Writing and Publishing

[jelliot]

Well done Mick I’ll have something else to read to keep myself occupied for a couple of days… but hurry up and get the next one done…
Chris I read Randy Road Trip a few years back…

If I remember right the first books to come out in this style were in the late 70’s early 80 's Coca Cola Cowboys, Danger heavy Goods, which was also sold under another title… There was probably 4 or 5 reasonable publications getting about…I also read one about a husband and wife 2 up team with a MAN that had to smuggle gold to pay of ransom …And of course Long Distance Diary… I had a good look about in America when I was there but the only thing I could find on trucks were the usual encyclopaedia style books that you could get form any good book store that had gone to a US book fare. I’m sure there must have been some wonderful trucking tales to tell… but nothing… As far as I know the next wave was kicked of by Kevin Nobel doing the Baghdad Trucker, the a whole raft of other stuff. The only offering so far out of America being Alex Beber Ice road’s book, which wasn’t to bad… There are a few trucking stories from Australia by publishers that I’ve never heard of. Considering the epic stories told by Out Back Truckers … and I’m trying to be objective here…but the written versions seem to fall a long way short… the sort of thing you would find in an old magazine in the doctors waiting room…Unfortunately just because you have a good story to tell doesn’t mean you can tell it well… Not having all the information it hard to say if the story was bad or if the editor couldn’t be arsed, or was un aware of the subject matter.

Lulu… as far as I can tell and from what Mick and my wife had said it seems to be pretty similar to Creataspace… they print exactly what you submit… They do offer all the things that a publishing house would offer like font, style and size, page lay out, editing, promotion, there’s even a thing where they’ll format and submit it for a screen play… But all that is extra and you have to pay for it up front with no guarantee of anything… You set the price, just like Mick and it gets listed on Kindle and Amazon, which seems like the same sort of deal… We did struggle with the cover design as the photos wouldn’t embed… then the writing wouldn’t go where we wanted it… that was at the end a very long and tyring learning curve… and I was making a lot of grovelling toast and hot chocolate for my wife…

Looking back I should have gone down the route that Mick took and did a hack job ( cherry pick ) on my first book with R.T. then self publish the rest … Sorry Mick I didn’t mean it to come over like that but I’m sure you know what I mean as does Mat Ireland, and many others. With out that company being so bold and taking a risk with so many niche subjects then we wouldn’t have much to read at all…
I went back into it a while back to have a re read and some of it stands up pretty well but other parts are cringe worthy… that isn’t a process that I’m unfamiliar to as I used to do a lot of visual art and if I look back at some older photos of works I’ve done the some can be said… But at least there I can say I was commissioned by the customer and they insisted that was the what they wanted …I’ll sure I’ll get back to it one day but it’ll come out a lot different to the way it was when first intender…

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the forget full person at Toll Adelaide that left there computer turned on last night…

Steve I don’t blame you for backing of, I really didn’t know what I was doing either… and the first draft unedited version was a bit mixed up any way, it wasn’t till later on the my wife taught me something called cut and paste. and I was still using tipex on the screen…

Just before I go …

There’s this road house I go to… for no other reason than it about 4 1/2 hours fully loaded from where I start… eggs on toast gets you 3 fried eggs on 2 bits of toast, and just cause they’ve been watching MKR and Master Chef there’s an arrant bit of parsley lurking on the plate as well… so eggs on toast it was… And I bought 2 bottles of water for $4… the rest of the trip I was thinking if I had 3 eggs it would be better if I had 3 bits of toast, cause there’s just to much yoke for 2 bits of toast… I came up with a cunning plan… The next time I was in I would order eggs on toast with extra bit of toast… Well I was so exited by the prospect that could hardly sleep for the next few nights… Next time in the road house I went to the fridge and got my 2 for 1 water then boldly strolled over to the counter and like a rebel with out a clue I ordered eggs on toast with an extra bit of toast… Well there was total confusion and the duty shift manager had to be called in… where upon I confirmed my order… eggs on toast with an extra bit of toast… I paid for my meal took my 2 for 1 water and sat at the table… ( waiting to be recognised by all my adoring fans ) lol lol…

What I actually got was 2 plates consisting of 5 eggs, 6 bits of toast of which only 4 were buttered. a spoonful of beans and a cup of tea… all for $9.

Jeff…

[kickstart]

Jeff, regarding stories about Ozzie trucking, there is one I am reading at the moment called “Mailman of the Birdsville Track” by Kristin Wiedenbach. The story of Tom Kruse who pioneered motorised delivery of the post and general freight to Birdsville. It is a little hard going in places, but makes you realise the conditions that the drivers of the day had to contend with and the “bush engineering” they had to devise to stay mobile.
Les

[mushroomman]

PARSLEY with your BREAKFAST Jeff. Don’t the Ozzie outback truckers start the day with a plate of mince meat on toast anymore.
I don’t know how old you are Kickstart but I bet that there are a few drivers on here who can remember seeing this old film on a Sunday afternoon on a seventeen inch black and white television set in the fifties.

youtube.com/watch?v=NSa4esN3CHM

[erf-ngc-european]

Vodka Cola Cowboy:

ERF-NGC-European:
What’s RRP? Never heard of it! Robert

Recommended Retail Price Robert. They set the recommended retail price which is what your book sells at,
directly to the reader, through them and other outlets.

For Old Pond, the cheaper that they can set the R.R.P. they feel that it will entice more people to buy the book.

Mick

Thanks Mick. I actually asked them to keep this price down to get the book out there advertising itself! Cheers, Robert.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

ChrisArbon:
Good Luck with the new book.

Have fun with the promotion of it. I’ll probably be seeing your name on some of the Facebook Groups and don’t forget to send a copy to each of the lorry-driving magazines. What else have you got planned?

I found RRP is tricky to set with Creatspace. Amazon want such a big percentage of the price that it is tempting to cut down your royalties so that the book is better value for money. But then you get only peanuts for all your hard work. Amazon seem to want the big mark-up so they can offer free-shipping or discount the RRP if they think it will increase sales. I find the Amazon web-site is good for promoting a book through their “You-may-also-like” and their “Buyers-also-bought” features. That’s where most of my sales now come from.

Hi Chris. Thanks for your input. I am waiting for the Truck mag’s to run the reviews of the last book, “Trucking Magic” before I send them the new one.
I know what you mean about Amazon etc, but you are right about “You may also like” and “also Bought”, because it gets it out there.

Mick

[kickstart]

Thanks Steve for the link to that video, it certainly shows what they had to put up with back then. I am 71 and can remember our first telly back in 1952 which was nothing as big as 17 inches, it was a Bush 9 inch with a brown fluted Bakelite case. Don’t remember anything as interesting as that being broadcast though. At age 6 I used to travel with my dad delivering caravans all over using a 80inch series 1 Land Rover. Not in a wagon, but it infected me with “white line fever” just the same.
Les.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

It’s OK Jeff. No offence taken. To be honest, having read some of your works you have a great number
of stories to tell about your experiences that would prove good reading for a lot of people.
What you sent to me about Libya was extremely interesting and a great read, for example.

What people have to realise is that even with Createspace, the more words that there are in a book
the more they charge for printing. Therefore, Amazon will set a higher RRP, that you have to work to.
By having 800,000 words for instance you would have to set a price that people would not pay.

The best idea is to go through what you have written. Work out what will be in the first book and then
write successive books using the rest of the material. If people like your first book you will build up a following.
They will buy the next book based upon liking the first etc. And you have the material for the next book already written down.

This means that you can produce the other books quicker because you already have the material for them in front of you.

Mick

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

Well, as we reach the end of the year we also reach the end of the next royalty period for Old Pond.
This is interesting, because you will have read what I said about Old Pond versus Createspace.

Old Pond use January 1st to June 30th and then July 1st to December 31st as their two royalty periods.
For the period ending June 30th you receive your royalty statement at the end of September.
For the period ending December 31st you receive it at the end of March.
Your royalty statement should show you how many books and kindles you have sold in that 6 month period.

However, when I received my copy in September it showed absolutely nothing regarding Amazon sales.

When I questioned this I was told that apparently Amazon pay Old Pond for the total number
of their books that they sell, with no breakdown by book or authors.
Therefore, they had no figures for the sales of Vodka Cola Cowboy, through Amazon for December 2016
when it was launched on Amazon, or for the royalty period Jan - June 2017.
Now, I thought that this was a curious way to run a business where you did not know how many copies of each book you had sold.
How, then, do you know when to re-order a new print run to satisfy demand?

On the other hand, Createspace put on line each and every sale of the book, for the author’s benefit.
You therefore know, day by day how each book is selling.
As I said previously, the promotion of the book is the author’s responsibility.
Therefore it is vital to know how each book is selling so that you can reach readers who would be interested in the book.

The reason for wanting to know how many copies of Vodka Cola are sold is to compare it with “Trucking Magic” and “The Champagne Truckers”.
Basically because readers of “Vodka Cola”, who liked that one would probably be most interested to read “Champagne”, because it is a follow on to the Russian story. By not being able to know how “Vodka Cola” sold, I do not know if I am reaching people who would like “Champagne”.
Through the facebook pages for all of the books I have a bit of a loyal following who contact me telling me how much they enjoy the books.
But I would imagine that I am not reaching every possible reader. As we have said previously, writing books about truck driving is not about money. If people write truck books thinking they are going to have a million copies sold they are mistaken, But, it is about building up a bond with your readers.

So, in the general run of publishing with Old Pond, as opposed to Createspace, the knowledge of how many sales you have made is definitely better with Createspace.

[peggydeckboy]

GENTLEMEN all i can say is ,i have read ,and reread all of the posts on the subject of printing your own work,to be honest it has put me off completly.
I have wrote thousands of words ,just like you men,about me, and the work that i did ,i would like other people to read what went on in my life in and out of transport,also in a factory for 18 months through redundancy,1980/81.

Getting involved in fixing a price to sell a book , and pleasing publishes,blimey it sounds a daunting task,one of you authors ought to set a help desk up…dbp

[chrisarbon]

Writing is the easy part. Turning it into something with pages and a cover can be daunting. I know. But if all else fails and you just want a souvenir for all the hard work; then you could try “Blog2print.”
The books are expensive but the quality is good and photo reproduction is top class. All that you need to do is set up a blog and start writing. When you have uploaded everything onto your blog, then you give access to Blog2print and they make it all into a book. You can check the contents and layout, choose a cover and order a couple of copies. It’s not really for printing books for re-sale but is an easy way of turning your scribbling into print.
I’ve written a blog for a few years and use Blog2print to get some of it into book form.

[vodka_cola_cowboy]

An interesting buy is the February Truck & Driver. They have a section regarding Old Pond,
which explains how to go about writing a book and getting it published. It is more of a procedural tutorial.
However, four of their authors have contributed advice.

It may be worth reading if you are thinking of writing and publishing a book.

Mick

[bullitt]

Vodka Cola Cowboy:
An interesting buy is the February Truck & Driver. They have a section regarding Old Pond,
which explains how to go about writing a book and getting it published. It is more of a procedural tutorial.
However, four of their authors have contributed advice.

It may be worth reading if you are thinking of writing and publishing a book.

Mick

Cheers Mick.

[fryske]

Fascinating thread. Thanks to all posters.