During my last few days in Japan, I got a comment on my flickr page referring to one of my photos. A guy explained that he belonged to a publishing company based in Melbourne and they wanted to use my photo. He left a link for me to contact him. I was interested but a little suspicious about the whole thing and, as I had only just arrived into Tokyo, I shelved the idea to the back of my mind.
Two days later, my friend Sean called me out of the blue to tell me to check my blog. The publishing guy had also left a comment there. Sean thought I would be interested in the whole thing and had taken a look into the company. He decided they were legit and told me to go for it! So, the plan was to make contact that night when I got back to my computer... 2 minutes later, my mobile rang. I answered it and it was the 'publishing guy'. He spoke to me for a while, explained how keen they were to use my photo and how they were in a hurry to get everything completed. I explained quite nicely that I was leaning toward saying yes but that I was on holiday, sight seeing AND far from my computer.
That night, I got onto the net, wrote a letter and sent off my photo. I didn't hear anything until last night. Sean called the company to see what had become of my beloved photo. Matt (I think that was his name) quickly explained that he had sent me several emails that had been returned. He also explained about the book and printing deadlines. The book is scheduled to be finished anyday and he sent through a digital image of the book cover.
So there you go. I am in print. Next stop... photography course and FAME!
PS. You can see, read about or buy the book at amazon. I guess the company had to submit a cover before publishing as you will see, it is different. Also, check out how expensive it is!!