Tony and I were on the phone a few months ago with a Very Impressive Publisher (VIP). They told us they were in the “idea business” - they were only interested in big, bleeding-edge ideas. I asked the VIP, “How long does it take you to get a book from our brains to your binding?” “A year,” she said. I chuckled. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1505. It was published ten years later. In 500 years, the publishing industry has only managed to shave 9 years off the time cycle between manuscript and published book. Lame. The absurdity of claiming to be in the “idea business” and then requiring that ideas be shuttered for 12 months before exposing them to the light of day is beyond me. Especially when I can hike my ideas to a digital, just in time printer and hand you a hard copy in the time it takes your oven to self-clean.
