jerry
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Posts: 60
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Post by jerry on Jul 8, 2009 10:00:46 GMT -5
The publication of EXODUS FROM THE ALAMO by Phillip Tucker has been delayed until mid-November 2009. The book's premise is that the majority of the Alamo defenders died in breakouts from the fortress.
Jerry
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Post by stuart on Jul 8, 2009 10:39:21 GMT -5
Have we any indication what the problem is? The series of delays suggests that all is not well.
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jerry
Full Member
Posts: 60
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Post by jerry on Jul 8, 2009 10:50:19 GMT -5
Stuart,
The publisher's (Casemate) representative I spoke with said that "the author and Casemate wanted to be sure that all was right" before the book is released. She would not elaborate further. Going from a July publication date to a November date certainly suggests all is not going well.
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Post by TRK on Jul 8, 2009 12:08:08 GMT -5
The original release date for this book was to have been October 2008. Then it got bumped to March 2009...then July '09.
Publishers sometimes fail to meet their announced release dates, but a thirteen-month delay in publication suggests that something pretty extraordinary is happening at some level.
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Post by Kevin Young on Jul 8, 2009 14:53:42 GMT -5
It is not a good sign...
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Post by marklemon on Jul 8, 2009 19:00:25 GMT -5
Well, it could be any number of things......
I was fortunate to have a very smart and sympathetic editor, who shared my vision of the book. This eased things along incredibly. Nevertheless, there were still areas where we disagreed. Sometimes I won (getting the complete appendix included), and sometimes she won (limiting the number of pages to 175). These few conflicts caused delays, as things were sorted out.
So, I can only imagine how badly things can go if the writer and editor are not on the same wavelength thematically, or philosophically..
This, however, does not necessarily mean there is something wrong with the book....
Mark
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Post by Paul Sylvain on Jul 8, 2009 19:31:00 GMT -5
Excellent point, Mark Of course, from a consumer standpoint, the delay just adds to the anticipation, doesn't it?
When you consider that the premise of the book is to offer something many folks might have a problem accepting, perhaps the publisher and writer just wants to make quadruple sure that everything is right and as accurate and substantiated as possible.
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Post by Jim Boylston on Jul 8, 2009 19:49:57 GMT -5
We're lucky I guess. "David Crockett in Congress" is still on schedule for an October 1st release.
Jim
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Post by Kevin Young on Jul 9, 2009 8:39:04 GMT -5
Excellent point, Mark Of course, from a consumer standpoint, the delay just adds to the anticipation, doesn't it? When you consider that the premise of the book is to offer something many folks might have a problem accepting, perhaps the publisher and writer just wants to make quadruple sure that everything is right and as accurate and substantiated as possible. I don't think this is an editor/author deal. The publication seem to be way far along for that. I think you might be right in the "fact check" department... |
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Post by stuart on Jul 9, 2009 9:59:08 GMT -5
I’ve obviously not read the book but we on this forum are pretty well up on the facts and have thoroughly talked over the various permutations of how they can be interpreted. That’s not to say that we know or even agree on the answers, but short of any completely new and hitherto unpublished source material, we know what this is about and are comfortable with the idea that a substantial part of the garrison tried to break out during the battle.
Whether the rest of Texas is comfortable with the idea may be a different matter. After all look at the furore over the DLP manuscript and the allegedly heretical suggestion that Davy Crockett survived to be executed. Now here we have a book proposing the far more heinous heresy that a large number of the defenders actually died running away rather than fighting to the death. Cold feet rather than fact checking might be the true cause of the delay.
Controversy might be good for sales in a positive sense, but does it have to be weighed against the possibility of a lynch mob?
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Post by Jim Boylston on Jul 9, 2009 10:20:25 GMT -5
I have to agree with Stuart on this one. Barring some new primary source material, I don't know what's new here that hasn't been discussed in depth on this and other forums, and the product description doesn't indicate any big, new find.
This might be new information for people with a casual interest in the subject, but I wonder if it offers anything new to the true Alamophile. That remains to be seen.
As far as publishing delays go, it might be nothing more than cash-flow issues.
Jim
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Post by marklemon on Jul 9, 2009 11:18:10 GMT -5
It seems a bit of a stretch to imagine that a man would set out to research, format, and then write an entire book, and not have the realization hit him many, many times along the way that he was about to upset a number of people. The same can be said for the publisher, who certainly must have realized this when the premise of the book was pitched to them. Having this scenario play out ("cold feet") at the eleventh hour, seems unlikely to me. There must be some other factor that we are just not privy to.
To my mind, the cash-flow issue is a likely scenario.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Jul 9, 2009 11:40:19 GMT -5
In the end, I'm inclined to agree that it won't be up to all the hub-bub over its repeated delays. I doubt there's much new here, if anything. Not that there's anything unusual about that in the world of publishing. In fact, it seems to be more the rule than the exception. The rehash is more common than the revealing.
AW
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Post by billchemerka on Jul 9, 2009 17:56:47 GMT -5
Even the forthcoming History Channel "Alamo" episode that includes a "breakout" has been delayed. It's all part of the economic/creative beast.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Jul 9, 2009 21:49:20 GMT -5
So....... Big Brother is watching and saying, "I don't want stories about breakout attempts muddying American bravery."
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