As ever, Wondermark seems uncannily on target (the mouseover text is "nothing worse than the fear you might be good at something that'd be really hard to do"). Luckily, I no longer have a day job not to give up.
So, my heartfelt thanks to those who took the trouble to give feedback (or even just "reassurance") on England and Nowhere. Not to mention those (few, so far) who went the extra yard and actually bought a copy*. It really is both reassuring and helpful to hear something – anything! – from the Great Void out there other than the feeble echo of my own voice.
As to the rest of you – you tongue-tied, tight-fisted lurkers – I really don't know what your problem is. Seek help before it is too late...**
* I should probably point out that I make the same profit on a £4.99 PDF (even more on an e-book) as I do on a £30.50 hardback. Really! So no need to feel cheap...
** To be honest, I don't really expect support for these projects from blog readers. There, that's let you off the hook! What is really annoying is the resonant silence from those photo-world "usual suspects" to whom I send mail-shots, most of whom are not readers of this blog. I mean, sure, people are busy, but... How long does it take to write "When I said 'stay in touch' I meant keep telling me how good my work is. Your work is worthless, pretentious rubbish. Please stop sending me these emails"? Too long, apparently.
4 comments:
Oh my, there sure is some bitterness in this post! On the other hand, ignoring personal emails shows rude manners and also disregard for the sender - don't bother with such folks, they are not worth the trouble. You're to good for this.
Is there a local art scene in your neighbourhood? I could imagine that "England and Nowhere" could be of special interest there since it has a strong connection to your "Heimat". I've never been to your part of the UK but I've been to Northumberland and North Yorkshire, and it appeared to me that e.g. Hexham and Richmond have a thriving art scene. OK, they're not Steidl or Tate Modern, but maybe they're less arrogant and more fun.
Keep calm and carry on!
Best, Thomas
Thomas,
No, no bitterness -- you are misreading my ironic tone (easily done, if you are not born to the British way of saying one thing, and meaning another!).
Although you are right about the bad manners -- it does irritate me, when some people are too grand to reply to us bottom feeders...
Mike
Well I had been dithering about buying another photo book . i have a bad habit of flicking through and leaving them aside for closer perusal later.
Howevert your statement that you made as much from the pdf version as the others did the trick so I bought it and enjoyed it more than the last book of yours I bought. Perhaps I am starting to 'get' what you are about. While some of the images stand out on their own, taken as a whole, in the sequence of the book they alll improved and told the story.
Paul,
Thanks for that. One more sale and I'll pass the magic £12.50 profit barrier, which means Blurb will actually send me the money, rather than holding on to it for another month!
I like PDFs/e-books, and I wish Blurb's implementation was better. The Acrobat settings I gave in the earlier post are important to keep paired pages together (e.g. the main "crowd-pleaser", the row of lads on the river bank paired with the row of cows). I think better implementations of PDF documents do retain the intended layout.
Mike
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