I’ll be watching this one with great interest for I suspect I face a similar quandary with my current project. Ted passed on mine for the same reason as yours, suggesting that a university press might be the best home.

I fear he’s right, in the sense that unless one has written the umpteenth book on Lincoln, Grant, Gettysburg, etc. or some other popular and well-traversed subject, it seems that there’s just not much room at the inn anymore.

The sesquicentennial of the war is only 4 years away. Maybe that will rekindle interest…

BTW, the title of the session for this year’s Society of Civil War Historians annual meeting is “The Future of Civil War Publishing.” I’d love to hear that one.

Paul

Regards,
Christ Liebegott

Have you checked with Thomas Books? They do quality work………
McFarland might be interested, but then it would cost $45.00!

Unfortunately, that decision is not just up to me–it’s a decision that has to be approved by our board, and I don’t think it’s a good idea. It is inconsistent with our business plan, which is what concernes me about it.

Eric

P.S. Remember, a movie is being made about the manhunt for Booth – a sure means of increasing the interest in the assassination in a new audience. Maybe some little ‘blurb’ about the possibillity of Dahgren’s last action having a tie – however questionable – to the assassination of the President might well increase YOUR readership as well!

Even if this is not a book on the raid itself, it is my considered belief that the mere fact that it will serve to enlighten us as to the nature of one of the key players in that drama will make your work of far greater interest than at present you suspect.

JFE

Frankly, I was surprised too. However, the problem is that the market for Civil War books has been shrinking over the past few years while the market for World War II books, by example, continues to grow. That means that commercial publishers are more concerned about sales potential than ever before, and it means that they’re not biting at books that they would have published without batting an eye ten years ago.

Here’s one very prominent example: other than publishing those books that were already under contract, Stackpole, traditionally one of the leading publishers of Civil War books, is pretty much completely out of the Civil War publishing business at this point. Stackpole would have been one of my first choices for this project, but it’s no longer even an option.

Eric

And then again I am one of those folks who has tracked down the original burial spot of Ully’s leg in the Washington Navy Yard…