I set the date before I commissioned the cover

Pantheon came out yesterday, a month later than the date on its listing. I owe you the story of why, and it’s a bit of a confession, so bear with me.

On 13 September I opened the postponement dialog on the pre-order listing. The retailer lets you push a release back exactly once, by up to thirty days. One button, one number, no do-overs.

The listing said 2 October. Thirty days from 2 October is 1 November. I did the sum twice, because surely there was more to it than that. There wasn’t. 1 November was just the furthest the dialog would let me go, so that’s the date I took.

And it worked out. Pantheon is out on Kindle (in Kindle Unlimited too), in paperback and in hardcover, and it has a real painted cover. Getting that cover is the whole reason the date moved.

How I ended up in that dialog

Here’s the embarrassing bit. I set the release date first and went looking for a cover second. By the time I started looking, the listing was already live, already carrying a date, already being shared around. The cover on it was a placeholder built on a licensed stock photo. It did its job as a placeholder, but it was never going to be the one on the book.

Everything else was in hand. The manuscript was done, the formats were sorted, the paperwork was filed. The cover was the one thing I hadn’t even started, and I’d announced a date that quietly assumed it was finished.

If you’ve ever shipped a game, you know this one. You can lock a milestone while the art is still greybox, as long as you know that’s what you’re doing and how long the real art pass will take. I did the first half and completely skipped the second. I’d budgeted for the writing and forgot to budget for an actual person with their own calendar, who I hadn’t even asked yet.

So I asked the illustrator, Jryona, once I was already in the hole, and their calendar decided when the painting could start: after 2 October had come and gone. That’s what the thirty days really paid for. Time for a painting to get made, bought a little late.

The shortcut I didn’t take

I could have shipped on 2 October with the placeholder. The book was written, the listing was live, and the only thing missing was the picture on the front. But I really wanted a cover painted by a person, and I knew I’d spend the whole launch wishing I’d waited. A placeholder is forgivable on a screen. On a printed hardcover, it’s there forever.

What I’ll do next time

Commission the cover months before a listing goes live with a date on it. Keep the listing as a quiet, unannounced draft until the art is done, so the last thing to finish gets to set the date.

The date can wait. This time I made it wait a month, used up my one postponement doing it, and I’d do it again.