theorywatch

I can’t say that I ever miss being a cog in the wheel (or, perhaps more accurately, mostly being a squeaky wheel myself) of university press publishing now, but I do miss having some contact with authors like Jeff Abernathy. I love the way that he doesn’t blame the University of Georgia Press’s marketing department for his book ranking far below another book with the same title (Meat Loaf’s ghost-written autobiography) on Amazon’s sales charts. This is refreshingly unlike, for example, some authors at my old press that I won’t name, but who clearly had what delusions of what Meat Loaf himself calls “Loafdom.” You rock, Dean Abernathy! (Plus, you properly value the importance of being well-represented on WorldCat!)

Although I do have to admit that your press’s marketing department really should have advised you pre-publication of that potential title conflict, as well as the fact that Audie Murphy used it back in 1949 for his autobiography, which then became the movie in which he starred. But, as I’m sure you were told, the important thing is that you got much more attention at MLA than either of them ever did!