>>[log in to unmask] wrote:
how did you go about looking for grant money?<<

Well, it has not been easy, and not yet very fruitful.  We've talked to a
number of professionals in the grant writing field, and researched possible
foundations the same way you would research potential clients.  Grants for
the Susquicentennial are very competitive right now.  There are usually
directories of foundations that give grants with specific grant guideline
instructions in your libraries.  The good part is that these folks expect you
to contact them, so its not as difficult as making cold marketing calls.
 Perhaps other Guild members can add to a discussion of grant writing
experiences.

>>And did you take your concept to the publisher, or did
 you get well into the project before you took it to a publisher? Did
 your GROUP hire the publisher with your grant monies, or did you get
the publisher to "take on" some risk for the project?<<

Getting the publisher was easy, but they are not fronting or advancing any
monies and we do not have to give them any monies as well.  They are simply
willing to publish when we finish the book. I guess they believe in the
project, but obviously they aren't taking any financial risk at this time.

>>That brings up another question, for anyone. If you have an idea, at
 what point during your development of that idea do you approach
 publishers? I've heard stories how people have taken ideas to
 publishers, and then the publishers "steal" the idea and do something
 similar. Does this sort of thing REALLY happen? This has actually been
a real concern of mine.<<

We worried about this some, but we realized that the amount of time it will
take to produce the atlas is probably too discouraging to anyone else to do.
We developed the idea extensively prior to presenting it to the publisher, so
we weren't going to the publisher with just an idea, we actually had parts of
the book produced. Anyway, the uniqueness of our project is not in the idea,
but the presentation. Perhaps other Guild members could offer advice on this
aspect, how you protect a unique idea.

My comment about the ability to get along with publishers was really directed
at my experiences here. I have often found myself and my colleagues reacting
to the publisher, or the client, as a "them" or an "other" entity that we are
in conflict with, and  naively think that we won't have similar problems with
each other.  In other words, working with each other is not an easy solution,
sometimes the conflicts can be worse, like working with family!

Thanks for your interest in the atlas, Cindy, and your thoughts overall.

Amelia Janes
Midwest Educational Graphics
Madison, WI
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