Saturday
Jan162010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Hockey Stick Illusion for US readers
Jan 16, 2010 Books Climate: HSI While my publisher has made valiant efforts to sell the US rights to The Hockey Stick Illusion and I've made my own attempts too, we've had no joy so far. US readers can buy the book direct from Amazon UK, but this may be relatively expensive. Could someone perhaps find out how much it would cost to buy and ship a single copy to the US?
I'm still very tempted to self-publish in the US. There's a typeset manuscript ready to go, which would just need a cover design. However, wiser heads are advising me to hold on, and of course if I can make an impact in the UK there's always the possibility that someone will pick me up for North America.
What do readers think?
Reader Comments (62)
Lulu.com - you can always withdraw the book from lulu once a US publisher comes to his senses...
Oh and BTW - are you planning an ebook version? I rarely buy treeware these says.
Francis
Interestingly, the book is already on Lulu, but not for public consumption. I used Lulu to distribute the manuscript to reviewers. I'd probably use Amazon's POD service instead now, because it looks as if you can make more money per copy that way.
I'm concerned about the possibility of putting off a publisher by having self-published first though.
Ebook version? Several people have mentioned the possibility. If there's demand I'll do it. Need to check the contractual niceties though.
I work for a publisher of Academic books and Journals. An eBook is a must these days, but the problem is all the different formats. We do 8 different eBook formats for every title. Your publisher should do this for you to maximise sales and profits.
I know that there are companies in the UK which publishers use to aggregate orders for shipment overseas. This keeps shipping costs down. Sorry, I don't know the names of them but they are based near Heathrow.
I'm baffeled as to why "wiser heads" are advising against it.
The iron is red hot - now's the time to pound away.
I think you ought to launch it in the US as fast as possible.
The shelf life of the Climategate story is not indefinite.
Of course, if you can find someone to plug your book - like Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc. then you've got it made. I know Rush has a good connection to Roy Spencer. If you're acquainted with Roy...then maybe...
And Mosher's and Fuller's book is out. Adding yours will only support each other.
I can't find Mosher's book here in Europe, and so I probably will not buy it. I'm not sure I'll be interested in reading it in a couple of months from now. Who likes to read an old newspaper?
Double your efforts on finding a good publisher...something is bound to come up.
Just my two-pence worth.
Yes, I would go for either Amazon POD or Lulu. I dont think you will put off a potential distributor - it might even help.
And I agree that now is the time!
"...putting off a publisher by having self-published first though."
I agree. Self-publishing could doom your US chances.
I don't know much about the book biz, but I know you have to pull all the strings you've got.
Anyway, I'm ordering your book, and I'll be sure to write up a good reader review. I'll give a couple out too - as presents - the price is unbeatable.
I would second lulu.com and I believe I talked with their folks at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, California back in 2006 or 2007, I can't remember. They amazed me at the time.
If readers go to Amazon.com in the US they can put the book on the "wish list," and that will give Amazon an indication of buyer interest.
If you can sell your books through The Book Depository that should do it -- free international shipping.
Yer Grace
I ordered your book on 16th December. I just checked my order with Amazon and the dispatch date is still 18th January with an estimated delivery date in Canberra, Australia of 28th January to 3rd February .
The invoice quotes delivery cost to Australia as 8.78 Sterling.
I enjoy reading your site and find the design easy on the eye.
Go 4 it, now is the time!! I ordered from Amazon.de and I am now on a waiting list. Keep up your super work!! Greetings from the snowy mountians of Davos, Switzerland Fred
Yer Grace, The best way to get a book for your fans in USA would seem to be to buy it online from your publisher Stacey International (http://www.stacey-international.co.uk). Although the book is a little more expensive than on Amazon, there is an online discount, and the shipping charge for outside Europe ('rest of the world') is only £4.95. I found their web shop easy and quick to use. I have my fingers crossed that I'll have my copy early next week!
Contact me at:
Power and Control
My e-mail is on the sidebar. I know some one who is familiar with the ins and outs of self publishing and getting listed on Amazon USA.
Yer Grace
PS. Snow in the bubble wrap would nice as it is rather hot here at the moment.
"Yer Grace
PS. Snow in the bubble wrap would nice as it is rather hot here at the moment.
January 16, 2010 | E O'Connor"
We apologise for the inconvenience.
This was due to an outage of black ink but a new shipment of carbon has arrived and we are hard at work raining and wind brushing all the parts we missed.
As as retired Silly Con Valley techie, I have set myself up as a POD publisher, written and published about 10 books and actually make a few bob, so I know the ins and outs of the POD publishing game. You can easily publish the book yourself, and hell, I could as well getting you on to the ISBN list in America. So can LULU and Amazon POD. The books are printed on demand which means they are almost instantly available, And anyone can go into any bookstore in North American and order the book and have it in a week.
The issue is NOT the physical production of a book (as well as eBooks, which I also know how to make) but of promotion of the book. That is what costs time and money and more money. To be honest, your book would not sell well enough in America for any publisher to take it on on a financial basis.
So If I were you, I would self publish in the US. If you want to know how NOT to get ripped off by Amazon POD and LULU, let me know. I will give you my best advice for free, but off line.
No reason why your European publisher can't get a printer in the US to run off some copies and ship to US customers from the US. And there are print-on-demand publishers (printers) in the US like Lightning Press who can do a short run to start. The profit margin is less, but so what?
These days, self-publishing isn't a negative, if you can sell a decent number of copies and therefore show a publisher you're getting reader interest, they like that.
@ Jon
It all depends on the contract the Bishop has with his current publisher. Technically, what you say is correct (I use LSI myself). If his current publisher has a deal with LSI UK, then he can have it done in a week or less. There is usually no reason why UK books can't be printed in the US. I have my books printed by LSI in both countries
There is also the issue of eBooks, which may or may not be a seperate issue, depending on his current contract.
As for some "real" publisher picking up the book, I doubt they would touch it unless it starts to sell well. There is that funny story about a woman in Scotland who wrote children's books about witches and magic and all that silly stuff and nobody would touch her work. Until Bloomsbury, that is.
I am in the process of self-publishing in Canada and the US (it's a book on David Thompson who mapped western North America from 1784 to 1812—sorry for the shameless self promotion) and I went through iUniverse. They have been very helpful and the price is reasonable, especially since your manuscript is already complete. Check them out.
Do what it take, but get the book over here in the US/North American marketplace ASAP.
There is a hunger for something more than the blogosphere to feed the growing doubts among those not deeply entrenched to AGW belief for a reason to reject the apocalyptic claptrap.
Your book, along with the Crutape letters, are nice tools for just that.
Dismantling something as deeply entrenched as AGW is not going to happen without a struggle.
Showing in writing how deceptive Mann is will be an important part of deconstructing the flim-flam of AGW.
@ The Bishop
Read your current publishing contract VERY carefully. I would advise you have it checked over by a solicitor who specializes in literary rights. You may not have many options, or you may have many. It all depends. But if you do the wrong thing, your current publisher could sue you.
The devil is in the details.
I have sent my email to you via Contact, if you wish to talk further.
I created my own publishing company and the barriers to entry are very low. Check out Lightning Source for printing and cataloging services.
I wrote about my experience here:
http://marketingfloozy.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/a-cheapskate-guide-to-creating-a-publishing-company/
Hi all,
After 36 hours, it seems like self publishing using Create Space is proving a viable option for our book. It took less than a week to set up the files and make the decisions we made about our book. Due to favorable exposure on appropriate weblogs, we sold more than 100 copies in the first 36 hours the book was available.
II would be happy to help you set up a similar account for your book here in the States. You have my email address--we can use my existing account and maybe get your book up in a day. They can report sales figures separately by title, for ease of accounting.
Create Space is owned by Amazon. Because it is self published, Amazon vets the work before cycling it through to Amazon sales, so our book isn't up on Amazon yet--but yours already is. That's the big difference.
Happy to help--contact me offline.
Your book shows up as being available from Amazon U.K.. Oddly, it is shown as being out of print/limited availability...(Paperback - Jan. 15, 2010) on the Amazon U. S. site. I suspect there is heavy pressure on the US publishing houses by those favoring cap 'n trade to hinder the availability of your book to American readers.
Your book shows up as being available from Amazon U.K.. Oddly, it is shown as being out of print/limited availability...(Paperback - Jan. 15, 2010) on the Amazon U. S. site. I suspect there is heavy pressure on the US publishing houses by those favoring cap 'n trade to hinder the availability of your book to American readers.
These days, self-publishing isn't a negative, if you can sell a decent number of copies and therefore show a publisher you're getting reader interest, they like that.
That can work. I know of a super guy, Dr. Bill Wattenburg who's a top notch practical physical [including nuclear] scientist and a vehement critique of Greenies, with many other talents. He was over in Iraq putting out those Oil well fires, has run a construction company, and on and on. Many years ago he bet some elitist woman he could write a best or at least a strong selling book and have the whole thing just about done in two months. He did it, but the book was fiction - and something about "seducing" someone or other. The publishers wouldn't touch it at first, or else they wanted him to go around promoting it the usual way, which he didn't want to do. So he said he did things like distribute it to Airline Stewardesses. I don't know how he did that, but pretty soon the publishers wanted to buy it, and he sold it for some millions. He's very "inventive" in more ways then one, and is a strong, valid advocate for the public and for real science.
Wattenburg has a website at KGO, 810 am radio, San Francisco - click on him there. He's one of these guys who it seems must never sleep, my point being that if you email him, he will respond. He'd probably even take your phone call. He also does that on his own show on Sat. and Sun. from 10pm to 1am U.S. Pacific time - he takes calls from all-comers. He might have a quick solution and would almost certainly do it for free. He's saved San Franciso a couple of times at no charge when they couldn't figure out what the hell was happening with one of their projects, including their public rail transport system, BART, back when it was starting up. As usual, the answer was simple, but the gov't morons couldn't figure it out. So they don't like him.
[I know a guy very well myself who, believe me, could usually pull it off easily. He's founded and published a major Newspaper chain and knows the big boys, which he personally might even be bigger than because of his business acumen. But the primary and only problem would be "would it sell", and he wouldn't be acting anywhere near as quickly as you need. Maybe I'll call him up to see if he knows about the potential profit of outing this giant Climate Science scam.]
I would to get picked up in the US.
I bought it yesterday. I went with standard shipping, not express. I am willing to pay the extra shipping to get it shipped:
Order Summary:
Delivery Details: : order will arrive in one delivery
Order #: 026-1609172-4731536
Delivery Method: Standard
Delivery Preference: Group my items into as few deliveries as possible
Subtotal of Items: GBP 7.59
Postage & Packing: GBP 6.98
------
Total before VAT: GBP 14.57
VAT: GBP 0.00
------
Total: GBP 14.57
Promotional Gift Certificates: -GBP 0.00
------
Total for this order: GBP 14.57
Payment Total: USD 24.72**
Delivery estimate: 15 Feb 2010 - 26 Feb 2010
Dispatch estimate for these items: 5 Feb 2010 - 12 Feb 2010
1 "The Hockey Stick Illusion;Climategate and the Corruption of Science (Independent Minds)"
A W Montford; Paperback; £7.59
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
Meant to say, "I would wait to get picked up." But then again, something as good as this, may be worth self-publishing...glad I could help...:-)
Anyway, I had no problem paying the shipping.
Hi,
If you're interested in publishing an electronic version of your book then check out Clickbank.com.
It costs $50 to get set up and CB takes about 2% of the sale price. They also handle all of the payment processing and have a built in affiliate program (free to join.) This means that any of your readers/fans could sell your book on their sites and get a cut. My wife has two cookbooks on CB and it works great.
If you're not interested in an electronic version then ignore this comment. :)
Weird. Used copy already up on Amazon UK for the bargain price of £11.48 + p&p! Also showing up as No.2 already in the sales ranks.. Go go Bishop!
Could someone perhaps find out how much it would cost to buy and ship a single copy to the US?
AmazonUK currently has the book on sale for £7.59
Hence cost in the US would be $12.35, @ current exchange rate, plus the Delivery Rate of $6.98 for an apparent total cost of $19.33
Delivery Rates: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=11072991
You know, I am surprised that Stacey International doesn't have this book available in the US. On their website, they say
International distribution:
Stacey International has a strong network of distribution partners working at a local level across the world. Please contact the UK office for details
Now, in the US, if you are selling paper books, you really, really must go through distribution. That, in the US, means -- Ingram Books as well as Baker & Taylor. They are it for book distribution. I don't know about British distribution, but LSI UK takes care of that for me.
Since LSI is owned by Ingram, they automatically list you if you print your books with them, as I do. From what I can see, Lulu and other POD printers do the same. As for Amazon, I know the list the books in distribution, but they only sell their own (Kindle) eBooks.
So, yer Grace, perhaps you should ring up Stacey International and ask them what they are doing. It may be that they are simply in the process of listing your books in the US. Or they may all be down at the pub having a pint when they should be doing their job.
However, they should be distributing your book in the US, Most literary contracts go by Language now, Your book's ISBN number is completely compatible with the US distribution.
All said, it would be best if Stacey International does the distribution in the US. There is no reason why they can't as I can get my books printed on either side of the pond with no trouble at all.
Re Lee Kington:
Could someone perhaps find out how much it would cost to buy and ship a single copy to the US?
--
I've just completed a test purchase. Shipping address was-
503 WALKER BLDG
UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA 16802-5013
United States
Price was-
Items: £7.59
Postage & Packing: £6.98
And you can take a wild guess at who I gifted it to.
e-book daddio...it's the new black!
Thor and Broomhilder
Many thanks, your efforts seem to have been effective. It rained last night and today is going to be much cooler at 28C. However, the daily temperature record may be re-airbrushed/adjusted/rehabilated to erase your work.
For a self-published book, there is no hard and fast rule on what constitutes "good sales," as far as publishers are concerned. I would guess that if you can hustle and promote and sell 10,000 books these days, you might be able to get a publisher interested enough that they would at least take a look.
Most major publishers--unless they see a book as a potential blockbuster--are surprisingly lazy when it comes to their own promotion. They give the author a small percentage of sales and expect him to work his butt off to sell copies.
e books are a way to go if you're self-publishing. You knock out lots of overhead. But you also sell the book for very little money, and e publishing is by no means an automatic road to good $$. Barnes&Noble is one company that has entered the field, with its Nook e-reader, that wireless box you carry around with you. You can buy a million titles as e-books, so the arena is already crowded.
With few exceptions, small pubishers can't sell many books. Better to self-publish.
Jon
With POD -- Print on Demand -- you make a bit less because you have to pay for the book to be printed, usually about $3, than if you sell the eBook. But you can charge more for the POD book because they have a "real book" so you can make it it. Even though they are more expensive, until very recently, my POD versions were outselling eBooks by 10 to 1. Now with all the new eReaders announced at CES, this may change soon. However, most people are still not ready to spend $250 to $500 for the eReader. Once they get down to $50, they will take over.
As for overhead in POD, there is none. The book is not printed until sold. You can order a POD book from Amazon and it will show up on your doorstep. I get the check 3 months later.
On the other hand traditional printed book, where you go out and print 10,000 copies, does have a lot of overhead. You print for the books, store them and pay for them as well as storage. And you get the #($&#@^ returns from bookstores. Now that is a bad business model.
In addition with eBooks, which format? There are many. There is Adobe, Microsoft, Kindle and about 5 others. Each requires a good deal of effort to format and distribute. Once there is one standard eBook format, then they will take over, assuming a $50 eReader.
Bishop - why not wait a month or three to see how the Climatgate fallout proceeds once the hiaitus of the New Year is well and truly behind us? You might have some interesting material to add.
Eminence: "The Book Depository" is a website which delivers FREE Worldwide. http://www.bookdepository.co.uk
Your book is listed but "out of stock".
If there are no other good reasons to have a publisher, any author should consider looking for “do it yourself” by “publishing on demand”. Your publisher (or you with his consent) could easily go to USA or Canada, as long as your book contains no color graphs that you wish should be reproduced in colors (b/w usually no problem). Here are some recent experiences, as shown in related websites:
__2005/2006: http://www.trafford.com/ Canada, required PDF, EXAMPLE: http://www.seaclimate.com/
__2007: http://www.iuniverse.com/ , USA, required PDF, which was only possible in b/w, and the basis prize (ca. 700 US$) did not allow more than 50 graphs (so that from about 100 images it was necessary to make from 2 or 3, one images), which was much different to the initial publication of a book including ca. 100 color graphs with http://www.bod.de (Germany), to be submitted in PDF, at standard cost for “BoD Classic” of Euro 39.- , and approximately Euro 0,10 per color page. Information about the two editions at: http://www.arctic-heats-up.com, which shows the BoD edition.
A check with AMAZON/UK today revealed:
__the USA edition: Arctic Heats Up: Spitsbergen 1919 -1939, is deliverable in 1-3 weeks; but in the USA via Amazon/USA within ca 2 days;
__the BoD edition: How Spitsbergen Heats The World, is indicated as “Currently unavailable”, but via Amazon/DE in 5 to 9 days.
I've been looking at Lulu.com, seems really nice. There are no bumps in price due to the number of graphics, etc, as long as they are gray-scaled.
Amazon UK is saying 2-4 weeks to ship the book.
It does not show up in Kindle.
Kindle is starting to take off. I think published as an e-book on Amazon might now get you as much money & not that many fewer readers than a conventional publication.
Hey, I'd encourage you to send a copy to the Glenn Beck organization. If you are even remotely telegenic, they might find a way to do a live shot with you.
Or you could start on Beck's radio show.
Just get in the caller queue early enough.
(not sure if 888-727-beck works from europe)
Especially on Friday's when beck is taking a day off.
Or try to inquire via Monckton.
Not sure if he is an ego-maniac or not, but he certainly gets air time.
I'd also send a copy to John Coleman (sic?), the weather channel founder who was on KUSI san diego recently.
My daughter says that her new kindle is text-only, so I'd be sure to check what happens to your graphix ( assuming the cover is not the only one) which whatever ebook publisher you try.
There's a few ideas anyway.
Good luck.
RR
I regularly order 10-15 books a year from Amazon UK - SciFi authors who either are not published in the US or not published until many months after UK publication. Order 3-4 at a time and the per-book price including shipping goes down to $24-$26 dollars each. A single booki's shipping charge would of course boost the price substantially, but this book is at less than eight pounds at Amazon UK, so you should be able to get it to your mail box for a little over $20.
With print-on-demand, your cost per book depends on how many books you want them to print at one time. More books=lower cost per book. Whether you call this overhead or expenses or whatever, you need to factor it into your operation.
I used e-book example of Nook and Barnes&Noble to illustrate how many e-books are already available to order--the market is crowded. Getting people to buy your e-book through Nook or any of the other services, as always, depends on your ability to promote it yourself.
I use Createspace.com
Climategate has an expiration date - don't wait.
Don't know if you've seen this?