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Remembered Today:

WRITE A BOOK


wet255

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Some time ago, the publisher made Wiltshire and the Great War available as an ebook (which didn't add much to the overall sales), but I note that it's available as a download from a number of websites - even ITunes! - which presumably get it via the publisher. At least one site refers to the 1999 self-published edition, which quite definitely is not available electronically. I did try to go through the motions of downloading the 2012 version from one somewhat shaky site, but nothing happened.

One cheeky blighter has even asked how he can get a download for free:

here

BTW, can one cut and paste from an ebook?

Moonraker

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Thinking of submitting to a publishing house first before considering Amazon or physical self-publishing.

What type of time frame from submission to response is there with these firms?

Felix,

When I had written the first three chapters of my novel set in the opening months of the First World War (see Classifieds for details) I sent them, plus a synopsis, to three publishers who indicated that they accepted fictional works, including Pen & Sword, who had just started a new historical fiction imprint. Not hearing anything from any of them for several months I lost heart with the book and didn't work on it for quite some time. Then, out of the blue, two of the others replied on the same day to say that they would be interested in reading the finished manuscript. Heartened by this I came clean and said that this wouldn't be for another five months at least, which gave me a deadline to aim for, which they accepted.

When it was finished I sent the manuscript to all three publishers, including P&S, even though they had earlier declared a non-interest. I was taken aback when, only about three weeks later one of the publishers, Austin Macauley, replied offering me a publishing contract. I would have to contribute to the publishing costs, but I decided that this was worth the outlay, although I knew that with even a modest success I would be unlikely to recoup the money I had invested - I was just glad to see the book in print. AM have made an excellent job of the production, and I was satisfied that the book was as good as I could make it - now I just have to wait and see if people want to read it.

Melvin

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Written one, taken a long time apart from John Hartley and the Inspector not generated a lot of interest on here. :(

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Ralph

Specialist interest, mate. You do a war memorial book and only folk interested in the geographical area are going to want it.

The wider the subject, the wider the interest. I know how many my two battalion histories have sold - and it ain't many. Even with Pen & Sword's very good marketing behind one of them.

John

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Cheers mate, appreciate the fact you came to the launch, deposited four copies in the Fusiliers museum Bury this afternoon so interest is still there. Ralph.

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Don't sweat it. As a war memorial book, it's a good un. Folk round Rochdale will buy it - organise yourself a marketing tour. Work up a couple of talks and offer them to local community groups, like University of the Third Age and the like and take copies along to flog. Are there any independent bookshops who would take some copies, even if on a "sale or return" basis?

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  • 6 months later...

In one of those moments of vanity in which most writers indulge, I was recently Googling the title of one of my books and came across this odd item about it on

Youtube

- just images of the cover and the blurb, with no independent comment.

The guy who posted it, Quoquadtam Honda 394857, appears to have a very eclectic range of reading interests and quite how he came across my book I don't know, but I'm grateful to him. Not bad music, either. But why?

Moonraker

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  • 1 month later...

Just had my statement for the third year of royalties for my Wiltshire book - no cheque, because there's still an "unearned balance" from the advance payment I received.

Sales are still a little disappointing, especially considering there should have been a "spike" because of the centenary. And they'ye yet to exceed the sales of the self-published edition of 1999, when copies weren't available via on-line websites and Internet access wasn't near-universal; nevertheless the first edition sold out well within three years.

As I said in post 97, several local bookshops have disappeared, leaving very few High Street outlets. And if they've got the first edition people are unlikely to want to buy the second.

At least the IT revolution has encouraged some modest sales overseas and in e-book format.

Moonraker

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  • 9 months later...

Inevitably one's own researches of a few years ago are put into perspective by the works of others and the flow of information on to the Web, especially with interest in the Great War being increased by the centenary.

The authors of Rails across the Plain and Flying with the Larks (respectively about railways and prewar flying at Lark Hill) gave far more detailed treatment to their subjects than I could in a more general book and inevitably they discovered information that I would have loved to have had a few years ago (especially in the case of the first aircraft to feature in British manoeuvres in 1910).

The attestation papers of Canadian soldiers have been available on line for some years, but now service records are being gradually digitised and I've been checking out some of the soldiers mentioned briefly in my Canadian book, discovering details that I would have loved to have included, such as the discharge with ignominy of Albert Blanchet some months after he stole a ring from a Salisbury jewellers. I console myself with the thought that space considerations would not have allowed much indulgence in fleshing out other men that I mentioned in passing.

I suspect that as I delve further I shall realise that I was wrong to write, say, "this could have been Joe Bloggs" when his service record shows that it couldn't have been.

Moonraker

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Don't sweat it. As a war memorial book, it's a good un. Folk round Rochdale will buy it - organise yourself a marketing tour. Work up a couple of talks and offer them to local community groups, like University of the Third Age and the like and take copies along to flog. Are there any independent bookshops who would take some copies, even if on a "sale or return" basis?

It might also be worth contacting your local branch(es) of the WFA and offering to talk to them. Most speakers who talk about their book(s) have copies for sale and these often go well on the night. Branch contact details are on the WFA web site.

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... I suspect that as I delve further I shall realise that I was wrong to write, say, "this could have been Joe Bloggs" when his service record shows that it couldn't have been.

Moonraker

So it has proved, and I've only got to surnames beginning with "F". (Digitisation has only progressed to "G".) And the service records disappointed when they included no references to one officer being arrested as a spy and next-to-nothing about another who was returned to Canada because he was useless. However there were details of the death in a road accident of an orphaned 15-year-old bugler who appears to have given a false address in Manchester for his next of kin and whose worldly possessions totalled a wristwatch, wrist compass, railway ticket, cigarette holder, one Swiss coin and "English coin 9d - 1" [sic].

(Somewhat off-topic, I admit, but details poignant enough to have merited inclusion in my book.)

Moonraker

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Just stumbled upon this topic and thought I'd ask the Pals' advice.

It took a long time since my sister suggested the topic of the book to me and how I should do it, so after a small year of research and finding out where I was going, I started the writing process las december. Holiday, train trips, nights, lunch break at the office, in the plane and now at my parent's with the dog next to me, his eyes saying "come on, leave the computer and come out to play..." every place is good.

I still have no idea on how to bring it to the public, how to look for an editor, a publisher... I mean, who'd want some Belgian gal and her stories?? but for now, that does not matter much, I enjoy the writing...

You're probably asking yourself WHAT I'm writing??? Just a tipp: it's a novel and the "hero" is a guy called August Jäger. But I'm going for the staff process around what he did. challenging, really.

But talking about local memorials, one idea I've had in my head for some time, but I'll be able to do that one day... I live in Heverlee and the first row of the Heverlee War cemeteries is occcupied by six ladies, whom I visit every year on the 11th November, and who I greet every time I pass on my runs. So one day, I'll write a book about "The Girls of Heverlee". But that's for the future.

So.... logging off and going back to the manuscript !!

Cheerio,

M.

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Marilyne: assuming your book is about the Great War, I wonder if you're leaving it a bit late for publication, as so many books have already come out over the past two years to coincide with the centenary? This is certainly the case here in Britain, and I suspect that it may be the same in Belgium. As far as the British market is concerned, it may be more difficult to interest publishers in a book with an European protagonist. Am I correct in guessing August Jäger is German ? If so, are you basing him on this

August Jäeger

(I note the difference in spelling.)

So your book may well appeal to European, rather than British, readers, but I imagine that some of the self-publishing and print-on-demand tips given in the past on GWF will apply.

Whatever, write for your own pleasure; publication is a bonus and royalties that cover your costs unlikely!

Moonraker

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Moonraker,

to answer your question ... yes, it's basically about that guy.

But I'm taking it a bit broader and am going to the whole spectrum of staff work, preparations and ultimately, how the interrogation of Jaëger went and how the information was NOT passed on to the troops in the front, so I'm dividing the attention equally between German, French and British troops and staff. Aim will be eventually to show ... putting it very bluntly.... how the French screwed it up... should be nice for the Brits to read.

The question about timing... I do have a fulltime job... and the year that I maybe should have been writing and looking for a publisher, I was busy with my staff course.

but I'm writing for fun, mainly during the holiday. I'm on no deadline and under no pressure to deliver. If I manage to interest a publisher in my book, fine. If not... just saying that the world is going to miss a hell of a nice story to read!!

Thanks for the advice!!

M/

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In one of my occasional lapses of vanity, I've just Googled my Wiltshire book and got

this free ebooks page

Oh yeah, I thought, published last month? 2048 downloads? and 32 very concise comments from a very eclectic readership. (Honest, none was from me.)

The same site also offered a free ebook of another title by me published in 1970. Strangely, that too had had 2048 downloads and had attracted exactly the same 32 comments from exactly the same people. As had a number of other authors' titles for which I searched at random.

I wonder what would have happened had I tried to download a copy?

Moonraker

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I suspect you would have downloaded some malware with it - or more probably malware and no book...

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I did the very same thing a few years ago after finding that the men on the local war memorial were virtually unknown. Every year, their names were read out as they appeared on the memorial i.e. initials and surnames. I felt I had to put this right and started my research on the internet and in the local library. I met with some success and located some relatives and pictures of the men that had been unseen for nearly 100 years. I then approached the town council for help (not financial). They said that they weren't interested. I went to the local history group. As I wasn't locally born,I felt my presence was unwelcome (small town, some small minds). However, I completed it and sold over 200 copies. In addition, I gave a couple of well-attended talks. The saddest aspect of the whole thing was that last year, the same town council decided to mark the 100th anniversary. Nobody contacted me at all but they were happy to use the names I had researched. Am I bitter? No because 90% of the names that are read out have a first name now and some have faces. Their deeds and fate are no longer a mystery. My message is to disregard apathy and go for it.

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  • 2 months later...

Do Pen & Sword usually provide second proofs? A friend tells me he's expecting these any day now. Most unusual, I would think, unless significant alterations were made to the first set - which publishers generally dislike.

In the days of "hot metal" printing, some companies would charge authors for an undue number of changes (but not printer's errors) because of the cost of mechanical changes - and the risk of adjoining type being disturbed with the possibility of errors when re-setting it, or even a "pie" - the entire page's type being jumbled up.

Nowadays corrections can be made with a few key-strokes, but there remains the risk of a knock-on effect introducing an unaesthetic look, perhaps even to a page some away from that being amended. (Insert two or three extra words at proof stage, and this could push the last three or four words of a paragraph onto the top of a left-hand page, for example, which looks awful.)

Moonraker

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Pen & Sword only provide one set of proofs in my experience. One is also expected to construct the Index from them. It means that one must make one's corrections with care to ensure that key words don't end up on another page in the finished work and so put the index out of kilter.

Charles M

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An hour or so ago I emailed my friend, expressing mild surprise that he was getting second proofs. I suppose he could have meant proofs of the index.

Moonraker

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Having quickly browsed through the 180+ e-mails I exchanged with my P&S editor in 2014 (for 'Swansea in the Great War') it seems that I received 3 sets of low-res PRINTED PDF proofs which I was able to annotate and return for amendment. The initial 'effort' from P&S did contain a large number of simple (but unacceptable) formatting errors (not me or my editor's fault, guv) so maybe it was felt that 3 passes were advisable to ensure all was well with the final version. The index entries were created (by myself) and the final PDF version was used to ensure that entries had the final page numbers.

For 'Swansea Pals' I remember receiving 2 sets of 'traditional' galley proofs on large (A3?) paper. For 'Foul Deeds...Swansea' I only received one set though errors were minimal.

Bernard

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Interesting, Bernard. In the case of my last two books, I believe that my text and photographs were sent electronically to India, where they were formatted well enough into page proofs. I made a few suggestions on appearance, including the hyphenation of a couple of long words to avoid widely-spaced lines and corrected a handful of original infelicities of my own. (Inevitably now I wish that I had spotted several more.) That was it.

Galley proofs? I didn't know they were still around; I'd rather assumed that modern technology fitted text and pics into page format, followed by a bit of tweaking such as I have just mentioned. Back in the 1970s I have genuinely happy memories of receiving galleys, cutting them up and pasting them on to a grid the size of the printed page, with some playing around with text and spacing to ensure a professional appearance.

Moonraker

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I assume they were galley proofs; that was back in 2003. From memory the text body was centred in large sheets of paper with very large 'margins'. I think they had 'alignment marks' as well.

Bernard

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  • 1 month later...

Do Pen & Sword usually provide second proofs? A friend tells me he's expecting these any day now. Most unusual, ...

Moonraker

I met up with the friend, who tells me that he actually had three sets of proofs because of a series of last-minute changes that he'd made to his text. P & S must have been very forbearing! He's also put his quotes in italics, which seems contrary to P & S style; I would have thought that they would have wanted uniformity across their ... in the Great War series.

Moonraker

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I had two sets from P & S for "Bully Beef & Biscuits". First one was a PDF of the text which was intended for the main proof-reading exercise. It was also where I marked up where I thought images would best sit. Second version incorporated the amendments and images so was "near final", allowing me to finish off the indexing.

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