Read the real life stories and experiences of freelance writer Mike Gagnon.

So, I promised a reflection on my successes and failures of the last year and here it is.

Professionally the year of 2006 has been a whirlwind for me. All the good intentions, future plans, and business advancements I had been aiming for were put in a blender and liquefied beyond all recognition. It's fair to say that 2006 has been a year of massive upheaval for me.

It started early in the year, things were beginning to show signs of cracking at the New York Comicon in February. I was beginning to feel some changes in attitude and disposition in my business partner. The show was a booming success for us; every major distributor and publisher we knew of in attendance came and found us, seeking us out, showing interest in our product. To this day there is a mystery as to why they were so interested in us and personally schmoozed up with me, and then when we followed up after the show we couldn't get the time of day from any of them...but I digress.

Shortly after the event I found out through a phone conversation with my business partner that agreements and plans that we had made for his side of the business were not being carried through or honored. In fact some basic business and customer relations matters had not been handled in months. At that point I had to take on the responsibility of doing almost everything to make sure it was being done. Truth be told by this point the enjoyment of being a book and comic publisher had drained away.

Shortly after my business partner announced that he would no longer wait any longer for the business to bring in a return on his investment, so he would be leaving the company. To put it in perspective the company was just over a year old and the day to day business duties from his end of the business hadn't been getting done for approximately the last five months before I took over the responsibility.

So at that point the business became a one-man show.  I made some important changes to our website and policies with books etc. Things continued along and I was looking forward to making a solo success of the business.

Although we had handled it rationally and as gentlemen, making agreements for me to take over the assets etc. The day before I was to take over the sole reigns my business partner, unknown to me, went off in a whirlwind and closed business accounts, emptied bank accounts and cancelled credit accounts. I had been feeling for some time that he had resented the idea of me being able to run the business on my own and that if he were not involved then there should not be any business. I think these actions were taken in order to cripple the surviving business, and to his credit it worked partially.

I soon informed him that much of the funds he had removed were not his to take, that they were the results of book sales and that much of the money was owed to our creators for royalties. I was able to get him to pay out the royalties owed to our creators, but much of the rest he kept for himself.

Shortly after parting ways with my business partner, and into the summer months, our regular payments from our major book industry distributor stopped. They had been chronically late before, but this time they just stopped. Invoices, mailed notices, and phone messages have still never been returned. The company is still operating, even still trying to place orders, but they are well over 6 months behind of payments at the moment. Up until this point most of our sales had been to the U.S. book industry through our major book distributor, and was what was helping to keep things going. In the summer they stopped making payments and we still don't know why. I mean I have a few theories. Nothing I would post here because it could result in me being sued, but I'm sure readers can come up with their own theories too. Without our payments coming in our small sales in other areas were not enough to cover expenses and debt began to pile up. If I had had the financial pot from our bank accounts and other assets to work with it would not have been as serious a situation, but as you've already read my former business partner took care of that. This distributor was not the only one not paying their bills. A local book chain had me chasing them for books they had ordered and already sold, but never paid for over 6 months past their due date. When it comes to the distributor who is months upon months overdue, I send them regular overdue notices, the only response I ever get is that they send back a small box of returned merchandise from a more recent order in order to knock a few bucks off their total bill. No letters, no cheques, no responses, just a few returns so that the invoice is a little bit lower the next time I send them a notice.

So, as you can imagine by fall things were very tight and on a downward spiral. I had to change and cancel a lot of books we were going to publish and public appearances we were supposed to make. This year was to be a big year for us with a corporate table at the FANEXPO in Toronto in September. Unfortunately the situation I was in forced me to cancel that which was disappointing.

By this point not only was I utterly depressed, but the joy and excitement I had first had when starting this business had faded. The time and pressure along with the line of people with their hands out wanting money was too much. I had gotten into this business thinking that helping other small time creators would be rewarding and bring a satisfaction to my life. It hadn't and when I began to think back I realized that I was much happier when I was doing my own writing and comic creating, before I had become a publisher.

A pair of guys in the states who I had published were very ambitious and eager. I knew they were hard workers and great salesmen and promoters. I worked out a deal with them, and they have now entirely taken over the management of the publishing business from me. Once we get some financial issues and other details settled, and a new contract in place they are going to take over full ownership and effectively buy me out.

In the meantime I have gotten back into my own writing and creating. This time it is different than my prior experience. My main activity now is as a freelance writer. I'm currently writing for several magazines and websites. Many of my clients are comic and publishing related, but I'm also writing on many other subjects as well and making the paying freelance writing my priority right now. I’ve wrapped up a few magazine gigs and I'm working on some assignments given to me by satisfied previous clients.

I'll post up info on where you can find some of my work soon, and I will also be setting up a self promotional website very soon to promote my work. Between paying jobs and in my spare time I am currently working on several comic scripts and some book ideas as well.

And that in a nutshell is the history of my professional successes and failures for 2006.

As for my personal successes and failures, I really don't have the time or inclination to go into them. Too many other people involved who will get pissed. It defeats my belief in freedom of speech, and the point of having a blog, but I don't want to muddy the waters any further right now. Let me just say this:

While all of this shit was going on in my professional life, there was just as much turmoil in my personal one. I can't lay all my issues out for you here, no-one would have the time, but I am dealing with some huge trust issues that have arisen. As well, a lot of things from my past have come up, kind of haunting me; things I never thought would come up again and had forgotten. So I'm dealing with my own issues. I could never afford the shrink needed, so I use my own experience to self-analyze and evaluate myself. This has led me to do a lot of soul-searching and think about my motivations, my general disposition, and my interactions with others.

I had a dream last night that I was on a school bus with many of the people I knew from public school (most of which I haven't seen since). I was bombarded with rhetorical questions and judgmental looks. The people I had once known asked me: What had happened to me? Why I had changed? What happened to me to make me the person I am? What happened to the person I used to be? Although I responded in an annoyed and dismissive way, I also had to admit to them that I had let negative experiences in my life change my behavior and outlook on the world around me.

I've been analyzing that dream since the wee hours of the morning.

Although I feel justified in my feelings caused by some of the things I've gone through, I also have to realize that I can change things or let things change me. I'm going to move forward with my life and make the changes I feel I need to make. In the process I need to lay some of these old demons I've been carrying around to rest and get some closure.

Or something closely resembling that anyway.

So there are my personal successes and failures. I know they aren't very detailed, but at this time I just need to play my cards close to my chest, and if it is ever the right time to give up more detail on here then rest assured I will.

Thanks for reading this and indulging my ego. I promise to be a little more upbeat in the future.

Mike

 

Posted by: lightning at 10:24 | link | comments

Hey there, I'll be back next week with a pre-New Year Round-up of all of my successes and failures over the past 12 months as well as what I am up to now, until then...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

To everyone!

Posted by: lightning at 09:06 | link | comments