And now for something completely different…

As much as I enjoy being a small press publisher, there are times when I wish I could afford a big-time editorial staff to help me with the heavy lifting. While I enjoy the freedom of working alone (it’s 9am and I’m still in my boxer shorts) I’m sensing that my friends and family are getting tired of being my sounding board.

A fews months back I received a manuscript that was a real head-scratcher, and I’ll sheepishly admit that it was very nearly tossed out when I skimmed the query letter and noted the words “English” and “riverkeeper”. While I would never publicly debase those noble and time-honored chalkstream fisheries in the UK, the books that I’ve read from that realm tend to be a little…well…you know…stuffy. No doubt, they have their place in the hallowed halls of angling literature, but they’re a bit too traditional for my list. I was about to move the email into the rejection folder and type a reply to the author when I noticed the following comment in his letter, “This book will never be published in England because Prince Charles hasn’t written the foreword.”

Well, well…what do we have here?

If there are any budding authors out there that are doubting the importance of a well-written query letter, let it be known that one Martin Donovan of England has penned one that worked. Even though his initial manuscript was a bit chaotic, I read it straight through–stem to stern–in one sitting.

From “nipper” to “keeper”, Donovan’s memoir offers an engaging view of his years of exploring, fishing, and tending a famed stretch of the River Test in Southampton, England. His stories are great, but what makes them even better is his wry voice and his refreshing departure from the stereotypical English fly fishing memoir. He makes fun of himself, and others (especially the Irish) and he does a masterful job of salting a traditional fly-fishing book with an oddball cast of characters, props, and predicaments. If I had to compare Donovan’s voice with other British notables, I’d place him somewhere between Izaak Walton and Monty Python in waders.

At this point I have no idea what we’ll call this book, or how we’ll market it; but it’s now under contract, it’s a winner, and I’m enjoying every minute of the editing process.

Stay tuned…

The Blitz: Part Three

Just back from the third leg of content gathering for our new book release, The Blitz: Fly Fishing the Northeast Coast.

From Maine to Rhode Island, Pete McDonald and I spent eight days on the water with an eclectic cast of guides, anglers, and fly tyers. We’ve got one more shoot this fall in Virginia and NC, and our best guess for the book release is late summer 2011. To see more photos from this shoot, please click over to my photography blog.

Holy Smokes, SHE DID IT!

Well, after a year of furious training, a disappointing flood delay, and only three weeks to re-acclimate with a new paddling partner and boat, we are STOKED to report that our favorite paddling Fly Fish Chick (Christine Johnson) has finished the 260-mile The Texas Water Safari in a very impressive 73.5 hours!

Christine and her partner Phil Meyer (Team Paddlefish) were actually on pace to finish with a blistering time of 65 hours, but a small weather problem forced their hand in the final leg of the race. At midnight on their third paddling day, they reached the mouth of the Guadalupe River with only 7 paddling miles to go. Unfortunately, those 7 miles entailed a sprint across the open waters of San Antonio Bay which was whipped into a chocolate froth by a 30-knot southeast wind. After an unpleasant 5-hour bivouac among the mosquitoes, fire ants, and poison ivy, they awoke to sunny skies and a slightly better wind velocity of only 27.5 knots. With their spray skirt affixed, they pointed their canoe into the waves and made a valiant push for the flagpole in Seadrift.

Congratulations to Christine and Phil for a fantastic race. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be releasing Christine’s memoir of the race in the summer of 2011. If you’ve followed her blog for any length of time, then you’re probably just as excited about that book as we are.

The Blitz: Part Two

Last week I traveled with Pete McDonald to Maryland and New Jersey for another round of fishing, shooting, and interviewing for the new book project.

We started the trip on the upper reaches of the Chesapeake (The Susquehana Flats) near Havre de Grace, MD. Captains Tom Hughes and Sean Crawford put us on piles of post-spawn stripers, but we never connected with the big mamoo that typifies their fishery in the spring.

From there we hoofed it to New Jersey and spent a couple of days with master fly-tyer (and really nice guy) Bob Popovics. Using his tricked-out beach van to carry our mountain of gear, we roamed the sands of Island Beach State Park looking for birds, bait, bass and bluefish. The weather was fantastic (maybe a bit too nice) and we got some great shots of Bob’s fly patterns in play.

For the final leg, we drove back to Maryland and spent a day with John Page Williams and Shawn Kimbro; two avid conservationist anglers that are doing great work on mantaining the fragile balance of fish, water quality, and hominids in the Chesapeake watershed.

In August, we’re planning to hit Maine, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Rhode Island. In October, we’ll be wrapping up the project in Virginia and North Carolina. This book is coming together nicely, and our best guess for release is Summer 2011.

For continued updates, please join this mailing list. To see the entire shoot, please click here.

Excuse Me: What About E-books?

Okay, I’d be lying if I claimed that I’m not paying attention. All of the gizmo companies are scrambling to release their e-readers, and Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com alludes that e-books will eventually be available for direct download from his server into a Kindle chip implanted into our brains.

Will Departure Publishing take the leap?

Uh…well…maybe…but…

Until recently, e-book pricing (at around $9 per download) has been way out of kilter with the actual cost savings on printing and distribution. Plus: with such a large price disparity between print and digital, why would a small-press publisher simultaneously release a print and an e-version when we hominids are pre-programmed to buy the cheaper offering? Random House might be able to shrug off a warehouse full of unsold hardbounds, but I certainly can’t.

Prior to April 1st, Amazon was largely controlling the price of e-book sales. They could afford slim (no) profit on e-book downloads because they were rat-holing giant margins on their Kindle (along with vitamins, torque wrenches, curling irons, and fluffy bunny slippers). They had a pretty sweet deal going, until the cart was recently upset by Apple.

Via their shiny new iPad, Apple will sell e-books at prices that make sense for all parties. They’re also offering better revenue sharing with their publishers. The dust hasn’t completely settled, yet, but it looks like Amazon’s playground bully days are over (at least with e-books). Stand aside, readers, because this is where we offer a high-five and a flying chest-bump to Apple’s head dude, Steve Jobs.

So…if the numbers make sense will we take the leap?

Maybe so, but probably not until someone actually asks. As of this writing, we have received exactly zero requests for an e-book version of our current and pending titles. No letters, no emails, no verbal jabs, no tea leaves…nothing. I suppose it’s a good idea for a company to mold its offerings to face demand. But, right now, you folks seem to be demanding hardbound books.

Hey Jeff what gives?

Edit – 8/7/10:

Apparently ole Jeffy didn’t like the Youtube video of him guffawing like a cart mule on The Daily Show. Hence the dead links in my original post. It was removed from Youtube under claim of a copyright (doofus) infringement.

Paddlefish Update

Christine Johnson and Banning Collins may not want to hear this, but as of today, April 6th, they are T-minus 68 days from launch.

The good news: the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers are running bank full and our two undaunted paddling friends have been training furiously. The bad news: The Texas Water Safari is still 262 miles long.

On June 12th, Christine and Banning will embark on the physical and mental challenge of their lives. They’re paddling for charity, and If all goes as planned, next spring you’ll be reading Christine’s hardbound memoir of the race.

During the race, we’ll be posting realtime photos and checkpoint updates on their Team Paddlefish Facebook page. We hope you’ll join their “Fan List” and follow them start to finish in “The World’s Toughest Canoe Race”.

Start The Presses (Again)

One year after release (in a really crappy economy) The Alaska Chronicles continues to ring cash registers and turn out glowing commentary. The original print run is dwindling and we’ve just punched the button on the second printing.

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Like all fisherman bent on inventing an excuse for misspent days, Miles Nolte is a hard-bitten realist prone to fits of idealism…an honest, witty, and well-observed version of the frequent drudgery and occasional glamour of the fish-guide trade.
- Gray’s Sporting Journal

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Congrats to Miles Nolte for a successful first book (have you got another one in the hopper?) and thanks to all of our friends, readers, retailers, and distributors for promoting this project.

For dealer inquiries, please click here.

The Blitz: Part One

Back in October, Pete McDonald and I embarked on our first round of content gathering for our upcoming collaboration.

We saw the wind (and rain) blow from every point on the compass and by the end of the week I was really thankful for my last-minute decision to pack the underwater camera. From the Connecticut River, to Breezy Point, to Montauk: we caught fish, we interviewed guides, we visited greasy spoon cafes and fly shops, and we got off to a great start on a book that we’re getting seriously pumped about. Click here to see what we’ve cataloged, so far.

Between now and November our plan is to continue following the bass, bluefish, albies and other pelagics as they complete their migration between Maine and The Outer Banks. The end-product will be a stirring large-format collection of images and essays on fly-fishing the northeast coast.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll be heading back up to ply the waters from Jersey to the Chesapeake. From there we’ll work our way north during the summer and hit the beaches and rips of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. By late fall, we’ll be wrapping up the project in Virginia and The Carolinas.

Best guess for a release date is summer of 2011. Keep an eye on this newsletter, or join our mailing list for updates.