Anyone care to help me publish my book?
Publishers of the World! Unite!
Publishers of the World! Unite!
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary doesn’t come to me in the lyrics of a Beatles song but rather I write, and I write and write and write. It’s become a salve in those times of trouble as well as a purpose and a calling and over a decade I’ve honed this personal art into a personally pleasing skill. I originally commenced this intrinsically singular pastime in the Mayan Calendar world ending year of 2012 to rail against the losing of a family I cherish dearly and to occupy a splintered, out of control mind, writing throughout the ensuing decade until 2016 when I tried another independent venture that sadly came to an end, like so many others, with the introduction of the ill begotten lockdowns. So in the summer of 2020 I began writing again and writing in earnest and not just on the subject of film and cinema. I branched out in varying directions: existentialism, social media, different sports, fictional writing ideas, mental health, film and cinema once more and, crucially, the footballing team of my childhood and the Mighty Reds of Liverpool FC.
Therein lies my book.
As well as writing match reports on every fixture they’ve played over the past two seasons I have also written a number of personal stories following the Reds of Liverpool, as well as over two dozen retrospective articles on fixtures from many decades past. Without delving into minute detail as to every aspect of the book, here are the nuts and bolts of the book that currently resides under the working and sub-titles of:
“One Point. One Parisian Post, and the falling Sword of Damocles”
“The rise and fall of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool Reds”
Word Count — 100,000
Season’s Covered — 2021/2022 and 2022/2023
Each season is written, in real time, game by game, month on month, with match reports from each game but with the unique selling point (hopefully) being that this rather dry list of reports will be broken up by four personal stories throughout each season, with eight in total.
As noted previously, I also have over two dozen articles from yesteryear that can also be inserted (if needed) adding a further 10,000+ to the word count.
Also included are numerous personal photographs that do not require or infringe upon copyright.
The match reports are largely non-linear, tangential and not of the type largely read in newspapers or on the internet. They are uniquely representative of me, telling a seasonal story, a personal story, quirky, different, eccentric, as well as highlighting the incredible high of a football team that were on the verge of unprecedented greatness and who have now, sadly, run their course and are a team languishing in the shadow of that dreaded sword of Damocles.
In a word or, to be numerically correct three, it’s fucking good!
But therein lies the first of many rubs.
(1) I’m not objective enough to know whether it is actually as good as I believe it to be.
(2) There’s an old maxim that dictates that if the creation of the art is enjoyed far too much by its creator than perhaps they’ve been enjoying themselves a little too much and it isn’t quite the master creation they believe it to be.
(3) I have next to zero of an audience, though not for the want of trying.
(4) You’d think using the hashtags of #liverpoolfc or #lfc or #ynwa would see a mountain of likes, loves, re-tweets and followers within the madhouse of social media. And you’d be wrong. Yet these must be some of the most popular and used tags throughout the known world.
(5) Suffice to say, I have zero experience in publishing a book, hence I know little to nothing of the protocols involved let alone any publishers.
(6) I’ve emailed several publishers to zero responses hence far and nearly every website states that no book proposals will be considered without a representative Agent. An Agent? What larks!
(7) So as a lucky point seven, and the shirt number of The King, Kenny Dalglish, I’m throwing this all to the wilds of the internet.
Therein lies another rub. I could moan and complain that no-one will read this shout into the void or I could indeed confirm exactly what will happen when I publish this article (next to zero response and spammers using my article to insist I read their article even though they haven’t read mine — what larks!).
Instead, I hope to reach you, yes you, even if you send, re-post, re-tweet, link to Instagram, send smoke signals, carrier pigeons, howl at a full moon, fire a seven gun salute or release 99 red balloons high into the sky. Without wishing to be overly dramatic (Editor’s Note: He’s going to be overly dramatic), the writing of the book has become a happy accident in times of trouble, a last throw of the dice, a wing and a prayer, a final hope and a hopeful confirmation that I am indeed the writer I profess to be. I’ve found my vocation after half a century of looking for the damn thing! I’ve also discovered my calling, my purpose and my raison d’etre. I struggle with my mental health and escaping into writing is an incredible release from that horrible nagging voice inside my head. I want to payback, even in a small way and even a simple “thank you” to charities such as MIND and CRUSE who here in the UK have been incredibly helpful to me during the past three years, and more.
A couple of highly valued family members said I needed to go the extra 20% in my writing adventures but I passed that signpost years ago. Please take a peek at my library here. I’m closing in on 800 articles in less than 2 years. Magazine writers or bloggers or even well known newspaper journalists couldn’t dream of matching that or, dare I say, the quality I’ve produced too. All of those articles are readily published here in my library, ready for scrutiny and will be available along with every article I publish from hereon in for as long as the internet remains live. But I don’t have an audience and crucially, I don’t have an audience to produce and publish a book that I believe is a sure fire winner.
Are you that audience? Are you that publisher?
I also want to prove myself wrong! That I am a writer. I am worthwhile. I am worthy of someone’s time, effort, energy and that I have some kind of meaning in a maddening world.
Although this and the near 800 articles will be here in perpetuity, I also want to present my finished and published book to my son and say “Over to you kid. Your turn now”. To give him something tangible, that will live on after I’ve departed this mortal coil, rather than hoping someday he’ll check out my writing on the internet.
Anyway, if you’ve read this and you have a Russian Oligarch for an Uncle or Auntie and they have far too much time and money on their hands, or your friend’s friend is the brother of a publisher or the sister of someone who works in publishing. Maybe you’ve had a book published yourself or you know of someone who has.
Are you that publisher that can share a vision for my book?
“I know this sounds silly, like this is the scene in the movie where the guy’s trying to get ahold of the long-lost son, you know, but this is that scene. And I think they have those scenes in movies because they’re true, you know? Because they really happen”.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Magnolia” (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson).
This is that scene. I hope this finds someone who can help.
Liverpool FC
Match Reportsmedium.com
Thanks for reading. My three most recently published articles are listed below or I’d be honoured if you delved into the near 800 within my “Library” here:
“The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker” (2023)
Truth is stranger than fiction. Again.medium.com
Sunshine after the rain in beautiful Ironbridge
“Sail on silver girl. Sail on by”.medium.com
Rhetorical Questions Round a Rectangular Dining Table
Vol.21 Is Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today?medium.com