I have just opened the last of fifty boxes of 24 books which comprised the 1200 privately published hardback copies of The Catholic Orangemen of Togo. They have all sold – not more than half a dozen were given away. This has been a hard slog. Long term readers will know that I had to self-publish after multi-millionaire hired killer Tim Spicer threatened my publishers with a libel action, causing them to pull out. I then published myself and invited Spicer to sue, but he bottled out.
I made the book available free online and I don’t know how many read it that way, but at least fifty thousand while we were keeping a track on the major download avenues. I suspect that increased rather than decreased sales of the hardback, but the real problem was that I found it impossible to get a self-published book accepted by bookshops, despite the commercial success of Murder in Samarkand.
Anyway, the final two dozen are now available. Great Christmas presents! It is a book of which I remain very proud.
From Medialens today…..
Assange & Cohen; Well fancy that….
Posted by Poster123 on December 5, 2012, 4:18 pm
while unsuccessfully, and perhaps naively, popping into Foyles to see if I could buy the new Assange book, I was recommended another book apparently on the same subject, namely this one;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007308906/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=nickcohen-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0007308906
I politely refused, and had no luck either in Waterstones or Blackwell’s or Smiths etc
!!
“Cypherpunks”, Julian Assange’s latest book is available here:
http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/cypherpunks/
and in all good torrent sites.
Can’t see it anywhere else.
Seems that like Craig’s excellent books, it’s more looked for than found.
I reviewed it a few months ago, which probably accounts for any dip in sales: http://thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/catholic-orangemen-of-togo.html
“I made the book available free online”
People generally will not click on a picture of a book cover unless they are expecting to get redirected to amazon or another bookseller. If you put “Free PDF Download” as a link beneath the cover picture more people will read it.
In the meanwhile self publishing, at least on the Kindle platform, got a lot easier – if you don’t mind doing business with Amazon.
Great book, Craig. I bought a copy long ago and have told lots of people about it. I hope some of them also bought copies.
”The Catholic Orangemen of Togo”. I have a copy. And signed!
…
Excellent read.
And a cracking good read it is too !
Bookshops, establishment controlled publishers and print newspapers will all soon be history in the age of tablet computers. Publish a PDF online and download. Promote using a blog, YouTube trailer and Twitter. And not before time.
I still have all the rejections slips from publishers for my PhD thesis. š My partner told me I should market it as a cure for insomnia!
Still available on my obscure corner of the Web:
http://www.killick1.plus.com/craig.html
Mr Spicer never got in touch to ask me to take it down…
Well done Clark…but no doubt a Black Hawk full of Spicers mercs are en route to you at the moment…let me know if you survive..LOL..
For self-publishing purposes, http://www.lulu.com/gb/ give good PDF and a decent paperback and hardback, of which you can design virtually every aspect yourself. Don’t know what they’re like at paying their taxes, though.
Most impressed. The fact is that, particularly as proportion of print-run, 24 left of 1200 is way better than most hardback titles from corporate publishers ever achieve. To blog-readers without a copy: get in there quick & grab yourself one before it’s too late. An important historical document. A collector’s item. A rattling good read. In every way a bargain.
.
A Christmas tree, meantime, from Heathcote Williams. Read by Alan Cox:
http://youtu.be/a4RPNVskzy8
The net book agreement preserved bookselling in the uk thought most of the 1900s, what looked like a price fixing disaster kept bookselling in the hands of many independent individuals.
During this time we probably had the lowest book prices and the best range of books in the world, with an associated flowering of literature.
A bookseller could use the profits from bestsellers to offset less profitable stock losses and big chains unable to undercut didnāt bother much with books, discounts were in the order of 35% with academic titles for school supply carrying a handling discount of about 17%.
Individual booksellers decided which new titles to buy often based on reading proofs.
Now the whole thing is in the hands of Smiths, Waterstones and Amazon where discount and profit are the main priority.
I publish about 150 innocuous local history books, and was told that yes they would like to take some of them, if I offered them 60% discount and sent them to them for free.
It is my contention that if we donāt do something as a country to treat literature as one of the arts we are in for a serious problem.
The internet is fine in its way, but incredibly difficult to browse for a book you donāt know exists.
Watch your back in Baghdad Craig. Mr Spicer, or one of his kind, may be offered a bounty for your head. (Not that I want to worry you of course).
“Welcome to the Housmans Online Bookshop – providing an ethical alternative to Amazon.”
http://www.shop.housmans.com/
Frazer, I thought those Black Hawks were supposed to be pretty quick, and it’s been over two hour now; I hope they haven’t had an accident. Are they like Iraq’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction” thingies that were meant to arrive in 45 minutes? Or is it just the usual security delays at Schiphol?
These black hawks are most appreciated, Clark, and they work best in Somalia, as it happens, they really love’ em to bits over there, just look at their smiling faces.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4OKzho4a3o
maybe they haven’t got the right map, still in Africa, or its too cold, who knows, just put the kettle on, they will turn up eventually and they will be freezing cold, poor lads.
“I thought those Black Hawks were supposed to be pretty quick”
Remembered fragment of script from ‘Not the Nine o’Clock News’ at the time of the farcically failed raids to free American hostages.
End of a sketch with man and woman in living room, punch line delivered, man sits down in armchair, sketch seems over. There is a loud splintering sound and several US Marines crash through the door into the room.
Marine Sergeant: Is this Tehran?
Man (puzzled): Er, no – Brentford.
Marine Sergeant: Shit!
(they leave. End of sketch)
Stop Google, Facebook & Twitter stalking you. Free & open-source:
.
https://disconnect.me/tools
a flood ravaged, austerity challenged, single engine diesel engine manufacture in Chenzen is managing to breach the captcha?
Like the sketch Vronsky
Not satire.
Hillary Clinton to give human rights speech at DCU
The US Secretary of State will deliver an address in the Helix this Thursday.
Mon, 3:00 PM8,188 Views 66 Comments
Share870 Tweet88
Image: Carolyn Kaster/AP/Press Association Images
US SECRETARY OF State Hillary Clinton is to deliver an address on human rights in the Helix theatre at Dublin City University (DCU) this Thursday, it has been confirmed.
In a major coup for the university, Clinton is set to deliver the speech in the early afternoon of Thursday as part of her visit to Ireland for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe conference being held at the RDS.
The two-day meeting will see some 50 foreign ministers visiting the capital with TƔnaiste Eamon Gilmore set to hold bilateral talks with Clinton, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The US Secretary of State confirmed her European trip last week and will also travel to Prague, Brussels and Belfast during her five-day stay.
In Dublin, she will meet with Irish officials to discuss areas of cooperation in promoting peace, human rights, and economic growth.
As part of her visit it has now been confirmed that she will also deliver a major speech on US achievements in support of human rights globally in the Helix as part of an event being co-ordinated by the US Embassy in Dublin.
DCU is hopeful that it will be able to get a significant number of staff and students in the audience for the event which, in an email to students and staff, DCU President, Professor Brian MacCraith, described as a āwonderful opportunity to project the University and its reputationā.
~~~
This is in the country who had some further IMF screws tightened yesterday, as did the UK.
Earlier, at a NATO meeting, Shillary was deluged in farewell gifts in gratitude to her for being such an excellent war criminal.
‘She was presented with a giant pillow, an inflatable walrus, pink and white roses which matched her outfit and condiments which US quarantine regulations would prevent her from taking back home. There were also compliments and best wishes galore for Hillary Clinton on her last appearance at a Nato conference.
The soon to be former US Secretary of State spoke of just how much she had enjoyed working with others in the alliance and listed all that they had done together, from military action in Afghanistan and Libya to opening up to former Warsaw Pact states and embarking on a new relationship with Russia. She dwelt on the latest significant act: the deployment of Patriot missiles to the Syrian border while, like every other of her colleagues, insisting it was not the start of āmission creepā into a bloody civil war.
State Department officials were being diplomatically coy about the origins and the likely destinations of the various gifts. The pillow bore the motifs of Estonia and the roses are believed to have come from Nato. The condiments, described as flavouring, and the inflatable had been presented by dignitaries. While diplomats said they did not know who the donors were, anything received was āmuch appreciatedā.
The one thing Ms Clinton maintained firm silence on was whether stepping down from her post was in preparation for a bid for the White House in 2016, ensuring she remains untouched by travails that may befall the Obama administration in its second term.
Ms Clinton has another international meeting in Dublin and a Middle-East tour before finishing her watch. The topics raised at her final press conference illustrated the thorny problems her successor will face. There is the Arab winter, with constitutional crisis in Egypt and the Syrian conflict in the forefront. There is also Afghanistan where the West will end its combat role in 2014.’
{http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/flowers-an-estonian-pillow-and-an-inflatable-walrus-nato-waves-goodbye-to-hillary-clinton-8386749.html}
Interesting developments in Uzbekistan. Another āStingā will pleasure bloody uzbek princess.
āGulnara Karimova and film: Gerard Depardieu as the latest whim of the Uzbek princessā http://enews.fergananews.com/articles/2796
its a terrific book Craig, and stands with my favourite books on Africa by the anthropologist Turnbull, Pakenham and Doris Lessing. And Graham Greene, but his books are somehow more about ‘the white man’ in Africa than Africa itself, ditto Conrad.
and chinua Achebe of course
Uzbek Senate decided to allow amnesty to some prisoners but those who were imprisoned under Crimes Against Governmental System which includes most of political prisoners will not be touched by this amnesty.
āHuman Rights Watch: Free Uzbek Political Prisoners on Constitution Dayā http://enews.fergananews.com/articles/2798
I omitted the link for the Clinton visit to Dublin.
http://www.thejournal.ie/hillary-clinton-dcu-699768-Dec2012/
Perhaps sitting on a stool next to a tub of lard turns Gulnara on? (Uzbek in the Uk)
http://news.fergananews.com/photos/2012/11/gulnaradepard250.jpg
Mary,
.
I am not sure what turns bloody Gulnara on but one thing is certain that money Gerard was paid for this photo session and for his future pleasuring of Gulnara will come out of the funds saturated with peoples blood. Some sources suggest that this year (from October to end of November) at least 5 people have been beaten to death by police officers for refusing to pick cotton due to poor health. One of them was 17 years old boy.
.
Does Gerard know about it? Should we all tell him this on his twitter https://twitter.com/Gerard_Depardie
@Clark. Note that you can merge PDF files the excellent free and open source software PDF Split and Merge. http://www.pdfsam.org/