Works in Progress

A "working" cover design

Just before Christmas I mentioned, in passing, that I had started work on a new typewriter book. I was delighted, though somewhat taken aback, by the number of encouraging comments and the very positive support I received from that one brief announcement. By that stage I had already written more than 27,000 words and the book, a history of typewriters in Australasia, just needed a little extra research and writing and some tidying up. It has, for the time being, 18 chapters and almost 120 pages, excluding illustrations, which will probably take it up to about 160 pages.

In the meantime, however, I have embarked on two more book projects (that makes three typewriter books in all for 2017). Again, almost all the research and writing has been done for the two extra works, but they have yet to be cobbled together in a publishable form. I have been toying with the idea of a book about the madmen of typewriters for some years now, and my three months of intensive research in 2015 into the truth about the life and times of James Bartlett Hammond - subsequently ignored in a book with a chapter on Hammond - clinched it for me. If anyone can think of someone other than Yost, Crandall and Hammond who deserves inclusion, let me know. 

The next step is going to be a much greater challenge - coming up with the funding to get the three books published. As with my previous two soft cover books, the print run will be small and the cover price low. I have looked at various ways of publishing, such as Lulu (with which I am not entirely impressed), but feel the best way remains meeting the cost myself of having them printed and bound in Canberra. This method has worked reasonably well in the past. My first book sold out quite quickly, so I recovered almost all the costs. But any suggestions about alternative means of raising the funds to meet printing costs and publishing will be much appreciated.