LinkedIn Plays Key Role in Getting K. Scott Teeters his Illustrated Corvette Series Book Deal!
The Creation of the Illustrated Corvette Series
by K. Scott Teeters
That Corvette History Column
The Illustrated Corvette Series book is something that I have been thinking about for a long time. My VETTE Magazine monthly column began as a wild idea – “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to do an illustrated monthly column telling the chronological history of the Corvette?” That was in Winter ‘97. I created a rough layout and faxed it to VETTE’s then editor, Richard Lentinello. Richard thought it was cool, but didn’t have any open pages for another monthly column. Thanks, but, no thanks. A few days later, he called me to tell me that one of his columnists bagged out on him. “Are you still interested in that Corvette history column?” It was a shocker for me because “no” usually means, “no.” I replied, “Ahh… sure, YES!” After I got off the phone, I thought, “Oh wow! Now I HAVE TO get these done every month!”
That was 12-1/2 years ago and after 150-plus installments, it’s still a fun ride. At first, I thought this might run, maybe 50 or so installments to cover every year Corvette. I was doing the series starting with the very first ‘53 Corvette. A few months later, by the time I got to ‘55, I realized that to tell the complete story, I should branch off and cover the Corvette experimentals, show cars, prototypes, and some racing Corvettes. The series had almost tripled by the time I finally caught up with the production ‘07 Corvette ten years and 125 installments after I started the column.
This Might Be A Book!
Somewhere around the seventh year, I thought, “If this keeps going, it might make for an interesting book some day.” In March ‘09 I was at No. 145, covering the ‘57 RPO 684 Fuelie “Racer Kit” option. I work from a list of cars that I want to cover. With No. 150 closing in soon, I decided to start shopping the book around to the automobile book publishers.
No matter what kind of book that’s looking for a publisher, you always hear about the dreaded “REJECTION” letters. Well, it’s not that bad. I found the act of putting together a book proposal made me focus more on the concept. The designers at one major car book publisher really worked hard to mock up a great-looking layout to sell to management. That publisher felt that a Corvette book with no color images would be a hard sell and passed.
LinkedIn Social Media Success Story
Allow me to step aside briefly to share with you a LinkedIn social media success story. I didn’t know about LinkedIn before December ‘08. At that time, I connected with VETTE Magazine’s original editor, Marty Schorr to interview Marty for VETTE. I started working with Marty and VETTE Quarterly in ‘76. Since we hadn’t talked in a long time, Marty invited me to check out his online LinkedIn profile so I could catch up on his activities. Marty was one of the key players in the creation of the Baldwin-Motion Phase III Supercar Chevys from the late ‘60s to the mid-’70s. His “in your face” advertising layouts for the Baldwin-Motion cars created an amazing buzz in the muscle car world. I signed up with LinkedIn and started building my professional connections List.
Scott Parkhurst connected with me because he was familiar with my illustration work with one of the many car magazines I’ve freelanced for. Here’s what’s cool about LinkedIn. As a member, you can post announcements that go out to everyone in your Connections List. One day I read an announcement that Scott Parkhurst was now the New Acquisitions Editor at CarTech Books. I thought, “Wait a minute. I sent those guys a proposal and they never got back to me.” I emailed Scott, told him that I had pitched CarTech Books months ago. Scott must be a real, “Do it NOW!” kind of guy because he got right on it. Within a few days, we had a verbal agreement to do the book!
Needless to say, I’m now a LinkedIn fan! I never imagined I’d find a publisher this way.
Coming Soon, To a Book Store Near You
So, here’s the deal on “The Illustrated Corvette Series” book. It will be 144 pages, measure 8-1/2” x 11”, and have a soft cover. There will be approximately 133, one-page short stories – each with three illustrations. While the magazine column was created in chronological order, the book version will include the following chapters:
Production Corvettes
Show Car Corvettes
Experimental Corvettes
Corvette Engines
Tuner Corvettes
Racing Corvettes
I’m really enjoying working on this project. So that the word count is similar to the longer most recent articles I am rewriting many of the earlier stories and I am adding some new art for you to enjoy. The cover art will feature all-new, color illustrations. What represent, in my opinion, the best performing Corvettes of each generation will be featured on the cover.
The cover art includes;
C1 – 1962 Fuelie with the Racer Kit Options
C2 – 1967 L-71 Corvette
C3 – 1969 ZL-1
C4 – 1995 ZR-1
C5 – 2004 Commemorative Edition Z06
C6 – 2009 ZR1
The page layout will be a little different from the magazine column’s layout. The series header and numbers will be gone. This will allow me to make the side-view profile art much larger. The border will also be gone.
Although the art is mostly complete, I have A LOT more to write and illustrate. Fans of the series will be able to enjoy almost everything they have read and seen over the years in one convenient book. The Illustrated Corvette Series, the book is tentatively scheduled to be on the shelves mid to late 2010.
Okay, gotta get busy now!
Save the Wave
Scott – 2.16.10
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Press Release Details – Feel Free to pass these on—
COMING IN MID-2010!
K. Scott Teeters’ “Illustrated Corvette Series” Book
CarTech Books will publish a 144-page book version of K. Scott Teeters’ Illustrated Corvette Series column. The series has been published every month in VETTE Magazine since 1997. And now fans will be able to enjoy the series as a book. Many of the stories will feature all new material and pen and ink art created just for the CarTech book.
The scope of the book will cover Corvettes from 1953 to 2010. K. Scott Teeters’ popular technically detailed illustrations will of course be featured on the cover. The full color cover will show off six new Corvette illustrations specifically created for the book.
Chapters will include:
- Production Corvettes
- Show Car Corvettes
- Engineering & Prototype Corvettes
- Tuner Corvettes
- Corvette Engines
- Racing Corvettes
- Plus, Speculation on the future C7 Corvette.
144 Pages, measuring 8-1/2″ x 11″ with a full-color soft cover.
The introduction is written by Marty Schorr, the founding editor of Vette magazine. You will be able to purchase The Illustrated Corvette Series, the book at all major book sellers, Amazon.com, CarTechBooks.com, www.IllustratedCorvetteSeries.com and this website, www.corvettereport.com.
Upon publication, autographed books will be available through www.covettereport.com and www.illustratedcorvetteseries.com.
Scott, I have been a fan of yours for years, and am looking forward to your new book. Being the owner of a 96 LT4, I hope you have a large section on the C4 race cars and all the experimental C4 cars the factory did. Of course, I love all Corvettes, but I think the C4’s are often overlooked as the newer models get all the press. I would like to see more tech data on the Corvette Challenge cars and what mods were done to them, also Pirate Racing ZR-1’s And the 24 hour record cars.
Thanks for everyting you’ve done,
Roger
PS. I love your art work!
Hi Roger,
Thanks so much for the nice compliments. Your ’96 LT4 was the best of the C4s. Only about 25% of ’96 Vettes had the LT4 option. You are spot on, the C4s have definitely fallen out of favor – victims of the engineering success of the C5 and C6 cars. The best part about C4s today is that they can be purchased relatively inexpensively and there’s lots that can be done to them. If you’re into the racing Vettes, visit RegistryOfCorvetteRaceCars.com , there’s LOTS of racing info there.
About the book project. I’m essentially rewriting just about all of the stories. As I go through each one-page story, I’m very aware of how much more there is to say about every car. It’s a real challenge to distill each model year down to just one page, while trying to keep a narrative going. The chapter on Corvette race cars will have 23 stories, of which 3 are C4 cars: the ’85 – ’88 Showroom Stock cars, the Corvette Challenge cars, and the Morrison ZR-1 Speed Record Holder. I’ll be wrapping up my part of the project in a few weeks, Then, it’s up to CarTech Books to make it into a REAL book. We’re anticipating books in hand by the Fall.
Stay tuned and sign up for our Corvette Report updates by using the signup box at the top right side of the homepage. You’ll also get the free Corvette Engine Spotters Guide. When books are available, you can purchase one from us and I’ll sign it for you.
Thanks again Roger and Save the Wave! – Scott