Today the UPS truck pulled up to my office and offloaded the final seven cartons of my book, Write In Style. The rights have reverted to me; the book will officially go out of print, according to my publisher, who has taken his company in another direction.
I looked at the stack of boxes in the same way I may have looked at my father when I saw his health rapidly going downhill. I knew our time together was coming to an end, but I was not ready to bid him good-bye. So it is with my book. At least in the case of the book I have a few options to keep the book alive. I could find another publisher, or I could self-publish.
No decision must be made yet. I still have those seven cartons of books, twenty-eight copies in each carton. I’ll sell the final copies on my Web site and at conferences where I speak, but when the inventory gets down to one or two cartons, I’ll have to make a decision. Do I let Write In Style die a natural death, or do I revive it, and if I decide to revive it, what cure should I administer?
I’m not signing a DNR just yet; the book still lives and breathes, and I don’t have to pull the plug and watch it take its final gasp. It’s still a sad day, watching that pile of books struggling to live, calling out, “I’m still here; don’t give up on me yet!”
Unless I was completely well off i'd sell the whole lot or offer them to elementary schoold as right off's.