Reedsy kept asking for me to review the collaboration with Austin on the website but I had much more to say than could fit in a small panel on that forum. So here it goes.

As I stated, I dislike confrontation, and I always prefer that a dispute could be settled privately as Mathew 18: 15-20 states. “If your fellow believer sins against you, you must go to that one privately and attempt to resolve the matter. If he responds, your relationship is restored. But if his heart is closed to you, then go to him again, taking one or two others with you.”

If someone does something ill against us, the Bible makes it clear that we should try to resolve things privately so no one has to be publicly shamed or discredited. If the person can’t be reasoned with, you bring witnesses, other brothers and try to convince them; if they’re still unrepentant than you’ve done all you can. I try to apply the Bible in all my business dealings as well as my personal life, but the given situation made it impossible to keep silent. It’s not my desire to insult anyone or disrespect any given party involved.

Finding an artist:

Reedsy was where I found Sally, the editor I paid for a developmental edit on my MG novel and I had nothing but good things to say for her. She was extremely thorough and helped me to take apart and rebuild my world better than before. So I was certain quality professionals had to be on Reedsy. Within my price range, I was also searching for an artist to do the interior design and the cover. I came across a few, but found one who seemed to draw more fantastical elements like dragons or magic: Austin Degroot. I made a deal with Austin which was supposed to include a cover, interior design, and a book trailer. The first installment cost 500$ and the second was the same. Tax included for the Reedsy fee, the whole payment was 1,100$. It was quite an expense for me, but still more reasonable than many of the other high end artists on the website.

Getting started on the project together:

Things were fine at the get go. I sent Austin the chapters which I was considering depicting the cover from and he told me his ideas. At first, he drew three sketches for the cover but the characters didn’t look as I pictured them. I told him he’d have to redesign the covers so that the characters would look more accurate and he was more than happy to. He requested more details as to their appearance and I sent him six hand drawn sketches of the characters as well as a list of traits specifics, hair color, eyes, clothes etc. I also colored the images so he could have an idea of the shades and tones for the characters. Austin said those sketches were super helpful, and that he would redraw the cover accordingly.

When Austin sent me the redone cover it was a good layout and an excellent sketch…but my characters were unrecognizable. They all looked age 6 or under.

To be clear, my youngest character in the novel is 13 years old and the oldest brother of the five main siblings is 16 and 6ft tall. That cover wasn’t working for me or anyone I showed it to. My friends who’d read the book thought they all looked like babies, and they couldn’t recognize which character was which. I was completely stumped on what to say to Austin. I’d hand draw characters between the ages of 13 and 16 for him and he’d said he‘d use them as reference. But then he drew people who looked half that age and all looked alike. It sounded rude to say, “Didn’t you look at the sketches I sent you?” but I wasn't sure what else was to blame for the inaccurate depiction. Trying to be polite about correcting him, since I could clearly tell it was a near finished sketch and didn’t want to put down all his work, I reminded him of facts. I told him I loved the layout but that the characters in the book were between the ages of 13 and 16, so if he could age them up it would be great. We had already extended the collaboration date by this time because things on the editing side were taking longer (due to me working with fake amazon agents, see my other article for more on that), and because Austin’s covers weren’t satisfactory. Austin had made it clear he would do the cover till I was satisfied. I didn’t see how I could have been of much more help since I already provided drawings and he didn’t even attempt to replicate them.

Austin agreed to aging them up. The second installment had already been taken out of my card at this time, but Austin assured me he would finish the project.

The ghosting:

Austin said he would have a sketch to me in black and white by the next week because he wanted to ensure it was what I wanted before he added color. I agreed and waited for him to message me.

Nothing.

I politely reached out on the Reedsy platform (as Austin and others on the site said it was the preferred method of communication) and inquired as to how the new sketches were going. I was trying to get a look at what he had early in the process so that he didn’t have to undo much of his work or start over if something needed to be changed. I waited and Austin didn’t respond. Another couple weeks passed and I continued to reach out to inquire as to how things were going and if he needed anything else from me. I started to wonder if something had happened but then I saw Austin on Instagram continuing to post art. Naturally, you can understand I’m starting to question the artist’s integrity when he’s elsewhere doing activities and jobs but isn’t responding to me. I’m a minimum wage worker who punches a clock daily and was at work even more back then trying to afford all the costs involved in self-publishing. Austin already had been paid, I was waiting for him to deliver. We’d extended the due date but he’d agreed to it and I’d asked multiple times if extending the date was fine and he agreed. But now I heard nothing from him. I’m trying not to think the worst but that’s when things went off the deep end.

Collaboration ended:

I received an email weeks after I’d been reaching out and asking Austin what was going on. It said my collaboration with Austin Degroot was over, and I had no finished product. No cover. But he’s been paid in full. As you can imagine, this didn’t thrill me. To say I was irked was to put it in extremely mild terms. I didn’t want to cast aspersions or slander anyone, so again I reached out to Austin on the Reedsy platform to ask why I was getting a message that the collaboration was over when he hadn’t delivered. The last image he sent me was a black and white sketch with a bunch of 6 year old children on it, I couldn’t have used it if I had wanted to. So he hadn’t finished the project. And what was worse, he’d responded about aging them up and said he’d do it. After receiving no response, I decided Austin was deliberately avoiding me. I’d made every attempt to reach out and he wasn’t responding. I went to the refund section of Reedsy to put in a complaint about my experience and was contacted by someone named Prathima Appaji. She asked for proof that I had attempted to reach out to Austin and he hadn’t finished the work, so I screen shotted all of my attempts to communicate and sent them to her. She asked what day the collaboration was supposed to be over, I told her we extended it because he hadn’t done what I asked and he said he would finish revising the cover. Austin didn’t communicate to me that the collaboration would expire or that he wasn’t planning to finish, there’s no other way to put it—his actions were misleading at best and deceptive.

Trying to get back my funds:

Once proof that Austin had abandoned the collaboration was established, Prathima went about trying to get in touch with Austin about the refund and she couldn’t reach him either. I reached out on social media, which I typically think is unprofessional but I didn’t know what else to do—no response. Prathima decided, after looking at Austins work and sketches, that the refund amount I was entitled to was 560$. Since Austin did draw sketches and put some time into the project I reluctantly accepted, but Prathima said she was incapable of getting me back the funds unless Austin was found. So basically,

• I’d done my part and paid in full, but the artist hadn’t done his.

• The responsibility of finding the artist and getting MY MONEY back when the fault was on his part was on me. Apparently, Reedsy has no compensation if you’re cheated and someone doesn’t finish a project that you paid for in full. That should be addressed and there should be reimbursement. 1,100$ is roughly equivalent to 2 weeks wages for a full time employee. All of that money is gone and somehow they have no consequences for it other than Austin no longer being on Reedsy.

• I told Reedsy this frequently but Prathima said she had done all she could and the only other people I could talk to were the bank. The only thing Reedsy refunded me was the 10% Reedsy fee (which was a hassle to get) of 50$.

• I talked with the bank but they want you to report fraudulent charges within 60 days and because I’d been trying to give the artist the benefit of the doubt, that time had passed. I hadn’t assumed that he was going to skip out and not finish, and I’d paid long before when we’d begun the collaboration so now its much more difficult to regain the funds. Still, I filed a claim for the funds and am in the process of seeing how it turns out.

  Moving on to the next step:

  I’ve moved forward with different artists now and still await the final decision on my claim with the bank. The cover is coming together beautifully now but this experience was something I had to share. I don’t know if you or anyone you know has worked with this artist, but my experience with him has not been pleasant to say the least. I’m not trying to malign anyone as I said, but this has been my experience and I tried desperately to keep it isolated so that no one would have to think negatively of Reedsy or this artist. But since I’m self-publishing and doing all of it for the first time, I wanted to share the pitfalls of my experiences so that other writers can learn from them. Nothing is impossible to fix, they’re all just setbacks and you can come back from them. Am I bothered that I may not get all my money back? Did the experience break my trust with paying freelance artists on Reedsy? Did losing the artist set my book behind the schedule? Yes, yes, and yes. But it’s not enough to sabotage my vision for this book or my desire to keep writing and publishing. Experience is never a loss if you learn something, hopefully you can learn something from this which will help you along the way.