Picture Day

This is a test polaroid for the photo shoot I did today. I'll be using the pictures as my publicity shots for the book. Hopefully the talk shows will consider me TV friendly. Don't worry, I actually cracked a smile a few times during the shoot.

Thanks to Tasha for a great make-up job, and of course Randee, who is the best photographer I know, bar none.

F&Gs

As if I haven't already had my share of late nights getting Everybody I Shot Is Dead off to the printers, here I am again. It's after 1am and I am in front of my computer printing F&Gs. What are F&Gs? They are something my soon-to-be-PR firm will need.

That's right, I'm hiring a PR firm. On Starart (my last book) I did the publicity myself with the help of friends and a full time assistant. And we did a pretty good job. I did some TV (Merv Griffin, for one), lots of radio (K-Earth and KMET), had a full page feature in Playboy, among others, and also had lots of newspaper features, reviews (all good, btw) etc. But these days there's just way too much ground to cover for the little engine that could. So I made what I hope is the wise decision to go in further debt for the book and bring on a real PR firm - one that is very well connected with everyone in the media and although they can't make any promises, I'm confident that we will get results. I'm really looking forward to the experience of having a PR team working with me on getting the word out there and am planning to sign the contract tomorrow and go out with guns blazing...

There's a few important deadlines that need to be met immediately. And that's why the publicist needs F&Gs asap. F&G is short for "folded and gathered." They are what you give the press for reviews before your book is printed so you can get reviews and/or features in publications that have long lead times. The F&Gs need to include The first one we need to hit up is Publisher's Weekly. There are a trade magazine that goes out to all the bookstores and if you don't have a review in PW you are pretty much dead in the water. They are also the first review (usually) that you see on a book's Amazon page. And they have a three month in advance of the release date deadline. So, figuring they will get the F&Gs by August 1, I am setting the official book release date as November 1. Not to worry...the people who order[ed] from my website will receive their books earlier.

So the F&Gs are basically just the text from the book plus a selection of a few photographs. But knowing that first impressions are everything, I'm printing out all the text pages just as there appear in the book with the photographs. Then I'm going to include one color spread and one black & white spread from the wet proofs in each of the five F&G packages that the publicist has requested. The whole thing is turning out to be a lot of work because there are 80 pages in the book that include text, and I'm printing double-sided which means I have to pay close attention to what I'm doing.

It's now 2:34am...I think I need sleep and will have to finish the remainder of the pages tomorrow.

zzzzzzzzz........

On The Radio

I'm going to be interviewed on a radio program, The Back Porch, that runs from 4-5:30 pm E.T. tomorrow - that's Saturday - at 89.3 FM in Hartford, Connecticut. And everybody around the world can hear because they have a live stream on the internet HERE. I just checked it out and it's super easy to access. Right on their front page is a "Listen Live" link. I clicked it and it immediately connected through my iTunes, crystal clear.

The show is celebrating Michael Bloomfield's birthday so it will be an hour and a half of great music and interviews. The show's host, Chris Cowles, told me he is also interviewing Harvey Brooks, who played with Michael on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and with The Electric Flag. It should be a great hour and a half, so don't miss it.

I am really excited that my first official publicity for the book will be talking about Michael, who you all know is one of my favorite people in the world...and favorite guitarist.

And in my own Everybody I Shot Is Dead celebration of Michael's Birthday, please put on your party hats and your favorite Bloomfield CD, then sit back and read my Michael Bloomfield ghost stories:

Part one: GHOST

Part two: GHOST II

Part three: GHOST ON A PLANE

And take a look and listen to the passionate Michael I knew as he talks about the blues, Son House and Paul Butterfield on this clip from the documentary, Festival.

Happy Birthday, Michael. I miss you.

My Lack of Posting

Sometimes I can in a headspace where I can't motivate myself to post. Or do much of anything for that matter. I have been working, although not at the pace I was and not accomplishing as much as I should. I have a stockpile of stuff to catch up on...such as the bleekness that is my accounting. (I still haven't filed my '06 taxes) I managed to reconcile the past three months of two bank accounts and two credit cards in the past two days.

The Amazon account for selling the book is set up. I just can't list the book until after Wednesday when my discount offer is over because they can't see that I have sold the book at that much of a discount. Same with some of my other distributors. SO IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO BUY THE BOOK EVER, DO IT BY WEDNESDAY. Or wait and buy it on Thursday when the price goes up so I can make more money. Yes, do that. Wait. Procrastinate. Buy it at full price.


Thanks to all of the people who have ordered. And those of you who have become friends of my MySpace. I'm closing in on 1050 friends and expect to have at least ten thousand by the end of August. I've met some interesting people who have taken the time to get in touch. It's funny how I have more virtual friends (people I communicate with on a regular basis that I've never met in person) than I do in-person friends. Wait a second. Forget I said that. I don't think I like how that reflects on me as a person.


The good news for those of you picking up the book from my website, I'm expecting you will receive your copies at least a week or two before they make it to the bookstore. I'll explain the reasoning behind that in the next day or two when I'll have some other breaking news.

Oh, did I mention the proofs will be in my hot little hands in the morning? Tuesday by 10:30am via FedX - so I'll be busy mining for typos and making sure the color is perfect and the pictures look perfect before I send in the changes and sign off for the printing.

Better get some sleep so I can focus on those pages.

Thanks for hanging in with me. I'll try and get back into the posting groove...just a few more credit card accounts to reconcile.

The Wet Proofs Are Coming, The Wet Proofs Are Coming...

That's right. Wet proofs. And they're coming early next week. All the way from Hong Kong.

Ink-on-paper proofs for every page of Everybody I Shot Is Dead. I'm guessing the pages are all going to be one-sided, but still...to see everything exactly how it's going to look and on the actual paper. How cool is that?

I hope I don't hate it. Oops, did I say that out loud?

I don't think I will. The whole thing has begun to take on a life of its own, with complete disregard of me. As if I had nothing to do with it. As if the book made itself. Like when your kid suddenly proclaims s/he raised her/himself and you, as the parent, had absolutely nothing to do with what/who they've become.

My kid did that. And since I had nothing to do with raising him, I pretend he doesn't exist. But when I told I put pictures of Drama on my blog, he asked me if I gave him photo credit.

"No."

"How dare you."

"Fine...I'll give you photo credit."

"And send people to my MySpace?"

"Okay."

The pictures of Drama were taken by Tyler Chesher. You can see more of his brilliant photography here.

Go take a look at it and tell me if you think I didn't have any influence on him.

Duh.

I'm having a few people over to scrutinize the wet proofs...last chance to make changes. Did I mention that after I turned all the files over to the printer I found seventeen pages that had typos? I'm guessing there are going to be a bunch more. If any of you out there happens to be a super-duper proof reader and you live in the L.A. area, please let me know. I can always use a fresh pair of eyes. The pizza's on me.

Oh...I almost forgot, for the eight hundredth time, I also have a MySpace site for the book and my photography. I'm shooting to have one friend for every copy of the book I'm printing. So far (in four or five days time) I have 722. That's only 9,278 to go. If you are on MySpace stop by my MySpace. And then tell all your friends to do the same.

As always, I truly appreciate your support.

Playing Possum

Meet Drama...

Much like his namesake, Johnny "Drama" Chase...

Drama takes desperate measures to make new friends...

And only manages to get hissed at...

Analyze This...

So, I had a dream last night that I got the book back from the printers and the ink was peeling... as if it was acrylic paint.

The Time Has Come...

...to buy your copy/copies of Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Not only can you pre-order your book, you can also look at eight pages from the book.

Why buy now when you're not going to get the book[s] until October?

1. You'll save money - buy before 7/25 and the price is only $36...that's a 40% discount off the $60 retail price, and the same price that the stores pay.

2. You'll receive your copy before the book is in the stores.

3. Buy from my site and your book[s] will be signed.

4. It's a great way to get all your Christmas shopping out of the way.

So, go on over there right now and pick up a copy or two or three. There's big savings on shipping when you buy three books. If you want more than three, send an email so we can give you a shipping quote.

Once you've read the pages I posted and finish your shopping, come on back here and make a comment. I'd love to know what you think of the pages I posted.

New Cover

Here it is...click to make bigger.

The background will be a matte finish black and the photos, and possibly the type will have a spot gloss varnish.

It wraps around...the inside front flap will have no text. Less is more in my opinion.

The text under the musicians names reads:
Forty-eight of the hundreds of musicians Deborah Chesher photographed from 1974-79 have since passed away.
This is a collection of over four hundred of her never-before-published photographs and her personal stories.

The text on the back insid flap says:
Deborah Chesher’s first book, Starart, debuted the fine art of musicians Joni Mithchell, John Mayall, Cat Stevens, Klaus Voormann, Ron Wood and George “Commander Cody” Frayne.
Visit our website for the latest news and to read Deborah Chesher’s online blog chronicling the making of this book.
Limited and Open Edition prints of Deborah Chesher’s rock‘n’roll photography are available.



Comments?

More Greetings...

...this time from Bob hope Airport.

Yes, I am waiting for an airplane.

I've been awake for at least 36 hours. So has Scanner Dude. We spent the night at his studio working our asses off trying to finish the book.

It's all a blur to me now.

But it's done.

For the most part.

We did 4/color proofs for every single page. Some of them for a second time. Scanner Dude really went beyond The Call. Or else he just wanted to get it over with and get rid of me.

Just kidding... I sat partially behind him putting scans into pages while he was color correcting some of the brattier scans. I could see what he was doing. He spent a lot of time on color balancing, working really hard to get them just right. There were several times when I wanted to blurt out, "It looks great! Time to move on." But he kept at it until he was happy with it. Then he was running the proofer and if he didn't like the out put, he'd do it again. He takes a lot of pride in his work but I've never seen him work this hard on anything before.

Lucky me.

So, I'm still going to go through all the proofs and check every little thing. Fix any straggling typos I find, etc. I should probably get some sleep first but I'm pretty much out of time. I didn't finish the "Acknowledgment" page, but proofed it anyway, just with a couple of names on it.

I almost finished the cover but didn't have time to downsize the 48 pictures I'm putting on it. I left before Scanner Dude proofed it and he was going to drive the leftovers over to my house. Then I got the call. The document wouldn't open. Seems I overloaded it with 5 gigs of pictures. So, I have to decrease the sizes when I get there and hopelly get an output there.

Wow. People are lining up to board the plane. Guess I better wrap this up.

I will continue once I'm there, unless I pass out. Then, it will be tomorrow.

Get ready... things are really going to start cooking now.

Greetings From Scanner Dude's Office

It's after 1:30am and I've been here since 5pm. I guess I can update where I'm at, since everybody's guess - all three :( of them - but Timo's has past and we're not done.

We have 8 scans left to redo for one reason or another and Scanner Dude has yet to give me all the new color ones that he's still balancing. So I have three musicians that need all their photos placed in the Quark documents, plus 6 that have a missing scan or two.

I'm guessing that's less than a day's work for me, but I still have to finish writing Terry Kath (the last one!!) and rewrite that other one. And I have to do the mechanical for the cover.

We've been running the proofs as we go along, and of course I'm finding minor changes to make in those before we run the final set for the printers.

I think I'll make might flight reservation right now. For Sunday night. So, I'll be at the printers NoCal office first thing Monday morning.

I need sleep.