Now this is less the story of Didsbury’s pubs and bars, and more a reflection on how very soon that story will be in a book shop.
I grew up and began writing when a finished manuscript or leaflet was still handwritten, and then handed over to a professional printer, who composed the text, added the images, and then having created the blocks, consigned it to a printing machine.
In that respect the process was pretty much the same as when Gutenberg produced his bible in 1455, and Caxton labouered on Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, three decades later.
It was a skillful job and was best done by those who knew what they were doing.
But today, that has pretty much been transformed, and so when Peter and I went into collaboration writing a series of books we choose the route of self-publishing.
I researched and wrote the text, Peter sourced the images, along with some of his fine paintings, and laid out the book.
And then, after exhaustive proof reading, the finished manuscript was sent by the press of a button from a computer down the line to the company producing the finished product.
At which point I have to say that many months of hard work went into writing and laying out the manuscript, but the final act of committing it to the publisher took no time at all.
The downside is the loss of jobs, and of a technology that goes back into the Middle Ages, and beyond, but the positive is that suddenly writing a book becomes accessible to almost anyone.
The cynic may mutter that this opens a pandora’s box, where mediocre and trivial publications flood the market, but that was ever so, as the Penny Dreadfuls of the 19th century testify.
There is still a cost, and there are always issues of distribution, but these can be overcome. In the case of money, there are now exciting crowd funding possibilities and many budding authors will aim their work at a specific market, which may not even need a book shop to sell through.
We however remain of the belief that bookshops are important, and we sell through local outlets as well as online.
So, yes this is an advert for Manchester Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors Didsbury, but it is also the story of Didsbury’s pubs and bars and how they tell the story of the township.
The manuscript went down the line at 10 this morning, will take about ten days to print and will be ready to be read by mid-June and is available from www.pubbooks.co.uk and local bookshops
Now that is exciting.
Location; Didsbury
Pictures; early printing press, from previously unpublished drawings of the elementary work of Johann Bernhard Basedow, Frankfurt am Main 1922
In that respect the process was pretty much the same as when Gutenberg produced his bible in 1455, and Caxton labouered on Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, three decades later.
It was a skillful job and was best done by those who knew what they were doing.
But today, that has pretty much been transformed, and so when Peter and I went into collaboration writing a series of books we choose the route of self-publishing.
I researched and wrote the text, Peter sourced the images, along with some of his fine paintings, and laid out the book.
And then, after exhaustive proof reading, the finished manuscript was sent by the press of a button from a computer down the line to the company producing the finished product.
At which point I have to say that many months of hard work went into writing and laying out the manuscript, but the final act of committing it to the publisher took no time at all.
The cynic may mutter that this opens a pandora’s box, where mediocre and trivial publications flood the market, but that was ever so, as the Penny Dreadfuls of the 19th century testify.
There is still a cost, and there are always issues of distribution, but these can be overcome. In the case of money, there are now exciting crowd funding possibilities and many budding authors will aim their work at a specific market, which may not even need a book shop to sell through.
We however remain of the belief that bookshops are important, and we sell through local outlets as well as online.
So, yes this is an advert for Manchester Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors Didsbury, but it is also the story of Didsbury’s pubs and bars and how they tell the story of the township.
The manuscript went down the line at 10 this morning, will take about ten days to print and will be ready to be read by mid-June and is available from www.pubbooks.co.uk and local bookshops
Now that is exciting.
Location; Didsbury
Pictures; early printing press, from previously unpublished drawings of the elementary work of Johann Bernhard Basedow, Frankfurt am Main 1922
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