365 Book: Step 1

So tomorrow morning I’ve got an appointment with a literary agent. It’s the first in what I imagine will be many such meetings with a lot of different people in an attempt to get a book made from the 365 Portraits project I finished a few weeks ago.  I’ve got my portfolio ready. I’ve got my book proposal ready. I’ve even got sample pages ready.

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I’m a fairly rational person and I’ve done as much research as I could, but I still have no good idea how the publishing world works.  I have read conflicting information on almost every aspect of what to do to get a book deal, so I’ve decided to just use a shotgun approach and talk to as many people as I can. I’ll try literary agents, or going straight to the publishers, or publishing it myself if I have enough interest.

The book, if it gets made (and I hope it will), will be a big one. At least 365 pages, probably closer to 400, and from what I’ve heard, publishers don’t like photo books because they’re expensive to make and they don’t sell that well.  And even though I’ve had a lot of people say they’d buy it, I have no real idea of how big a market I would have or how much people would be willing to pay for such a tome.

This is all to say that tomorrow is the beginning of a journey that I’m sure will include many setbacks, but at the very least it should prove to be an interesting adventure.

Any help, advice, or suggestions are welcome.