Alan was introduced to me by Dulcie Swanston. All she told me was that Alan had written some poems and wanted to publish a book to raise money for charity. Oh, and she said he was a fellow Yorkshireman who had grown up in Bradford and spoke our language.
What she didn’t tell me was that Alan had written a poem a week during 2020 that chronicled the best and worst of the most unpredictable year of the twentieth century so far. And they were good!
Not only that, but Alan had a very talented designer in Craig Spivey, who had spent large amounts of his personal time making the look and feel of this poetry collection into something very special indeed.
The bit they didn’t quite know was how to get from words and pictures on a page to an actual book, and once that was done, how they could get that book in front of customers. That’s where we came in!
We found a talented poetry editor in David Hambling, who stretched Alan’s understanding of punctuation. We proofread, annotated, and suggested title and content changes. We found a publishing and distribution partner in Ingram Spark and guided Alan through the concept of ISBNs, print on demand, digital editions, the publisher supply chain and the book retail space.
Alan launched the book with a live reading of all 52 poems on Saturday May 1st, gaining coverage from BBC Midlands and other local news channels.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10221938443983230&id=1023469050
He aims to sell loads of copies to raise money for the charity Don’t Look Down, which raises money for children with leukemia. You can buy a copy here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hindsight-2020-Journal-No-one-Predicted/dp/1838488200/
A wonderfully different project to work on, but one that has been very inspiring and positive. Not least because it has meant we have got to know Alan and Craig! Just waiting for Alan’s next collection!
Leave a Reply