Book writers of PH
Discussion
Thought I'd add a little of my experience too and hope for a few tips, having read the thread through.
In 2009, I co-wrote a book called "Birth Of The Giant Killers", the story of Yeovil Town's glorious FA Cup triumph over Sunderland in 1949. It was the centre of a celebration of the 60th anniversary which included a friendly against the Black Cats but unfortunately, the weather meant the game didn't go ahead and as a result, book sales flopped a bit. For me, the highlight was undoubtedly getting to interview the only surviving Yeovil player from that game, goalkeeper Dickie Dyke, who was a reclusive man in his 80's by then. He was excellent company, lent us some wonderful clippings from the day but sadly passed away six days later, not having seen the book.
I had more luck in 2013. Again, it was Yeovil Town based and again, the club paid for its publication and printing. I had been writing matchday programme articles for six years by now and they were proving popular so I suggested we do a commemorative book to mark the club's first decade in the Football League. The club initially said they'd like to bring it out in time for Christmas but I thought that it was a bad idea as for one thing, all the statistics would be out of date by the print date! I quietly insisted that we bring it out at the end of the tenth season and brilliantly, the best thing ever happened in terms of the book, we turned over Brentford at Wembley in the League One playoff final and got to the Championship. Did my own marketing, the manager agreed to sign the 500 hardback A4 copies that were produced and we sold them all ten days before it went to press. The club then produced a perfect bound edition for a tenner cheaper (£20 instead of £30) and that has sold about 200 copies now. Not big numbers, but everyone made money.
Now it's 2020 and it's my turn to go it alone. I have the idea of a book and have done my research. Having now written more than 300 programme articles, I'm planning for a 140,000 word book, probably A4 with pictures and graphics. Non-fiction again and a collection of sports biographies under one heading. I have approached a couple of publishers but now looking at agents. Won the chance of some feedback from an agent in a competition recently and she said it was a "brilliant idea" but sadly, their agency doesn't do sports non-fiction.
Having read through the threads on here, I'm tempted to go on ahead and write the thing. I was reticent about starting in case I spoke to an agent who said to write it in a different manner. I will need to carry out nearly 100 interviews for this book, so we are talking maybe a 12-15 month project anyway but maybe Christmas 2021 wouldn't be a bad time to bring it out. In addition, and scarred by my experience with the first book, there are one or two people that I maybe need to interview sooner rather than later. I've taken advice from the agent who has said I should just use my personal Twitter account for now (I don't post anything I shouldn't on there) and I have a working title.
And after all that, you can see I have no trouble getting stuff down using a keyboard either!!
In 2009, I co-wrote a book called "Birth Of The Giant Killers", the story of Yeovil Town's glorious FA Cup triumph over Sunderland in 1949. It was the centre of a celebration of the 60th anniversary which included a friendly against the Black Cats but unfortunately, the weather meant the game didn't go ahead and as a result, book sales flopped a bit. For me, the highlight was undoubtedly getting to interview the only surviving Yeovil player from that game, goalkeeper Dickie Dyke, who was a reclusive man in his 80's by then. He was excellent company, lent us some wonderful clippings from the day but sadly passed away six days later, not having seen the book.
I had more luck in 2013. Again, it was Yeovil Town based and again, the club paid for its publication and printing. I had been writing matchday programme articles for six years by now and they were proving popular so I suggested we do a commemorative book to mark the club's first decade in the Football League. The club initially said they'd like to bring it out in time for Christmas but I thought that it was a bad idea as for one thing, all the statistics would be out of date by the print date! I quietly insisted that we bring it out at the end of the tenth season and brilliantly, the best thing ever happened in terms of the book, we turned over Brentford at Wembley in the League One playoff final and got to the Championship. Did my own marketing, the manager agreed to sign the 500 hardback A4 copies that were produced and we sold them all ten days before it went to press. The club then produced a perfect bound edition for a tenner cheaper (£20 instead of £30) and that has sold about 200 copies now. Not big numbers, but everyone made money.
Now it's 2020 and it's my turn to go it alone. I have the idea of a book and have done my research. Having now written more than 300 programme articles, I'm planning for a 140,000 word book, probably A4 with pictures and graphics. Non-fiction again and a collection of sports biographies under one heading. I have approached a couple of publishers but now looking at agents. Won the chance of some feedback from an agent in a competition recently and she said it was a "brilliant idea" but sadly, their agency doesn't do sports non-fiction.
Having read through the threads on here, I'm tempted to go on ahead and write the thing. I was reticent about starting in case I spoke to an agent who said to write it in a different manner. I will need to carry out nearly 100 interviews for this book, so we are talking maybe a 12-15 month project anyway but maybe Christmas 2021 wouldn't be a bad time to bring it out. In addition, and scarred by my experience with the first book, there are one or two people that I maybe need to interview sooner rather than later. I've taken advice from the agent who has said I should just use my personal Twitter account for now (I don't post anything I shouldn't on there) and I have a working title.
And after all that, you can see I have no trouble getting stuff down using a keyboard either!!
Currently having a crack at writing a novel, something I have wanted to do for a long, long time albeit with a couple of false starts.
17,000 words into the first draft so far with an ultimate word count planned to be around 90,000 words. I’m hoping to get another couple of chapters out by year end.
There’s something very satisfying about putting words to (digital) paper and filling out characters, plot and world details ad hoc to what is down in the plan.
How do others go about this? Do you stick rigidly to a detailed plan, write off the cuff, or somewhere in the middle?
17,000 words into the first draft so far with an ultimate word count planned to be around 90,000 words. I’m hoping to get another couple of chapters out by year end.
There’s something very satisfying about putting words to (digital) paper and filling out characters, plot and world details ad hoc to what is down in the plan.
How do others go about this? Do you stick rigidly to a detailed plan, write off the cuff, or somewhere in the middle?
Doofus said:
I had book one finished (97,000 words), and skeletoned books 2 and 3 of a planned trilogy.
The real world events of 2020 have rendered all tat work garbage.
Still, I've done 15,000 of an entirely new novel and am cracking on with that instead.
Oh no, how come? Too similar to what has actually transpired? The real world events of 2020 have rendered all tat work garbage.
Still, I've done 15,000 of an entirely new novel and am cracking on with that instead.
Alias218 said:
Doofus said:
I had book one finished (97,000 words), and skeletoned books 2 and 3 of a planned trilogy.
The real world events of 2020 have rendered all tat work garbage.
Still, I've done 15,000 of an entirely new novel and am cracking on with that instead.
Oh no, how come? Too similar to what has actually transpired? The real world events of 2020 have rendered all tat work garbage.
Still, I've done 15,000 of an entirely new novel and am cracking on with that instead.
Doofus said:
Alias218 said:
Doofus said:
I had book one finished (97,000 words), and skeletoned books 2 and 3 of a planned trilogy.
The real world events of 2020 have rendered all tat work garbage.
Still, I've done 15,000 of an entirely new novel and am cracking on with that instead.
Oh no, how come? Too similar to what has actually transpired? The real world events of 2020 have rendered all tat work garbage.
Still, I've done 15,000 of an entirely new novel and am cracking on with that instead.
I'm chugging along with mine at the moment, still at the research and lining-up-interviews stage at the moment. Had underestimated the amount of time that celebs (or their agents) take to reply to emails.... how on earth did folk manage before the tinterweb? 
Basically, my idea was to write a collection of mini-biographies, written in the first person, of a celebrity football fan from each of the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs. Took my lads and I three or four days of lockdown to look them all up and check their authenticity and I genuinely thought that I'd have one for each club lined up by now.
Three months on, and I've got almost half of them. I'm being choosy with the bigger clubs but some of the smaller ones have only one or two remotely famous supporters so I'll be snookered if they say no. I had a free feedback half hour with a top literary agent back in May & she said to get the smaller ones done first which I've done. First interview is in a fortnight's time, Ed Balls of Norwich City fame. Have had a couple of stars' agents ask if a fee was being paid (No was the answer) & that flushed one of them out, but I'm happy to say I got a better replacement anyway.
I'll be glad when I actually get down to writing the damn thing!!
Basically, my idea was to write a collection of mini-biographies, written in the first person, of a celebrity football fan from each of the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs. Took my lads and I three or four days of lockdown to look them all up and check their authenticity and I genuinely thought that I'd have one for each club lined up by now.
Three months on, and I've got almost half of them. I'm being choosy with the bigger clubs but some of the smaller ones have only one or two remotely famous supporters so I'll be snookered if they say no. I had a free feedback half hour with a top literary agent back in May & she said to get the smaller ones done first which I've done. First interview is in a fortnight's time, Ed Balls of Norwich City fame. Have had a couple of stars' agents ask if a fee was being paid (No was the answer) & that flushed one of them out, but I'm happy to say I got a better replacement anyway.
I'll be glad when I actually get down to writing the damn thing!!
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