After a delay of almost two months, my book Musical Theatre Script and Song Analysis Through the Ages is finally available through Amazon.com and Bloomsbury Publishing.com as of the middle of March, 2022.
What an experience that was to get it to the point of publishing. And what challenges.
One large challenge was having to come up with new, music analysis theories that were compatible to the already developed character analysis theories. How can you analyze music that is by nature, subjective? It’s a totally different animal. Just look at music theory these days. It really is almost impossible to totally analyze music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Broken rules are the bedrock of composition. Suddenly the I, IV, and V chords just don’t hold as much ground anymore. And let’s not even get into figured bass…
Another challenge was actually logistic in nature. The original transcript of the book had 106 lyric examples to support the ideas of that moment from well over 40 different musicals. What I found out was that in order for me to get the rights to all of these lyrics, I would have had to pay $53,000 in royalties just for the first printing alone. Needless to say, I rewrote the book in a way that didn’t have to use the lyrics directly. Thank you, Dom, from Bloomsbury Publishing for guiding me through that process.
Finally, the challenge of being introduced into the world of marketing. Who will buy this book? What are the demographics? What classes would benefit from it? What key words in a search engine should bring up your book? Is the book diverse enough and well-balanced from many cultural perspectives? Wow. Who woulda’ thunk?
But, the book survived and can now be sent to your door through the touch of a button and a credit card. I’m amazed. I’m truly honored. And actually, I’m a bit baffled that a publishing company felt I had 232 pages of stuff to say that was worth publishing.
Cool.
