AA's (Author's Alterations) and The Hidden Meaning

When most people hear the song “All Along The Watchtower”, they assume that Bob Dylan is commenting on the schism of thought in the 1960’s between the younger (hippie) generation and the older (elder person) generation on issues such as racism and the Vietnam war.  But when you step back and think about it, why would one of the best lyricists of our time write about dissonance and war in order to achieve peace and harmony?  I mean come on, those people are just way off.  Once I deconstruct the song into its smallest fragments, it becomes blatantly obvious that this song is actually about a freaked out customer who didn’t fully understand that AA’s (Author’s Alterations) are not part of an estimate.  

 

An Author’s Alteration is when you make a change (whether it’s a color or a typographical error) due to your error or omissions.  Therefore, your graphic design firm has to go back and make alterations to the product.  This of course takes time and work hours that could not be accounted for in the estimate.  

 
There is absolutely no way to know how many (if any) AA’s will occur on a given project. How to charge depends on when the AA occurs.  If, for instance, you are on a press check and you see a typo on the cover of your brochure during the print stage, this change may require making four new plates, which could cost around $800.00 dollars.  However, if you spot the error on the digital proof prior to printing, it could cost significantly less.

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You see, Bob Dylan knew the reasons why a graphic design firm doesn’t include AA’s in an estimate for a product.  He also knew that this might cause some confusion for a customer when the bill for a project is more than the estimated price.  That is why in the song “all along the watchtower”, there are two men sitting down having a conversation about the bill Ted (also known as Joker) has received from his graphic design firm.

 
Ted tells his friend “There’s too much confusion.” They estimated this job to cost $3,500 dollars but they ended up charging me $4,000. Man, “I can’t get no relief”.  But his friend who knows exactly what’s going on says, “ No reason to get excited” over your bill.  They just charged you for the Author’s Alterations.  Then the friend proceeds to explain why those charges were not included in the estimate.  

So now thanks to Bob Dylan we are all able to understand why the customer is charged for Author’s Alterations and why they are not included in an estimate.  Also at Mr. Dylan’s request to make it easier on the customer, most graphic design firms now hand out a change order form.  This form lets the customer know in advance that the cost of the product has been modified.  Or the firm will at least tell the client in advance about the modification in billing.