I will definitely look into self publishing. I had a prof in college who had a self-published book and he praised the ability to do that heavily. I wish I’d taken more notes on it, now!!

I am VERY excited about your book, by the way. Its long overdue to have something like that written and available. If you ever need another pair of eyes in editing, feel free to let me know! Like I said, I’m excited for it for you and would be happy to help in any way I can.

My goal is to get a good back log of blog drafts going for days like this. When I just don’t have an entry in me, edit one that is already written and fly with it. That is a definite goal… I’ll accomplish it… eventually. ;)

Secondly, I think your idea about a book on printers alley is outstanding. There is a lot of unique history there. When you start digging into it you will probably learn that Jimi Hendrix played gigs regularly in the alley in the early 60s, years before anybody knew who he was. I’m sure that the history of the alley is full of great stories.

Just a thought about your “getting it published quandary” – why not consider self-publishing? I am in the process of writing a book about the Nashville music industry “The Nashville Musician Survival Guide” and when I first started out I was looking for a publisher. After much research I concluded that self-publishing for this project was a better option. This leaves me in full artistic control of my project, I retain ownership of it, and I will have a much higher profit margin per book sold. One of the things I learned in my research was that traditional book publishing deals provide literally no marketing or advertising, especially for first-time authors. The only thing a book publishing deal really has to offer is the assembly of the book, and distribution, leaving the marketing up to the author. As bloggers, we are already building readerships that will potentially buy these books. Just food for thought.

And lastly, thanks for mentioning my blog in your top 15 list.

While there are some great perks to working as a touring musician e.g. seeing the world, getting paid to perform music, meeting interesting people – most that have never done it will never understand just how hard this lifestyle can be. I wrote a recent blog myself that outlines a typical day for me as road manager/guitarist on the Rhett Akins tour http://nashvillemusicianssurvivalmanual.com/Blog/?p=478 which paints a similar picture in a different way. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!