Happy New Year to all of those who follow these jottings.
My holiday period has been spent with a heavy cold and so I have been more than happy to sit and write. My first book, I Don’t Have My Decision Making Trousers On, or “Trousers” as it has become known around my closest circle, was released on Kindle before Christmas and I’m delighted to see that a couple of hundred people have obtained a copy up to the end of December. I will not be buying a yacht of the proceeds, or not at that price, but it is a real pleasure to know that folks are interested enough to have clicked the link on Amazon. If you don’t have a copy there is a link you can click on at the top of the page here to buy yours. If you don’t have a Kindle you can download Kindle for PC or Mac from Amazon. It’s free and you’ll get three free classics delivered with it (or that is the current deal).
Because Kindle isn’t for everyone and some kind people wrote and asked if a printed version was available I’ve just signed off a deal to get “Trousers” into print in paperback form and that will, all being well, be ready to buy in March this year. In its paperback form Trousers comes out at 141 pages, so should meet the criteria of the pocket book that I had in mind. More details when I have them.
At the time that I was putting Trousers to bed, and that took almost a month on and off, the challenge for another book was issued. From various suggestions I have two more under way, but the discipline of writing dictates that I must concentrate on one, and so the choice was to do the business autobiography and leave a second management toolkit book for later in 2012.
Writing about my career and the many places that I have been to has brought back many happy memories. I started writing it two weeks ago and, after a stuttering start as I fathomed out the format that I wanted to use, I have averaged over 3000 words a day so far, parking the book very tidily on 44,444 words last night. Given what I have written so far and what I have roughed out to complete the book it would look very likely that the current project will turn out at over 100,000 words.
Over the course of writing the book I need to decide on a title. Currently I have a working title of Have Briefcase, Will Travel, but there is a list of over a dozen possible options. As many of the sales of Trousers have been international (I did wonder about having a US version where Pants would substitute for Trousers), I’ve been advised that some of my possible alternatives, such as All Roads Lead From Swindon, or North of Watford Gap, or A Stormy Night is Stockport might not mean anything outside of the UK.
Decisions, decisions! There is nothing easy about this writing lark you know, like everything else worth doing the results are best if you put the effort in. And in any case, decisions should be no problem for me, as long as I have the right trousers on.
The Voice of the Bloke at the Back 