On A Sinking Ship

It’s not like me to walk away from a project; in fact, I tend to push on, no matter what the cost.  However, having re-read the new material written for Roulette, I honestly can say–it feels forced–and news that I’ll need to acquire a tone artist for something that shouldn’t be two volumes to begin with, is giving me pause to rethink what the hell I’m doing.

I factored cost versus profit for a two volume title with a year between volumes, – and quite frankly, I’ll lose a substantial amount of money on it, if I go through with relying on this two-volume plan, in order to accommodate the speed of the artist.  =_=; As it stands, I’ll need to secure a tone artist, because the original illustrator has carpal tunnel, and with two volumes needed before the publisher pays out (or before I can even release in the states without spoiling their potential sales)– that will stick me with a $500-$600 tone artist bill (and that’s if I find someone CHEAP) combined with no reasonable release or promotional plan, due to the delayed release between volumes… it’s not an healthy picture.  Gynocrat Ink just took a bit of a hit recently over late artwork and toning issues affecting a release date (Games with Me), and nothing in my history with Roulette’s artist, indicates that things will go as planned. 

I love her, but nothing ever seems to go as planned…  

Everything in my gut is telling me to pull the plug on Roulette.  I don’t want two volumes, I want one– I want the story originally written as it was in 2007, and I’d like the artist to finish what was sent to her without padding a first volume of work that was done five years ago.  I know why we’re being asked to do it– because the artist wants to be paid somehow for that art, but it’s just not plausible.  >_>  I’m sorry our original publisher Dramaqueen, ran out on us and never paid the artist for the pages she’s done–and I’ve done everything I can to compensate her, for their bullshit; yet I look at Teke Eket and I see another small publisher that doesn’t pay a production wage based on the script she’s read and the art she’s seen, which means I have to fork out cash on tones and prepress, so she’ll pay on what she can print.  >_<  At the time the artist works, I’d be forking out near $600 and wouldn’t see a return on anything, for another four years.

This is why I left small genre publishing.

*sigh*

I’m extremely conflicted right now, and I need to think about all of this.

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