My last book, Toward a Short History of Motovun (Munich: Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, 2010), needs a new publisher (“A Stillborn Book: From An Electronic-Mail Message to Elisabeth Sandmann,” October 10, 2010). As it is connected to the Motovun Group, an association of publishers that started its life in the hilltown, I consulted Bato Tomašević, who initiated it and presided over it for many years. He suggested that I get in touch with Jan Martens, a Belgian publisher who is one of the leading members of the association. This is what I wrote to him a week or so ago:

As you will remember, Elisabeth Sandmann published my book about Motovun’s history for last year’s meeting of the Motovun Group. And in the town where the group was founded, as well. Unfortunately, she produced only a small number of copies—at most five-hundred. She is not interested in making any more copies, which means that the book is effectively dead.

I am writing to you on Bato Tomašević’s suggestion. Perhaps you would be interested in bringing the book back to life again. For instance, we could add some text, strengthen the chronology in the end, and add a few pictures. Eni Nurkollari has made many more, and some of them are very much to my liking. The new edition could be quite wonderful with little additional work.

If you are interested, I could tell you more about my ideas about the second edition. It would certainly sell in Motovun, but it would also sell across Istria and elsewhere. People want to know about the town and its history, and it would not be too hard to satisfy that interest. In addition, there is the Motovun Group of publishers, of course. They could help sell many more copies.

Jan’s answer just arrived. And it came quickly enough. I cannot say I was surprised, but it certainly felt dispiriting. Anyhow, here it is:

I enjoyed very much your book when it came out. Unfortunately, this is not a title for our list and we don’t have the right distribution for it. So we must decline your kind offer.

In short, my last book is indeed stillborn. The first edition is its last. This is the final verdict. The best I can do under the circumstances is make it available on the World Wide Web through the Ca’ Bon Gallery website (www.cabongallery.org). A number of other books of mine can be gotten there, as well. The chronology that makes the book useful can be updated from time to time, but that is about all I can really do with it. In the end, all the passion that went into its making has ultimately been in vain. The last hope, that an intrepid reader will stumble upon it in the fullness of time, is just that. The last and pitiful hope.