Archive for May, 2010


Wilderness Net

on May 29, 2010 in Uncategorized Comments Off

I wrote the following a few days ago and then hit a wall of poor atmospherics that killed the mobile signal. I’ll post it now and update after the weekend…

It is Wednesday and life is good. The sun is shining, the sea and wind playful. I sit outside my tent on the stoop of the cottage waiting for the first walkers to arrive. Before ten in the morning and after five in the evening, it is rare to see anyone. Even then, it is not unusual to be alone except for the occasional holidaying couple strolling by between the hours of eleven and two. Every now and then, I find myself enjoying the isolation too much and must remind myself that without people, Dreamwords is nothing.

Thankfully, I am not a hermit. I do love meeting people and particularly enjoy seeing their reaction to the concept behind the Honesty Edition. I have been here sixteen days now and begin to wonder how many readers might have finished the book. Although I have a figure of six weeks in my plan as a reasonable expectation, I know from previous drops that the occasional reader rips through the book in hours. Might there be a cheque or two in the box in Glasgow? I am tempted to take a day off to go and look, but I must be patient. To find it empty would tell me nothing and yet fill me with negative thoughts. No, I must concentrate on what I am doing, enjoy the craziness of it, the fabulous people I meet. I am constantly offered money and although on the rare occasion I relent to avoid insult, I seldom accept.
As an adjunct to the experiment, I left a couple of small displays high on the path from Lochranza. I am told by others that someone has left a payment on the ground beside one of them. It has now been there three days and I expect it will still be there when I climb over the hill tomorrow evening. Knowing that puts a smile on my face.

I now have a full week behind me and around 60 books have been given to potential readers. When I stuck my finger in the air and guessed that I might get 100 per week in the height of summer, I was not wide of the mark (May is early in the season and usually quiet). This stage in the project is all about gathering data points in the hope of understanding the best way to distribute the full compliment of 10,000.

The question remains: How many will pay? That will take a while longer. In my early research, I found that it took some people 6 weeks to get round to reading and finishing the book and others a few days, having read it in one sitting. Others never got back at all and I had to assume that it was not to their taste.

With a dozen copies gone over a week ago (while the recipients were on a walking holiday) and a handful yesterday, I will continue doing this for a while before drawing any conclusions.

I can say that – almost without exception – every person I talked to is both astonished and extremely enthusiastic about the idea and loves the fact that they tripped over such a thing in the middle of nowhere.

Surreal but brilliant.

I am at Laggan Cottage on the Isle of Arran, the inspiration for Creggan in Dreamwords. Having done the random dump-and-run experiments in Glencoe and Edinburgh, I now want to find out how the hit-rate changes if I try to skew the distribution dice in the book’s favour.

One of the reasons I picked this area for the novel’s setting was its tranquil isolation. Footfall is almost non-existent. Still, over a summer week, it’s reasonable to think that I might shift 100 books. By pitching my tent directly outside the cottage and placing the display just off the path, most walkers will see them and I am close enough to strike a conversation. I usually do this anyway so it’s perfectly natural. Most of them are mature and many are cultured. Combine this with the fact that they have a shared and (hopefully) pleasant memory of the place and it is hard to think of a better demographic.

I doubt I’ll snag an army of readers, but what I learn here for the rest of the distribution, could be invaluable.

And anyway, I can work at the same time and it’s hard to think of a better place to be.

Three days ago, as I lay on the grass writing, dolphins fished a few yards off-shore – them doing their thing, me doing mine. Bliss!

Back On The Horse

on May 7, 2010 in Uncategorized Comments Off

Getting out to Spain was not easy. Iceland spoke. Nevertheless, it eventually happened and it was great seeing my brother, Jim and his wife, Sandra. They were both instrumental in making the Honesty Edition happen.

Payments for the Edinburgh, Lanark and Glencoe experiments still trickle in and it looks as though I have reached the minimum threshold for paying back my costs – assuming I distribute the complete 10K books in the same manner. This is a milestone as for all I knew, no-one would have paid. I have another thing I want to try, partially because I think it will bring results, but also because I will be able to continue writing and have fun all at the same time. A triple win.

I start in the morning and will post more details in a couple of days. Stay tuned.