To Be or Not To Be – A Title Page Tale

I have been working for nearly 3 years on the book, Be, Awake, Create: Mindful Practices to Spark Creativity. At long last the anticipated day arrived, my author copies were delivered. Finally after years of effort, the finished product was in hand! With excitement I quickly opened one up.

Here it was… or rather wasn’t. The title page for Be, Awake, Create had a gaping space where “Be” should have been.

How could this happen? The word had gone missing since I saw the final pdf proof. After a bit of panic and anger, I shot off an email to the publisher asking what would happen next? After all, my 30 copies were just a tiny portion of the 6500 that were printed and the release date was less than a month away. I had no idea how they could correct this in time.  I am sure there was some panic at their end too, once they got my email. Eventually, they arranged with the printer to “tip in” a corrected title page, which hopefully will remedy the situation for the balance of the first printing.

Still, now I had 30 copies (nay 45, as a second shipment had been sent to the Shambhala Center in Chicago for my book launch party on June 1), with no “Be”. Friends who heard the tale began kidding me about it, saying, “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” (BTW, I live in Apt. 2B, so I am decidedly in favor of that answer).  Ironically the title of the first chapter of the book is “Relaxing into Open Space,” something I was having difficulty doing at the time. Now, I have to laugh at the cosmic joke of it all. I was given open space, what would I do with it?

As any decent creator would do, my dear friend, Turtel, made the brilliant suggestion that these are now collectibles and the open space affords me the opportunity to customize each one with its own unique “being”.

So that is what I am doing. I am drawing in and embellishing the “Be” on the title page of each book, and selling them for $50., plus shipping. This will provide me with the needed funds to cover travel expenses for promoting the book. If you are interested in acquiring one of these unique books, contact me at contact@rebekahyounger.com. Include your email and shipping address and I will invoice you through Paypal. Each signed and numbered title page will be a spontaneous expression around the word “Be.”