query on a publishing project from Mark Rucker

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Posted By: barrysloate

This is Mark Rucker writing. I am visiting Barry Sloate and he thought my question to him might find some answers on this site.
As some of you may know, I run the picture agency Transcendental Graphics, which specializes in historic baseball photos and images. I have been trying for years to get a book in print which traces the simultaneous development of photography and baseball, which both have the ostensible birth year of 1839. Tracing the development of photographic technology together with the game of bb, the book would cover bb imagery from the daguerreotype to the ambrotype, tintype, CdV, stereo view, cabinet card, mounted and larger format photos, then into the 20th C. with the agency photographic prints, into the wire photo era, ending with color photography. The book would be coffee table size, full color, with lush illustrations of the classic images from every decade through bb history, accompanied by a thoroughly researched text. The problem that publishers see is there is too limited a market for the book.
Under consideration is a new model for this project. If a limited edition of 100 copies of this book were produced, signed and numbered, with a price of $250., would the book sell out? My question is, what interest might there be among you. This is a request for feedback, not a solicitation.