By day, David W. Erdman is one of Charlotte’s best-loved family law attorneys. (He’s been voted to Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite for nine years running.) By night, he’s an avid historian who often works to preserve historical buildings.
100 Lost Architectural Treasures of Old Charlotte is David’s first book and a way to share some of the thousands of historic photos he’s collected. Each image is presented with a brief narrative about the building’s history, architecture, and ultimate demise as Charlotte’s leaders and developers made way for ever-newer properties. Readers will find this book both interesting and a little heart-breaking. If it motivates you to get involved with preservation efforts, that’s alright too.
We asked David a few questions about the book and his journey as an author.
David on working with SPARK Publications
With the SPARKlers to guide me, we were able to create a sharper looking and more professional book than I could have envisioned on my own.
What do people really need to know about this book?
In its ascent to becoming a top-20 city, Charlotte has demolished one-by-one a greater proportion of its historic buildings than were lost to Chicago in the great Chicago Fire or to San Francisco in the 1906 earthquake. This book brings back in pictures and essays 100 of Old Charlotte’s architectural treasures that disappeared in the city’s pursuit of ever-greater prominence on the world stage. This book is for anyone who wants to remember Old Charlotte or help preserve what remains.
What surprises did you encounter on the road to writing and publishing the book?
I learned that unless I custom published, I would be constrained to adhere to someone else’s editorial vision for the book. I also learned that writing the book is only the first half of the project of publishing a book.
What role did SPARK Publications play in publishing your book?
SPARK Publications guided me on every aspect of assembling my text and photographs into a coherent book and making it look great.
Do you have any advice for other authorpreneurs?
Be sure to work with SPARK Publications, especially if you are in the Charlotte area where you can regularly meet in person with the able staff there.
What’s next?
I am working on another book, and I hope to market this first book successfully.