Okay, folks. I need your help in making a decision about the fate of Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews. (I know you won’t be able to comment on this post for very long, so when comments go all disabled/wonky, please still email your opinions on this issue, as I really do want some advice that originates outside my head.)

So, my first book, Casting Qs is in low-inventory status at our distributors‘ warehouse. Now is the time for me to decide which of the three things that can happen next WILL happen.

Do I begin the process of recontacting the interviewees (all 200+ of them from the course of my career, not just the 120 who appeared in the first edition of the book) to get their updates, conducting new interviews with the latest up-and-coming hot casting directors in town, writing up all of the interviews, editing the old ones to make them better (and shorter, to compensate for the larger number of interviews in the next edition), hiring the kickass graphic designer to do a new (way cooler) cover, promoting a new book (which is not a “simple” task, ever), putting my delightful proofer patrol back on “high alert” for the proofer duties they do so well, and spending the (gulp) near ten grand that it would take to make all of that happen?

or

Do I spend a little less than that (like, near eight grand) and let the existing book (outdated info, typos, and all) be reprinted with no changes whatsoever so that there is inventory, when people order the book?

or

Do I spend nothing and let the book go out of print, so that once these last few hundred copies are gone (by mid-2007, if current sales trends continue) there are no more Casting Qs at all?

Okay, obviously, the last choice is the laziest. It’s also the cheapest. I can just let the book sell out and then, maybe next year do another version of it when money isn’t so tight (we lost over ten grand last year as Cricket Feet, Inc.–ouch). I can’t imagine doing the middle option at all, since why would I want to spend thousands of dollars reprinting a book to have a 2007 copyright when its data is all from 2002? Obviously, I’d want to do it “right,” but since Casting Qs is not likely to be a “hot seller” like Self-Management for Actors is, I wouldn’t see any of my investment back for a couple of years. Typically, that would be okay, but right now, it’s a little scary, financially.

What about turning Casting Qs into an e-book? Does anyone read those? Would that sort of format be appropriate for a series of casting director interviews? Bob Fraser tried to convince me to “go e-book” at a breakfast meeting last year with Judy Kerr (and she’ll be doing that after her 11th (and final in-print) edition of Acting Is Everything is released late this year.

He said he’s made TONS of money going e-book format with his books. I guess I just have the whole, “It’s not a book if it can’t live on a shelf in a library somewhere,” mentality. Also, I know (heck, I assume) that colleges and universities (our biggest customer base for Casting Qs) aren’t likely to pick up Casting Qs as a required text book for students, if it’s something they can download from a website for a small fee.

Or am I behind the times? Would this be the best option? What is “required reading” like in colleges today? Are e-books fair game?

Heck. I just don’t know what to do on this issue. The “if I won the lottery” answer is: I’d do the second edition of the book, with all of the love and care I put into the second edition of Self-Management for Actors and just be happy to have another baby of which to be so proud. Of course, I haven’t won the lottery, so I can tell I am, in fact, concerned about the financial issues involved here.

*sigh*

Any/all feedback is greatly appreciated.