HowardWright.com

Publishing thoughts

Since starting publishing a couple of my own books I seem to have found a new 'opportunity' as a publisher with currently 4 authors on the books - 2 books already published and two more due next month.

One of the things I decided I needed to do if I was going tomake this into some sort of business was to do a bit of publicity. The last book I published was for the Chair person of the Hertfordshire Womens Institute and she suggested becoming a speaker for them - so I went along to the audition and am now official.

As I have my first speaking event next week I have been pulling together some material for the talk and did a few data visualisations which I thought might be of interest to a wider audience. One of the qustions I usually get asked is what shoujld I write about - so a quick search through Amazon UK come out with the data for the following visualisation which looks at the different categories of books by volume:

Books by category - Amazon UK April 2012

The second question is - "aren't physical books dead? A quick search on the Internet brought up the following information about how many physical books are published per year. For this I only took the top 20 countries to make the output uncluttered. In the UK and the US there were over 400,000 new titles published last year!

Books published by country

To support this arguument from a different angle I did a search on how many book titles are available on Amazon and iBooks.

Books by 'binding'

Hectic weekend - book launch

This week has been particularly hectic getting ready for the Book Launch at Waterstones on Saturday and the Heritage Trail launch on the Sunday. It all kicked in with a

Howard GWEDD Radio Interview low

at Radio Verulam on Thursday evening on the ParentShow. Friday saw an article in the Herts Advertiser (Harpenden Issue),

 

Saturday morning we headed into St Albans to set up the 'stall' for the book signing. I was joined by Bonnie Friend, the illustrator, and Isobel my grandaughter who did the cover image for the book. We had a bit of a slow start but it soon picked up and we ended up selling over 40 copies of the book. The Wicked Lady (Annie Brewster) and Cassivellaunus (Neill Sankey) which casued a bit of a stir in the shop.

On Sunday we had the launch of the Wheathampstead Heritage Trail which is a lottery funded initiative to bring to life the history of the village and its surroundings. A number of blue plaques have been put up on historic buildings etc. in the village.

I was located in St Helen's church doing book signings along with the local archeological society and the history society who had old photographic of the village. Again we had a good day and sold and signed 33 copies of the book making a total of 74 books over the weekend.

The heritage trail was opened/launched (link to YouTube Video) by Imelda Staunton (Professor Deloroes Umbridge from Harry Potter) and Jim Carter (Mr Carter the butler from Downton Abbey). 

 

The day had a real buzz about it and mulled wine, served by Jim Carter, and mince pies supplied by the Guides provided sustenance to the hundreds of visitors to the village.

Following the formal opening people wandered off to see all the sites on the heritage trail guided by a great handout which had been provided for the trail.

 

My new children's book on the shelves in Waterstones!

Just been in to Waterstones to check out my new book on the shelves - first time I have had one in a high street shop.

Tempted to hang around but as its in the children's department it felt a bit creepy!!!

Book signing Saturday in St Albans and Wheathampstead on Sunday 27th.

Book launch update

Getting ready for the launch of 'The great Wheathampstead elephant dung disaster' on the 26th of November at Waterstones in St Albans. Everything seems to be falling into line and I have secured support from the local historical society who are spurning up in costume around lunchtime.

I will also be doing a book signing at the Wheathampstead Heritage trail launch on the 27th of November. The launch is being undertaken by Imelda Staunton (of Harry Potter fame) so we should get a good turn out.

Per-orders of the book have been steady although the 3500 leaflet drop in the surrounding area doesn't seem to have resulted in any more orders - maybe they are all going to turn up on Saturday.

The other book I have just finished '100 great innovation ideas' - published by Marshall Cavendish, has now gone to print after a difficult birth and is due for launch on the 15th of December in London.

Long time no post

I was just looking back at my blog and realised that it is nearly a year since I last posted anything. Its not that I haven't been doing stuff - just I got a bit sidetracked!

The last year has been mainly taken up with writing and publishing. The year started withe publication of a couple of books I had been working on for a while:

BookScape - a book about how to write books. This is a very practical guide to writing non-fiction books and has received pretty good reviews and comments from those trying the techniques in the book.

CareerScape - this second book puts forward a new way of documenting your career to supplement the traditional CV and Resume. This book again is a very practical, easy to read book which leads you through to the production of a CareerScape chart.

I self published both these books as the more traditional publishers were not interested in this short (90 page) practical approach so I though what the hell I will do it myself!

The last business book this year was written for Marshall Cavendish and is titles 100 Great Innovation Ideas and is due for publication on the 15th of December 2011.

The last book I have been working on is a Children's book titles "the Great Wheathampstead Elephant Dung Disaster and Other Stories" which is due for publication at the end of October 2011. This has been a fascinating 'journey' as it is completely different way of writing - although much of the 'process' is the same its the dialogue and descriptions that catch you out.

To get feedback I took the book into Beech Hyde School and let Year 5 loose on it to tell me what I was doing wrong. the feedback was in fact very positive and they provided me with some great pictures which I am just trying to permission to use in the book

My current headache is sorting out the illustrations as I am having problems with getting the right images produced. As I am working to a deadline of the 20th to get this to the printers I am having a few sleepless nights!

The trials and tribulations of an author and publisher..........

Launch of i2f Publishing

Since getting back from the US at the end of June life has been pretty much tied up with getting our house sorted after a major flood in March caused over £12,000 of damage to walls and floors. However my routine of writing in the cafe every morning has continued and I have nearly finished 'careerScape - the art of writing an incredible resume'. I have decided to publish this myself this time as I have been disspointed with 'real publishers' and thought I could probably do a better job myself - time will tell.

In taking this approach I have been on a voyage of discovery about the publishing world and found that it is relatively easy to set up a publishing company and get your works, formatted, indexed, printed (at a very reasonable cost) and available to the public on Amazon and other online sites. So to this end I have set up i2f Publishing and am set to launch a printed and bound edition of careerScape in London at the end of October - with futureScape hopefully available in January 2010.

I have also written a guide to writing a book - based on my experience - which is a workbook aimed at the first time author, although I used the techniques described for careerScape and futureScape - the next book in the pipeline (you can probably get that there is a common theme here!) The guidebook and details of the publishing services is available on www.insight2foresight.com/publishing/. If you have an idea for a book or want to chat through any ideas get in touch and we can talk you through the 'process' (I hate to use that word!)

The consultancy market in the UK is pretty dire at the moment and everyone I have been in touch with has reported that there is 'no money' for consultants at the moment. This has been dissapointing, however it has given me time to focus on my writing for a while.

Powered by Qumana