On Book Publishing

Book publishing can sometimes be such a sluggish venture. In this impatient age of instant gratification – fueled by the net, Facebook, Myspace and, yes, blogging – the thought of selling an image for a project that’s not going to come into existence until 6 or 8 months later, can be a trying thing.

Luckily, I have plenty of experience in the field, having worked for four years in PR and marketing for a technical book publisher. I know that from the time of idea conception (ie. sitting around with your buddies, brain storming over a glass of beer) to the proud and satisfying moment of actually pulling the finished book off the store shelf, it can be a long and rocky path – littered with endless rewrites, changes of direction, fights over cover design, marketing snafus, wheelin’ and dealin’ with retail outlets… and so on.

That’s why when I sold a few images for a how-to book on concrete to a client last Spring, I literally forgot all about it. Right after I cashed the check, anyway…

A few weeks ago though, while organizing my tax stuff, I suddenly remembered… that’s right … the book was supposed to publish last Fall! And sure enough – a quick check on the website confirmed it – it was out! Whoohoo!

A quick reminder email to my awesome editor, and a comp copy was at my doorstep two days later too.

Truly – there’s hardly anything more satisfying than leafing through a book, seeing your images printed in it, and knowing that someone will assign space for it on their bookshelf for years to come.