Timing is everything, and it rarely coincides with what you want. Every reviewer said this would be the perfect project for Chronicle Books. When I met with Chronicle I learned they already have a global dance book in progress, by Brian Lanker. Silver Eye Center just did a show with a music theme, and probably won’t program another one for some time.
This kind of thing happened repeatedly with my Ireland book project. Everyone had just done an Ireland book, or was about to. One publisher said, essentially, "This one’s so much better than the one we just signed a contract to do. Too bad."
One has two choices in response to bad timing. You can beat your head against the nearest wall and curse the universe, or the bad judgment of those who are overlooking your genius. Or, you can change the expectation. Alan at Chronicle wants to help me place this book elsewhere. Linda at Silver Eye suggested an approach to text that I hadn’t thought of, that could be a great solution to a particular dilemma I was facing. People want to be helpful. I want to do everything in my power to aid them.
There is another alternative. I had a long talk with a photographer/roving reviewer, James Lerager, who told me to forget the publishers entirely. He said that print on demand is robust enough at this point to do my project that way, and that I’m way ahead of most people in that I have a built in audience for the project, the dance community. There’s about 18 new skills I’d have to master, and I’d need to shell out for an editor and a designer, but it’s a possibility. I’ve been working a ton this spring. What else am I going to do with my money? Replace the 50 year old single pane windows on the house? What fun is that?
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