its place: my own books would currently not be available to order outside the UK without the POD model.
So self-publish and retain full specification control.
Cost control
There are numerous book manufacturing and distribution options available to the self-publisher. While I was working on my first self-published book, Guitar Gods in Beds., I had a meeting with a local publisher that was selling a book I much admired, a book of local interest with high production values. With hindsight the company was what is often termed (with justification) a ‘vanity publisher’. As my book was of local interest too – the biographies of eight guitarists well-known in the local music scene – I met with the company and went through the practical issues and costs.
I was stunned by the high costs the company quoted. I couldn’t possibly make any margin on the book unless it sold at a price which seemed wildly optimistic. I had to abandon the idea of using the company and instead explored the option of dealing directly with companies and freelance professionals to get my book published. The outcome of this exploration forms much of the content of this book.
So self-publish and save yourself a lot of money.
I was considering writing a book about British politics in 2009, but thinking and writing about left-wing politicians including Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman became too depressing and I eventually abandoned the project. A shame because I had some good material, a good title and cover design, and the project had taken up a good deal of my time. Some of the material was later included in my book David and Goliatha: David Cameron – heir to Harman? which was later extended to form the content of The Glass Ceiling Delusion (the real reasons more women don’t reach senior positions).
The abandoned book’s title was Harriet Harman Drove Me to France, the idea being that if Labour won the then forthcoming general election, expected in May 2010, I would emigrate to France by way of protest, and pay my taxes to the French government rather than the British one.
France is frequently rated the country with the highest quality of life in the world, and it’s seldom outside the top three. It’s always placed well ahead of the UK. Many English people emigrate to France, some of them to retire. The only reason French people move to the UK is to earn more than they could in France. I’ve never heard of a French person retiring to the UK.
I’m a lifelong Francophile. But a paradox had always puzzled me until recently. The incidence of depression among French people has long been markedly higher than among British people. What might account for this? The answer dawned on me one day as I was compiling Buchanan’s Dictionary of Quotations for right-minded people. It all goes back to Liberté, egalité, fraternité – Freedom, equality, brotherhood – the motto of the French Revolution. I blame that plonker from Geneva, the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, myself. With his books he arguably sowed the seeds of socialism and communism which were to ultimately lead to the deaths of more than 80 million people (mainly in China and the Soviet Union) in the 20th century.
My thesis is that a constant search for egalité is bound to induce envy and therefore misery in people, as is the relentless pursuit of its ugly sister ‘fairness’. Because the French are on the whole more left-wing than the British – hell, they’re more left-wing than the Chinese – they are accordingly more prone to being miserable and even depressed. The Welsh tend to be a miserable lot for exactly the same reason – that, and their perennial gnawing hatred of their more successful neighbours, the English. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, and having been educated in Christian boarding schools I never commit any of them. I’m very proud of that.
I made the mistake of buying (for £120) the rights to a photograph for use on the cover of Harriet Harman Drove Me to France, thereby illustrating a point I shall be developing later: that if you don’t follow a logical process for moving from a book concept to the final book, you’re likely to waste time and possibly money too. I’ve changed the titles of all my books numerous times while engaged in the process of writing them.
The cover image for the book was taken with a camera positioned just above the shoulder of a lady looking out of her open doorway during an election campaign. A smiling Harriet Harman was looking up to, and speaking to, the woman from just outside the house. Behind Harriet Harman was Gordon Brown, wearing the smile which could make small children cry. My idea was to have a speech bubble directed at Harriet Harman and a thought bubble directed at Gordon Brown:
Harman: ‘Good morning, Ms Johnson! I hope we can count on your vote again for the anti-men, anti-family, anti-business, anti-taxpayer, and anti-democracy party?’
Brown: ‘Dear God. On the campaign trail with Mad Hattie. Livin’ the dream, eh? Roll on the 2010 election and freedom.’
But one very good thing came from this project. I had at one time considered titling the book Gordon Is a Moron, the title of a popular music hit in 1978 for English comedy actor and musician Graham Fellows, under the name of his alter ego ‘Jilted John’. Fairly confident that nobody would have used the title for a book, I looked on Amazon anyway, and was surprised to find that the title had already been used, by English writer Dr Vernon Coleman. Coleman is a highly successful self-publisher, publishing through his own creation, The Publishing House. From Vernoncoleman.co.uk:
Vernon Coleman is the author of 114 books which have sold over 2 million copies in the UK, been translated into 25 languages and now sell in over 50 countries. His non-fiction books include Bodypower (voted one of the nation’s 100 most popular books by British readers) and How To Stop Your Doctor Killing You and his novels include Mrs Caldicot’s Cabbage War (which has been turned into a major movie starring Pauline Collins) and the Bilbury series of books.
Vernon Coleman has a medical degree and has worked as a General Practitioner and a hospital doctor. Often described as an ‘iconoclast’ he has organised numerous campaigns for people and for animals. Although he now concentrates on writing books he has in the past presented numerous programmes on television (he was breakfast television’s first doctor) and radio and has written over 5,000 columns and articles for over 100 of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines.
The Publishing House, it transpires, sells only books written by Vernon Coleman and his wife. His biography on the website ends with the following gem:
Vernon Coleman, born in Walsall, Staffordshire, England, is balding and widely disliked by members of the Establishment. He doesn’t give a toss about either of these facts. He is married to Donna Antoinette, the totally adorable Welsh Princess and is very pleased about this.
Jerome K Jerome, author of the Victorian classic Three Men in a Boat, was born in Walsall. There’s obviously something in the local water. I used a quotation from Gordon Is a Moron in my Dictionary of Quotations and sent Vernon Coleman a complimentary copy by way of appreciation. He replied and was very complimentary about the book, which quite made my day. We have since had further correspondence from which I learned that he was working on several titles simultaneously – from his prodigious output, this is clearly his custom – and he employed four members of staff.
The Mission Statement of The Publishing House is as insightful, punchy, and lengthy as we might expect from the indefatigable Dr Coleman:
The Publishing House Mission Statement
(Why We Believe Small Publishers Are The Only Real Publishers Left)
Compared to the big international conglomerates Publishing House is very definitely a ‘small publisher’. We don’t have a massive sales force (actually, we don’t
