The Many Moons Lunar Planner

The Many Moons Lunar Planner is sold out of our store. Thank you so very much to everyone who ordered, and to all the stores who ordered it. I wanted to write this post to explain our studio's ethos, and our process, by way of this project.

We are a tiny studio. It is just myself and an incredible studio manager who works 2.5 days with me. I also read tarot cards for many clients each month, write, teach, podcast, and am a graphic designer— so I do not work on my store full-time. I always want to keep my studio small and self-funded. We have no backers, no investors, there is no rich parent in the background. Everything I have ever produced has been paid for either with my credit card or through creating a pre-order, along with getting orders from stores that carry my work, which generally covers production costs.

This planner was a very challenging project to create for a number of reasons. This was by far the most expensive publication we've ever produced, so we had to be incredibly careful of the amount we ordered — if we didn't sell out, we would loose money. I based my final printer order off what stores ordered, and what was pre-ordered by our wonderful customers, then added half the amount of the pre-order to get a final number. Compared to past orders of Many Moons products, stores overall barely ordered any. In fact, some stores never even got back to us about carrying them. I posted for 2 months on Instagram and through my newsletter about the pre-order for the planners, getting the word out as much as I could. As a small business owner, one truly does not know if what you are creating will be received well, or whether it will sell. When doing timed projects, it gets even more dicey, as there is only a certain window of time one can sell the work. We always want to make our work as available as possible—as long as one pre-orders our timed projects, one will be sure to get it.

In the capitalist mindset, there is a idea to make more, more, to go faster, faster, get bigger and take over everything. It is weird and it is competitive and it is wasteful. That's not at all the way I run my business. Whenever we ship out orders, my small shipping team, my studio manager, and myself, get incredibly overwhelmed. We get many angry emails from customers, insulting us, saying nasty things to us after they put in the wrong address and it does not get delivered, random people thinking we are Amazon because we haven't immediately shipped out their order and we haven't immediately responded. We are not Amazon and we never will be. (Thank the Goddess for that!) Our main focus is to pour our heart and soul into self-published items that people enjoy and cherish. As a business owner, I value health—physical and mental—over profit.

Designing this planner was difficult. I gave myself 3 months to design/create it, and hired 2 other people to fact-check and look over copy and other information. Halfway through the process, I underwent a routine medical procedure that went wrong, and that left me in excruciating pain that no pain killers could take away, with serious nerve damage that I still am dealing with, and unable to use my right hand for 3 weeks. 4 months later and I still cannot work regular hours. I am still not back to normal; I sleep with a brace and have been plagued with carpal tunnel and other related mobility issues as a result of this unexpected injury.

Sadly, as a result, the planner was compromised—I lost almost a 3rd of the time I had scheduled for the process. As a result, it is less than perfect. There are 3 pages that are incorrect, that escaped our 3 pairs of eyes, and need to be updated. They are the monthly views for March and June. You can get the files for them here.

There is also a free, heart-opening meditation you can download and listen to, as a thank you for any inconvenience this has caused you.

We apologize for creating a less than perfect item. We are, first and foremost, humans. I have most certainly learned my lesson: next time, I will almost double the time allotted for design, and instead of hiring 2 people to fact-check/copy edit, I will hire 4. The only thing we can do is learn from our mistakes and move on. I am lucky enough to have a partner who is a nurse, who frequently reminds me that if a problem isn't life or death, then it is probably ok to let go of and move on from.

Thank you to every one who ordered the planner and has sent along such kind words. I pour everything I have into everything I make. I only want to help people, inspire, and delight people. It lights my heart up every day to know that there are people resonating with our work. We love you!