September 08, 2007 – Robert Morrissey Photographer & Inventor
Rob: You know, we were talking before. You’re an author as well and you wrote this very photographic nerdy book called Master Lighting Guide for Commercial Photographers, and I always joke and say nerdy. It’s very interesting. Can you tell us a little bit-not only about the book, but tell us a little bit how you publish and how you got your book published and then we’re going to head up to a break and we’ll talk a little bit about it after the break. So, how’d you get started? Well, I had a collection of about 20,000 photographs and realized…
Rob: Did you sell them for $1 a piece?
Rob M: I didn’t. Actually, they’re not that much. They’re like 20 cents.So, that means, entrepreneurs get on the line and jump on morisseyphoto.com and call me up.
Rob: How’d you get published?
Rob M: I actually took a book that I had been writing on my own for about a year and a half, just assembling schematics of photographs and sent it to a publisher named Hersh Media and they, within 24 hours of receiving that, actually called me. The owner of the company called me from-I believe his vacation something boat-something. He was doing something. I got this phone call saying, “Yes, right away they wanted to do the book.”
Rob: OK. We’re coming into a break. We’ll hold that thought just for now. This is Startup Story Radio and I’m Rob McNealy and we’ll see you on the other side.
[BREAK]
Rob: Welcome back to Startup Story Radio. You can find us on the Web at startupstoryradio.com. Hey, we got a line open: 303-713-7600. Feel free to give us a call if you have any calls for Robert Morrissey, our in-studio guest. He’s an uber guru photographer, inventor, author, and he does dishes I hear. We also have a guest co-host today. Welcome back Erin Weed. She is always kind of my hang out these days.
Before the break Rob, we were talking a little bit about your book and getting published. A lot of entrepreneurs like to be authors and they’re always trying to figure out-they hear about self-publishing, pro publishing, and getting a literary agent and how did you do it? You said you got a return in 24 hours after you submitted your manuscript. I’m amazed. How did that happen?
Rob M: Well, I think a lot of it was just luck.
Rob: That doesn’t help.
Rob M: It was lucky that I was actually presenting something that most people don’t write about. Even my book out right now has zero competition at the trade shows where people try to sell books. There is just no competition. There are 30 books on portraits, 50 books on weddings, a couple of books on glamour photography, and then you’ve got this one commercial photography book that analyzes commercial photography like no one has ever done it before. I think what happened is the literary agent or the literary company saw that and said, “Let’s do this.” The funny thing is, it took me a year after getting the contract to actually finish the book.
Rob: OK.
Erin: That’s normal.
Rob M: I was kind of shocked. They said, “You can write this book. Here’s a contract. Good luck.”
Rob: So, The Master Lighting Guide for Commercial Photographers is kind of a nerdy title for someone like me who barely knows how to turn on his Fisher Price digital camera.
Rob M: Well, I didn’t come up with the title. I had a really cool title just called, “Light.”
