We know it must seem like forever ago that we sent out our third update about Echoes of Elvis: Elvis Tribute Artists and the Fans Who Love Them. Writing a book is a surprisingly lengthy, time-consuming process!
Finally, we think we’ve made significant progress in bringing this book to life, and we wanted to tell you about it. We apologize for how long it’s been since our last update way back in July.
So…
The big announcement is that both the Introduction and Chapter One of the book are done! Chapter One is an exciting chapter covering two big topics – Discovering Elvis and Why Elvis?.
Discovering Elvis is what it sounds like – it tells the stories of how these dedicated fans and tribute artists first discovered Elvis Presley. But it’s more than that. It tells the stories of how they became captivated by Elvis Presley in the first place – in many cases in their own words.
Why Elvis? tries to answer the question of why there is a global community of fans and tribute artists dedicated to Elvis more than 47 years after he passed away.
Estimates suggest that over 1,000 books have been written about Elvis, with more being published all the time. There are biographies, memoirs of those who lived in his immediate orbit, discographies, attempts to explain his premature death at the age of 42, books about his spirituality, his generosity, even his romantic and sexual exploits.
In Echoes of Elvis, we aren’t focusing on that same familiar territory. Rather, in this book, we’ll be sharing how both ETAs and their fans explain what Elvis means to them, what they feel he stands for, and why they are so single-mindedly devoted to him and his legacy.
Some of the stories are fun, all of them are very personal and some are very poignant. They’re the stories they told us about what Elvis means to them, again in their own words. And in some cases, they’re stories about how they believe their very survival depended on Elvis coming into their lives.
We think it’s a compelling read.
The next chapter we’ll be tackling is focused on the stories of how the Elvis Tribute Artists we spoke to went from being fans, to super-fans, and then to people who have dedicated themselves to paying the very best tribute they possibly can to the man that is truly their idol.
We hope now that we’ve broken the logjam, other chapters will be coming along more quickly. Thanks to all of you, and especially all of those ETAs and fans who were kind enough to give us interviews, for your patience.
Stay tuned!
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