Why do I hate this picture?

 A sign of my stupidity 

A treasure?

For over 50 years, I treasured this copy of a painting; it was the only thing I wanted from my parents when they passed away, so why do I hate ir, what changed this month?

Last month, I was foolish, nay arrogant, to being cajoled into thinking I could use the image as the cover to a book I had published. It had been a dream for a long time, to see one of my stories published, rather than self-published, and I saw this as a possible new beginning as a writer for me.

A writer in the USA put me in touch with her literary agent, who agreed to have the story published. This is where the story goes bad; the original cost I was quoted was $100, which was affordable, as I had the money set aside for another item I was saving for, but the costs rose to $150 as one of the team I was put in touch said they needed another $50 to use her SEO skills to promote the book.

At $100 I could see the book breaking even, but the added $50 took the price out of that category in my mind, and the costs didn't stop here, the agent asked for $50 to publish the story on Amazon.

This is the point I drew the line, $200 a lot of sales to get to cover my outlay, I had books on Amazon for decades, and nothing has sold.