Venice Chronicles - an update
As some of you might know, I’ve been itching to make a book collecting all the 120 plus pages of the Venice Chronicles for some time now. In the last few months I’ve needed to muster some patience with all that. I’ve worked with a literary agent since the fall and the book has done the rounds at a few publishers. The process has been slow and somewhat hard. Ultimately, while it was worth a try, these mainstream publishers don’t seem terribly interested in the Venice Chronicles. I guess it’s a little too much of a hybrid of a story for the bigger publishers out there. There was a specific one, whose books I love, I had hoped might be a good fit for the Chronicles, but alas they passed too. So the next step? Well the next step is trying the “Small Press route”. There’s plenty of publishers I love out there like Fantagraphics or Top Shelf. We’ll see if anyone likes it enough to publish it. Worse case scenario I’ll end up self-publishing it, that’s the plan b, or plan d or e or something.
In the meanwhile I am prepping the book for a french release. I’ve been talking to a publisher in France that is interested in publishing the book. The nature of the Venice Chronicles makes it so that I’ll probably have to write all the french lettering by hand, but I think it’ll be worth doing so. I’d love to make an italian version too some time soon, when I get some time to translate it all.
Anyway, moral of the story: it’s hard to land a publisher out there, but you can count on it, you’ll have the Chronicles in book form in your hands … hopefully within this year.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:21 am
I’ll be buying both copies. I think it’s superb e deserves as wide an audience as possible. Good luck Enrico!
February 16th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Thanks John, I appreciate …
e
February 18th, 2008 at 3:03 am
Here’s another copy bought for sure.
I can imagine how the Venice Chronicles would be too odd for many publishers. But please keep going, holding your wonderful drawings on paper will be awesome ! So yeah, good luck !
February 18th, 2008 at 8:28 am
keep on enrico
February 18th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I got your first sketchcrawl book and now i have the Venice Chronicles to look forward too. Always a pleasure seeing your work.
-Biv
February 18th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Publishers are huge time-wasters. Even if published most of us earn chump change. Do it yourself. Go to lulu.com or other POD shops and check out what 120 pages plus cover will cost you. You can print one copy in full color and that’s the biggest thing to happen to printing and publishing since Gutenberg.
February 18th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
wossName, Towbson, Chrisbivins - thanks!
Paul - thanks for chiming in … but I’ve been selfpublishing books for more than 6 years, having a publisher that can give some support and decent distribution to a book has become something I want to try.
More importantly though I’ve always wanted this book to be beautifully printed, on good thick paper and with a nice hardcover. I love to make these books special, unique, not looking like many other books out there. So even if I selfpublish it, lulu.com wouldn’t quite do. I have connections to good quality printers overseas with whom I can work with, so I am not worried about that …
I don’t mean to snob lulu or print on demand in general, it can really work for certain material, but it’s just not for this specific book.
e
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 am
I thought Venice Chronicles was a beautiful story… I’d definitely buy a copy if you get the deal you want. Don’t give up, Enrico!
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
A published Venice Chronicles would be wonderful!
Have you looked into First Second Books? They publish a wide range of artists and seem very interested in an international audience as well. http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/
Best wishes!
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Duncan - Thanks, appreciate the support!
Alisa- If you look closer at one of the links in my post, you’ll find the answer to your question regarding firstsecond. Love their books, but they passed on VC.
e