– blog
Welcome to the Joy of English blog, put together by me, the author.
I won't be posting the details of what I ate for breakfast or my thoughts on the latest celebrity gossip. Instead I will use this page to chart significant events relating to the publication of my book.
01 January 2012
Happy New Year, everyone.
17 December 2011
I know this is sad, but – like people who have to show photos of their first-born – this is the first time that I have spotted my book in shops (the two black stripes, centre shelf). It was at Foyles in Bristol. It was a fun moment, seeing my book on the same shelf as Henry Hitchings, John Humphrys and Lynne Truss. The book has come full circle.
29 November
I had tiny gathering for my launch party. Every one of the people pictured below contributed to the book with their support, suggestions and enthusiam. I threw this small party for them to say thanks.
25 November
The is finally released and available to buy.
23 November
A lot has happened this week. My publisher sent me my first proper copy of the book and I had my first interview.
4 November 2011
This week I received my first review, which will go in the Bookshelf section of next month's CERN Courier magazine, and it was overwhelmingly positive. I am pleased that the reviewer (completely unknown to me) totally got what I was aiming to do and achieve with the book. It was a relief that the first one was so supportive – a gentle entry into the world of being reviewed.
17 October 2011
This week I started the tribalauthor bootcamp, a nine-week online course on book marketing, launch strategies and digital-tribe building run by Jonathan Fields and Jayme Johnson. I must say that so far it has exceeded all of my expectations. It is worth every penny as far as what you can learn from it. I will let you know more about it once I have completed the course.
24 September 2011
Today I discovered that The Joy of English is now listed on the Amazon and Waterstones websites (UK). This is all starting to feel quite real...
20 September 2011
Speaking to the publisher today, the book is due into their warehouse in the week commencing 14 November and due for release around two weeks later. Just in time for Christmas.
15 August 2011
Two weeks after receiving the proofs, I have now gone through the entire book one more time to look for last-minute things that need tending before sending it back.
That is it: that is the first edition officially out of my hands. The book should be out towards the end of November.
01 August 2011
Today I received a set of proofs from the production team, as well as copies of the proofer's mark-ups. I admit to hesitating to open it – strange how, every day I sub edit other people's writing without a second's thought, and here I am fearful of opening the parcel and seeing my pages covered in red. When I finally do, I am relieved to see surprisingly little. I am impressed by the tiny things that the proofer has picked up on considering the 50,000 words and 250+ pages.
04 July 2011
Today I got a copy of the final design for the book jacket after it has received a few improvements by the publisher's production team. The main difference is the bold, black spine. I printed this out on a CMYK printer and stuck it on a book. (Sad, I know!)
01 May 2011
After two years of writing and pitching, the sudden void of no longer having "something to do" was strange. However, I do have a pile of books on my shelves waiting to be read...
31 April 2011
Because I had a finished manuscript ready, the publisher gave me until the end of April to deliver my final manuscript, which I did on time.
(Tip: Never miss a publisher's deadline if you want to stay on good terms.)
13 April 2011
Today I attended the London Book Fair 2011 and I was pleased to see that my book – and the cover design that I put together in March – made it into the How To Books 2011 catalogue.
21 February 2011
Less than a fortnight after receiving an offer from How To Books and after meeting the publishers Nikki and Giles at their office in Oxford to discuss the terms and details, a publishing contract arrived in the post. The hundreds and hundreds of hours of work writing, re-writing, sharpening and writing some more had paid off.
05 March 2011
With the book now heading for publication I made a serious attempt at a complete design. This is the prototype that I came up with.
08 February 2011
Today was the day that I received the news that a publisher was interested in my book. In their e-mail they wrote:
Dear Jesse
Thank you very much for your proposal.
I’m pleased to say that, subject to contract, we would like to publish your book.
So, seven months after beginning the search for a publisher, the book was acquired by How To Books Ltd, Oxford, England. Yay!
Winter 2010/2011
To keep my mind off the book and "waiting" I turned my attentions towards preparing for the prospect of not finding a publisher by getting up to speed with ePubs and how to get my book onto (into) my iPad. I bought a great book by Liz Castro and got down and dirty with ePub, XML, CSS, file compression and typesetting for iPad books.
Autumn/fall 2010
The autumn months really involved a merry-go-round of submissions, which resulted in a few tweaks to my query letters. As well as the inevitable rejections (they will come) I did get some words of encouragement. I didn't take the rejections to heart, though it was amusing, shocking at times to get e-mail rejections from the likes of intern03@publisher.xyw – leave it to the interns, whatever their names! But I understand that this is the game and how it is played.
01 July 2010
Today was the date of my self-imposed deadline to have" finished" (a creative work is never finished) and to start the process of seeking an agent and publisher for my book. Above is an extract of the very document that I sent out with by query letters, with my first cover design. If you squint you may even be able to read what I wrote.
June 2010
After recognising that 'The Little Black Book of English' isn't quite catchy enough to attract agents/publishers and book buyers, I bounced some ideas back and forth with my good friend Paul – of North Sea Navigator fame – and we finally agreed that the title, The Joy of English, was cheeky and perfect.
February 2010
The third draft, now 30,000 words, is finished and a book is really starting to take shape. I pass it round to friends again for wider scrutiny and put the project down for a few months to let it all congeal in my head. I put mind towards thinking about cover designs and reading several 'How to get published' books to begin thinking about what I need for the pitching process.
September 2009
The second draft, now around 19,000 words and renamed The Little Black Book of English, is ready and this time I pass it round to several people for feedback and any suggestions.
July 2009
The original, working title is 99 ways to improve your English and I show this first draft of 10,000 words to two of my trusted colleagues, who offer plenty of advice and suggestions on where to take it.
10 May 2009
This was the day that I decided to start writing the book. It was at a time when the economy was feeling the effects of the recession and many companies were laying off staff. I felt that it was "now or never" and I naively took a week off from work to write, thinking that I could knock-out a first draft in that time.
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