Cameo Book

I received an inquiry from a "non-friend" on Facebook today about the possibility of publishing a book of my mother's Cameo columns from the Minden Press-Herald. Since even a "non-friend" was interested, I felt like I would share the status of that project on my blog. Been a week since I posted so it seemed like good timing. Plus this is sort of a Mother's Day present to Momma, it's something she would have wanted.

My mother's columns are of course now jointly owned by my sister and myself.  That's not a problem, but I want to make it clear that she is a full and enthusiastic partner in this plan. We both have wanted to produce a book for years and I'll share a little of that story.

We first planned to publish a book as a birthday suprise for Momma in about 1999, when she had been doing the column for about five years. At that time it would have cost more than $25,000 to have it published by a reputable company and we would have needed to charge over $40 per book to pay for printing. It just did not seem feasible unless we cut out some columns. So, with that the option we discussed it with Momma and she didn't want to cut any columns. At that point we set the project aside.

As time moved forward and self-publishing became so affordable, I should have moved on the project and got out a book before Momma's death. She would have enjoyed having that on the market so much. However, I had no experience with self-publishing and was wary of the process. I had been blessed in that my books were solicited by the publisher, and the two or three submissions rejected by publishers I took as a sign those books didn't need to see the light of day. Plus, if you are familiar with the "publish or perish" rules of academia, you know that self-published books or vanity press books don't count in the academic world. So I hadn't used that process and I guess in some ways was too arrogant to consider going that way.

When I signed my contract for my most recent book, I had a verbal agreement with my editor that she would "pitch" a Cameo book to the publisher. I tried to get her to take on the Cameo book before my Echo book, but the marketing strategy of the company made them reluctant to publish a book by a deceased author. Then, my book did not sell very well, so the chance to get Momma's book commercially published, at least by that company, died.

After Brother Bill Ichter self-published his book, I decided it was time to tackle getting Momma's columns published. Suzanne and I have been sorting out which columns to include in the book. When we gave Momma her surprise 85th birthday party (of course we didn't dream when we gave that party it would be her last, but were so glad we made it an occasion) we asked the guests to tell us their favorite Cameo. So, we have a tentative list in mind. Suzanne is a talented artist and she will come up with a cover design.

I wanted to test the self-publishing first, so I am about half-way through a small project I will publish first, to "test the ropes." With my semester ending this week, I hope to have it wrapped before the end of May. At that point, I will move full force into the Cameo project. Many of Momma's columns are already in the computer, and the others will just need to be scanned in and formatted. So, the process won't take much time. Currently, I hope to have the book out in time for this Christmas.

I know that so many people loved Momma's columns. We used to joke about that, people loved and nearly memorized her columns, while mine basically put most folks to sleep. (My favorite story was the well-meaning gentleman who we saw in the Doctor's office after my first two pictoral histories were published. He told me he had received my book for Christmas, but had not yet been able to finish reading the book. This was in April and, of course, the punch line is that those first two books were just 125 pages of pictures with captions. No text. I had to wonder if he had even opened the book. LOL!!!) My eventual hope is to get most of Momma's columns published in book form with subsequent volumes to follow the first. The key will be to find out the "magic number" of columns to include in each book where there will be enough material but not so much to make it too expensive.

But for Momma's Cameo fans, a book is coming, I promise.