Thanks for the reply. I hope the book gets published! I would buy a copy. It is amazing how well this story applies to our sad condition today.
Here in Seattle, I have a colleague who is the author of books on the national parks and the railroads, and who appeared as one of the talking heads on Ken Burns’ national park series on PBS. He read the first draft of our book and forwarded it to his agent in New York with a recommendation. He told me it might be a few weeks before we heard from him. The next day I received a somewhat frantic e-mail from the agent asking me to call him immediately. He agreed to represent our book if we cut it down by a third, which we did within days.
That was the good part.
Guiding a manuscript by unknown and unpublished authors through the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the major publishing houses is tough enough in a good economy, but it’s even more difficult now. Because of the economy, the major New York publishers are not publishing anything unless it’s by a bankable author, such as Vince Flynn or Glenn Beck. Some have said that they will not accept new material from anyone until the economy turns around. Add to this the whole e-books issue and the uncertainty as to how devices such as Kindle and Nook will affect the business models for the publishers, and you have a situation where nothing happens.
So our agent avoided the major houses and went to the small boutique publishers that might have an interest in our book and would give it some marketing attention. Some publishers passed on it, but others have been sitting on it since last September because they don’t want to make a decision until the economic situation resolves itself. We’re in limbo right now.
Some FReepers have suggested that we turn to self-publishing or e-publishing. The problem with that is that once you've committed to it, the conventional houses won't touch your book. It gets too complicated legally, and it's used material by then anyway.
So as of right now, we’re waiting for someone to take a chance on us.