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Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
People of Chatham-Kent are a generous and appreciative group
Tuesday, January 7, 2003
This past Christmas season was an exciting time for us and we want to thank a number of people in Chatham-Kent, for a couple of different reasons, for making this "excitement" possible.About a year ago now, we asked the people of Chatham-Kent to share their personal photos and postcards of the former city of Chatham with us as we were preparing a book on this "lost city".
The response was overwhelming to say the least! From all parts of Chatham-Kent, and beyond, we had people offering us their personal pictures and postcards. In the end we had to choose a mere two hundred photos from a grand total of over four hundred offered to us!
Our publisher who had requested that we do the book was the large and well-known Arcadia Press from Charleston, South Carolina and in order for them to have the book printed (it was sent to England ) and ready for the Christmas 2002 season, we had to have all pictures chosen, the book laid out, captions written and sent by courier to Charleston by the end of March 2002. Needless to say it was a busy start to last year!
We did, however, make our deadline and by the middle of this past December the book arrived and it immediately started selling! In fact it sold over 1000 copies in less than two weeks and we could have sold another 1000 if we had not run out of books from the publisher. Currently it is in its second printing and we expect to receive another shipment by the end of January.
Apparently, the U.S. publishers felt that a small Canadian municipality would not sell more than their American larger counterparts. Boy! Did Chatham-Kent prove them wrong! Our sales literally "blew them away" and caught them very much off guard. We tried to tell them that 1000 copies were insufficient but they wouldnít listen. Maybe they will listen to us a little more carefully next time.
We, as well as Coles Bookstore, have a large waiting list for the book (entitled IMAGES OF CANADA – CHATHAM) and we want to assure everyone who put their name on the waiting list or purchased a Coles' gift certificate for the book, that it IS coming! In fact, Lisa and I are looking forward to this second printing as well for WE don't even own a copy of our own book! We had some desperate calls the week before Christmas and we even had to sell our own personal copies! Although I'm almost embarrassed to say this, our names are on that waiting list as well!
So, once again, thank you Chatham-Kent for not only sharing your personal picture treasures with us but also to those many people who at least tried to buy our book! It was very gratifying in both instances.
Now I am sure some readers are wondering why we went with an American publisher rather than a Canadian publisher. After all, we are the ones always promoting Canadian history and local businesses. Well – if a Canadian publisher had made the same offer and had sought us out as Arcadia Press did, then we would have certainly gone "Canadian".
In addition, Arcadia Press has now established a Canadian distribution firm which is Vanwell Press out of Saint Catharines. As a result, any of our books ordered by Canadian bookstores, libraries and museums are ordered through Vanwell so there is a Canadian connection..
What's next? Well, we have a contract with Arcadia Press to do a book on all of Chatham-Kent, so if you happen to have some interesting personal photos or postcards
from any place between Bothwell and Wheatley, let us know.
I, personally, would like to do a book on the Thames River from its source to Lake St. Clair but that may have to wait a year or two. After all, we still have to ensure that we, as well as a few hundred other people, have a copy of this book before we start to consider another one!
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
