Turmoil! Of sorts… or maybe not. Here’s the deal, after a weekend in PA, during which I received the green light from Jamison concerning the dummy book for our Salem Witch project, another new book about the same subject landed a pretty decent award for illustration. Which blows for us.
Of course, you have to assume that someone out there is working on the same subject that you are. There are no new ideas, just new ways of telling the same story over and over again. I realize that and I work very hard to come up with novel ways of doing things. The year that my WWI book came out, there was another book about a letter and WWI. It was cute and charming and warm and unlike my book in every way despite having the same basic premise. The difference between that situation and the current one is that when those WWI books were released, they came out at the same time and nobody really paid any attention to either of them. So, basically, neither book won the lottery that year.
This new situation is slightly different. For one, our book doesn’t exist yet. Second, theirs is out and getting a lot of press. That’s two strikes against us, even though our book is completely different and much cooler. The award is just annoying in that libraries and schools tend to buy books that receive awards. So that book will end up on shelves. And how many Salem Witch books does a particular institution need? Odds are, none, but if they go for any, they’ll buy the one that has the shiny sticker saying it won Such-and-Such in 2011.
Which brings us to turmoil. Does it make sense to push on, invest the time and energy, to bring our book into being and convince a publisher to back it when the chance for it to do well in the market is less favorable? Is it better to put that time and effort into another book? I know I always talk about being a starving artist (and really, I literally haven’t made a dime from books since 2009) and how that allows me to do whatever I want regardless of what The Market says to do, but it’s hard enough to create a quirky/cool book knowing that it probably will not do well… the thought of working on a quirky/cool book that is even more handicapped than my obviously unmarketable books seems like a bad idea.
Any thoughts? I’m open to suggestions. I even sent emails to my book people asking advice because we are at that point where it’s fish or cut bait. Such are the vagaries of the publishing world.
I guess I’ll go finish copy-editing the punk book.
Did I mention the book lice? That’s my other issue and has been going on for awhile now. Basically, Mandy’s indoor garden, which didn’t work out at all, allowed some very annoying insects to infest all of our books and all of my paper. Otherwise known as 99% of everything I own and hold dear. It’s wonderfully frustrating and I doubt that Job was half as annoyed as I am these days. And nothing we try seems to kill the little buggers. Right now, I’m freezing piles of old drawings, supposedly stuffing things in the freezer for seven days kills the entire life cycle of the critters, but I have my doubts (I was microwaving stuff for awhile which seemed to work until things started catching on fire...). And then I get to take apart my wonderful shelves, sand them and paint them… something I so don’t have time to do. Then we get to pesticide bomb every room of our apartment. And then there are the books. With the exception of books that we bought since June, everything needs to be cleaned. Then decontaminated. We’re still trying to figure out how to do that. Right now, we have three options: use a dehumidifier and try and get each room maintain a near 0% humidity for like a week or two… get a plastic bin, pile it with books and then add a layer of dry ice and let it melt… or just wait until winter arrives, with its dry air and freezing temperatures, remove the heat form one room at a time so that they become, in essence, freezers and kill the bugs. I’m less that hopeful at present but what are you going to do…
Did I mention that I keep having to go to the dentist? Good times, good times.
Anyway, I’m not about to let any such little annoyances slow me down, so I’m off to work.
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