Dad, Corky and me at Russet Street House, North Portland in 1947.
Whew! All 31 chapters are completed. Now, I am working with Susan Wells, the book designer to coordinate placing the photos in to book and I think that should wrap up in a few days.
Then, Susan will finish the formatting so that I solicit printing bids and finally get the manuscript turned into a book! It would be great to have the bids already, but I can’t get them until I know how many pagers there are going to be, and I don’t know that yet till the formatting is done.
It could make me nostalgic for the old days when a publisher bought the book from an author and handled the printing, publicity, and distribution, but it doesn’t. I can get the book out now, and in the old days, I am none too sure that a publisher would have picked it up. I can just imagine a conversation about my story with a prospective publisher’s rep…
“You say the book is about a sports and auto store that started out as a war surplus store in the 50s?” “Who cares about war surplus stores?” “And, what is a sports and auto store, any way?” “And, all this happened in the Pacific Northwest?” “Don’t you know you need to have a larger base of interested readers?”
“Oh, it would be interesting to sports and outdoor enthusiasts, everywhere?” “Do they read?”
If my imaginary conversation with a publisher’s rep is at all realistic, can you see why I am so much better off publishing and promoting Growing Up With G.I. Joe’s myself?
At least, that is my story and I am sticking to it, since no publishers are knocking at my door!
