[X] My Assistant

[ljk4-1]

Jim Bell is coming out with a new book this November titled Postcards from Mars.

The details are here:

http://www.postcardsfrommarsbook.com

The book's subtitle, "The First Photographer on the Red Planet", has me wondering
how that will make all the previous Mars probes feel. Except maybe Mars 3 - there's
just nothing you can do with that image.

[elakdawalla]

I've been chatting with Jim Bell about various stuff and I pointed him to this link. He had the following to say (in a nutshell, Doug's right):

The issue about the subtitle is a valid one, and is one that I went round and round with the publisher about. My original subtitle was "The First Photographers on the Red Planet", because my point was exactly what Doug deduced from the excerpt: we--the team, the rovers, all of us--have the luxury of routinely thinking about photographic, artistic issues in the imaging for the first time in the history of Mars exploration. My editor, the publisher, and the marketing department all wanted me to take out the "s" on "Photographers", to make it seem like a more personal journey. I said, "that's going to piss off my colleagues who have been involved in previous Mars missions." They said "so what." I held my ground and we were at a standoff for some time. But they are more clever than I am. They then decided that they didn't like my main title either, and wanted something different because "Postcards" sounded too trifling to them (silly little pieces of heavy paper...). Ultimately, I had to trade losing the "s" in the subtitle for keeping "Postcards." I am not too happy about it, and expect to take significant flack from some of my colleagues, none of whom I was trying to disrespect. Hopefully if they actually read the words in the book, they will arrive at the same (correct) interpretation of what I meant that Doug did.

[Stephen]

I've been chatting with Jim Bell about various stuff and I pointed him to this link. He had the following to say (in a nutshell, Doug's right):

"The issue about the subtitle is a valid one, and is one that I went round and round with the publisher about. My original subtitle was "The First Photographers on the Red Planet", because my point was exactly what Doug deduced from the excerpt: we--the team, the rovers, all of us--have the luxury of routinely thinking about photographic, artistic issues in the imaging for the first time in the history of Mars exploration. My editor, the publisher, and the marketing department all wanted me to take out the "s" on "Photographers", to make it seem like a more personal journey. I said, "that's going to piss off my colleagues who have been involved in previous Mars missions." They said "so what." I held my ground and we were at a standoff for some time. But they are more clever than I am. They then decided that they didn't like my main title either, and wanted something different because "Postcards" sounded too trifling to them (silly little pieces of heavy paper...). Ultimately, I had to trade losing the "s" in the subtitle for keeping "Postcards." I am not too happy about it, and expect to take significant flack from some of my colleagues, none of whom I was trying to disrespect. Hopefully if they actually read the words in the book, they will arrive at the same (correct) interpretation of what I meant that Doug did.

I haven't published anything so I do not know many publishers, but given (or so I would have thought) that books are a book publisher's bread and butter for one of them to take a "so what" attitude to how one of their own publications might be perceived by a potentially influential section of the market for it strikes me as bizarre.

In that same connection I note that instead of a "Read the Reviews" link the book's website has a "Read the Acclaim" one--even though no actual "acclaim" has yet been received (Dava Sobel's opinion notwithstanding; and she was potentially a poor choice to sing the book's praises anyway given that her own book on solar system matters ("The Planets")--which I notice the website is canny enough not to mention--was received with considerably less than universal acclaim).

It's enough to make you wonder whether Jim Bell has chosen the wrong people to publish his tome.

I only hope Jim does not find himself having to spend much of the second half of November defending a subtitle somebody else imposed on him instead of basking in the acclaim for his book.

======
Stephen

[djellison]

I only hope Jim does not find himself having to spend much of the second half of November defending a subtitle somebody else imposed on him instead of basking in the acclaim for his book.

The pictures will do all the defense the book could need. Truth be told, the title ( which I quite like ) and the sub title ( which I'm not too sure about ) don't actually matter one iota....one shouldn't gauge the quality of the content of the publication by inspecting it's jacket.....I'm sure there's a catchphrase about that....

Doug