If you’re writing a history book which is original and scholarly but which you hope has popular appeal too, then the news is pretty grim. The market for such books is extremely tough at the moment. You only have to glance at this photograph to see what I mean. Taken earlier this week at WHSmith in the departure […]
Publishing the Book
Submitting the Final Edit
So, today was the day I submitted the final ms for OUP: two copies of my 108K text with e- and hard-copies of my 35 chosen images and the four maps I’ve drawn up. All on a memory stick too. I spent last week on leave working on the last edits, the acknowledgements and the […]
What the Dickens…?
Dickens in the 1830s, looking a good deal more glamorous than in later life Filling in the publicity form, one question which came up asked about anniversaries or other events which could be used as a hook to promote THE BOOK. There’s the fire itself of course (16 October every year – 178th anniversary in 2012). More topically, there’s the […]
404 Error Not Found
Crisis only narrowly averted when I realised I had forgotten to include a picture of some tallysticks among the illustrations. Idiot.
Picture Perfect
Things are moving on quickly now. I’ve signed three copies of the contract, and have filled in an author publicity form. Now I have to choose pictures for the book and send a list to OUP before the end of the month, so they can start getting licences for those which I’m not getting from […]
Stage Six: A Publishing Contract!
I’m over the moon to announce that this morning a contract for Conflagration by Oxford University Press dropped through my letterbox. Regular readers of this blog will know that something has been in the offing for at least a month now, but only now am I able to reveal what. I had more than one offer, […]
