I have read a lot of motorcycle travel books and as other have pointed out, the vast majority are self published and so poorly written that they verge on unreadable. On the other hand, the handful that are well written are very enjoyable to read and stick out a mile.

My opinion on the original question ... why dont more people write books?
The pay is grim.
I went an alternative route, which was to get published in bike magazines, and the pay was a lot better. You have to have something interesting enough to interest a bike magazine editor. It has to have some sort of an edge, and these days, attitude. But you can sell the story in almost every country in Europe. Sell it in Sweden, sell it again in NL, again in Germany etc etc etc ... Have a decent story and pictures and you will sell it 10-15 times. There are no costs ... the magazines buy the story in English and translate it themselves. They edit it, and format it themselves, and pay you per page on how much they run. Bearing in mind good pics often take up the bulk of the pages in magazines, a story can easily stetch over several monthly editions.

If you get paid an avge £100 a page, and your story runs for 2 editions, 8 pages a month, you will get £1600 ... from one country. Do it across Europe and you are up £15k

All in the space of a couple of months.

To get that return from writing a book takes much much longer, and you would have to sell a lot of books, especially first books.

Good advice jeremy...I too have toyed with the idea of writing a book and had an article published by a BMW magazine but its damn hard...the content spins in my mind, but when I try to put it on paper, I'm at a loss for words...but the light at the end of the tunnel disappears quite often...

Anyways...I will try to accomplish it for myself and if it happens to get published...that's the sort of sponsorship I'd prefer...from supporters who believe and bleed in my efforts.


Article that got published....

I've about a third of the way through...

Just spotted it here and blagged it myself but can't see me sending a cheque back for that one!

I have read a lot of motorcycle travel books and as other have pointed out, the vast majority are self published and so poorly written that they verge on unreadable. On the other hand, the handful that are well written are very enjoyable to read and stick out a mile.

That's about the start and the end of it, isn't it. If anything too much is published these days.

The art of publishing
Robert Wicks
Author of 'Adventure Motorcycling', Robert Wicks shares some of his secrets about what it takes to get published, the importance of the right photography and the effort that goes into writing a successful book.

Sounded educational. Did anyone attend this at HU UK on the weekend?

Ch

I went to his talk. It was really interesting for me. I’ve been to a load of talks about publications and photography etc etc. My problem is finding the time and motivation to do something – e.g. I have a load of photos from a 12 months (non bike) trip, good blog, and have many stories I could write into smaller ones…. In saying that I have had one photo publication but that didn’t even cover half my travel costs on a specific trip last year. Most of the talks I've heard at the annual London travel and adventure shows focus on pitching, ideas, etc.

Anyway…. This talk focused more on the ‘business’ type side of it – e.g. how he went about structuring the book, timescales, sourcing the photography, the amount of contacts he made etc etc. He was lucky to an extent (in my mind…only in terms of the publishing – not trying to say he got published with little effort on his part) as he had a background in publishing, had published several articles etc in the past and due to having a shed load of good solid research into the marketplace, a very detailed pitch, and a very clear idea of how he wanted the book to look, he was lucky in the fact that he first publisher he approached went for it and was very accommodating with his ideas.

I thought the book looked great and I think he sold all the copies he took with him (25?). Apologies if I have any of that wrong.
cheers

I think you've put your finger on your problem here.

Oh yeh - it's not that I don't know the problem - now the problem is not knowing how I had time to work before I went travelling!! Leaves little time for the fun stuff ;-)

I think a major disincentive is the vast amount of work for a tiny possibilty of reasonable renumeration. It's a HUGE gamble in time and effort. I have been writing a book (not about any trip I've done, the blog was more than enough to satisfy anyone who wanted to read about me repeatedly crashing into inanimate objects) for nearly a year now and it's still only halfway through. Meanwhile I have to pay the bills so I have a full time job.

I have a publisher having a butchers at my ham-fisted efforts at becoming the new Captain W.E. Johns, but I don't expect anyone to want to publish it. As much as anything I'm doing it to prove to myself, one way or another, whether I COULD have done it. I see this as just one more thing in a long line of "Hmm, I wonder..." decisions that I've made in my life. Simply because I would hate to get to the end of my life and regret all the things I never tried.

I guess you have to really love writing (which I do) and be prepared to gamble a vast amount of time and effort (which I have done) for a dream that in all probability will never come off. I guess most people are just too pragmatic for that!

Matt :)

I think that’s a great way to do it. No pressures on yourself for the moment and if it develops into more then great! I guess that’s the thing that keeps me back. I can slog out in a dull job and get paid well for it (not a great work/life balance but it pays the bills and lets me save) but then I want to go climbing and exploring in the evenings and weekends to keep me sane. When I wasn’t working post travelling, I was needing money. I keep meaning to use the likes of blurb.com to print my blog into a book, but only for myself to be able to flick through for the memories (it needs some geeky stuff done to it first, and it wouldn’t be anywhere near in a format for a book – just my typical travel blog).
As touched on before it’s the people that put in the hard graft and the time and persevere that will get the publications, and only a few of them at that.
If I only got a pound for every travel article I’ve read since I came back and thought “I could have written that” then I’d have some more savings. But they’ve actually done it.
Another thing to take into account is the contacts that people mention. If you have them keep in touch with them. I was in touch with an editor on and off during my trip for very minor things. When I got in touch after a while there were a few thing she said “I wish I knew you were in XXX – we were struggling for photos from there for something that’s just went to print”.
In saying that, I’d probably have got next to nothing for them for that particular publication.

perhaps a lot of folks dont have a whole book in them? (i know, the experience and story is there and everyones supposed to 'have one book in them' but some people just cant be bothered?)

perhaps if someone were to collect stories that could be a chapter each in a bigger book, but whose going to do it? cant see a publisher going to the trouble as it would be quite a niche market and a fairly small seller.

a magazine might be interested but it would have to be the right mag, not these wheelie obsessed toilet rolls we get in UK. there was one a few years ago called 'motorcycle voyager' that was a good read but packed up after 15 editions (i know cos im counting them on my shelf as i type..), something to do with changing publishers and cash related infighting, jane omorogbe told me (she was one of the contributors)

The HU book of ripping motorcycle yarns? ;)

Is this 'HU Book of Ripping Yarns' something that could be a possibility?

All you need are 15-20 people, prepared and talented enough to smash down several thousand of their very best words, and you have a highly readable and inspiring bog read. One of those books that can be picked up at any page and still make your day better.

There are obvious fences to fall at, such as distributing revenue with a team effort, editing, pitching etc, but I am sure there is some way to produce a book that could get a few people a few extra pennies to help them on their way. It would also do no harm to the profile of the website if something hard copy could be put out there.

I am biased, because I am an impulsive writer, who has been throwing bits of everything I've ever done into word docs, but I still think it is a good idea.

As someone said in this thread (sorry I forget who,) we may not all have a whole book inside us, but just maybe some of us have one chapter?

Joel