thing. The cover, that I initially contacted selfpubbookcovers about back in October, is still a no-show.
I've used this company for the covers for my last two series, with little to no problem. However, this time there seems to be a serious problem. Selfpubbookcovers was acquired by Draft2Digital at some point during the time frame since I requested my cover, and I did get some excuses related to that over the several months. I could let that slide for it to be a bit late, but every little thing about this time through their procedures has been problematic. I contacted them originally on October 11th, but never heard back on the first request until the 18th. I'm used to a day or two turnaround in the past, not a week.
Then, my next contact was two weeks later when they finally confirmed that they had an artist that could do the cover on Nov. 1st. I sent the non-refundable start fee on that day, then didn't hear anything until the 14th, when I sent an additional email asking what was up.
After that, I sent another request on the 19th of December, more than a month later, and didn't get a reply until Dec 27th, apologizing and saying that with the changeover to D2D the email must've gotten lost in the shuffle. I did finally get a mockup from the artist on Jan 3rd and approved it, paid in entirety at that time (actually overpaid since I'd already paid the start fee, but he quoted me the entire fee again, not accounting for the start fee so that's what I paid, hoping to actually finally get my cover).
So, here we are on January 16th, I've paid for the cover, plus an extra $50 beyond the price quoted (the amount of the start fee), and I'm still waiting. That's more than three months since my original request, and almost two weeks since I paid everything due on the cover, and I still don't have it.
In the past, I'd have happily recommended selfpubbookcovers for indie writers looking for a cover for their book, but after this clusterf**k, I honestly can't and will probably end up looking for another company to get my own covers from.
Anyhow, Wormhole Mana: Power, is all finished, proofed, edited, and ready to go, except for a cover.
Tom
