Why Dan Eldon's book wasn't considered publishable

From Kathy Eldon's upcoming In the Heart of Life (Kathy is Dan's mother):



...I wrote a proposal for a book based on his journals-a book that I hoped would inspire other young people to follow their dreams. Stuffing four volumes into a carry-on case, I flew to New York to discuss the project with various publishing companies.

"Beautiful," the first editor commented, thumbing through the pages of one of them. "But if the artist is dead, how could we promote the book?" Closing it, she turned to me with a frown. "I'm afraid it isn't for us," she said, "but we'll keep the proposal on file in case something changes."

I got the same response wherever I went. The work was good, but a collection of images created by a dead twenty-two year old wasn't commercially viable. Sadly, I hid the journals away in my bedroom closet. It was far too painful to have them in sight.

Everyone who has seen Dan's journals or been consumed by The Journey is the Destination* is (1) shaking their heads right now in disbelief and (2) thanking God for Chronicle Books who saw that this work had to be shared with the world. (100,000+ copies in print, in case you're wondering.)

I have been working for the past year on a somewhat super secret project. It involves forming a small press with a good friend and ushering a couple of books into the world. (Yes, I'm really doing this.) One of them is a reissue of an out-of-print Alaskan classic and the author died several years ago. Never once did we think that her death would affect the marketing and sale of the book-I read books by dead people all the time.

This is crazycakes.

I understand that editors must think of marketing but I also know (boy, do I know) that most publishers do not work very effectively at marketing books. They get scared too easily, I think and this is a perfect example of fear outweighing brilliance. Thank heavens the stars aligned and Kathy Eldon was still able to bring her son's work out into the world. The world is much better with Dan still a part of it.

*On sale now at Powells for $12.98 in tpb. BUY A COPY.

[Images from Dan Eldon's site. If you aren't aware of his amazing and tragic story then be sure to check it out. He was really something special.]