#231 Book Selling Story and Photos Trying to Make It

 

The Authoring Business

Our first book on Scottish golf, Scotland’s Hidden Gems: Golf Courses and Pubs, took five years to research and write. That meant we took eight trips to Scotland (averaging four or more weeks each trip), playing as many as 28 straight days of golf on one of the trips, collecting B&Bs, restaurants, and tourist attractions with a commitment to writing about only what we had experienced. A fellow English teacher at Canby High had agreed to the unenviable job of editing my over use of commas. The completed book was taken to a local printer where a few photos and the front and back covers were added and a run of four hundred copies was printed, paid for, and picked up. The 10 or so boxes were stored in our basement where they lived while I figured out what to do with them—how to promote them, approach book shops, get a deal established with Amazon, etc. What was learned so far is that I loved researching and writing the book, but I didn’t enjoy the promoting part. We did sell books—a few though bookstores, a few more from personal contact (out of the car boot they would say in Scotland), and even more on Amazon. The Amazon deal was interesting. I sent two books to Amazon who would tell me when I got an order, then I would send them the number ordered, and they would send the book to the customer—always keeping in stock the original two. When we were traveling we had to have Anne’s sister Charleen supplied with books and mailing material to fulfill Amazon orders while we were away.

Selling our books this way—for about $2 a book over cost—wasn’t making much dent into our original investment. It wasn’t until we started working on our second Scotland book (Scotland and Wales) and a book on Ireland golf that we started seeing some fruits to our labors. When researching for the new books we would write ahead and say to a course, “Look at our website to get info about our books, and can you accommodate us on your course so we can write about it in our next book?” We were hardly ever refused that request. The trade of a book for a round of golf on a course we had already played or the promise of a write up on a new to us course was a good deal—it cost a course next to nothing to put us out and saved us sometimes as much as $200 each for a round on a special course (or at least $30 each on a local course). On one trip I added up more than $6000 worth of golf we didn’t pay. Some courses liked the business we brought them so much that golf there was always free and on others we got significant "friends of the course" discount as much as we wanted to play. 

Then came 2010 when our third book, Scotland and Wales, was ready to sell we decided we could update our first book in a new system called Print on Demand. We would produce the book in a special format and Amazon (Create Space) would send the book to the customer—we would have no part of the distribution process, not time nor money. Royalties would depend on the market of sale and the price of the book. We get as high $4 and as low as $.87 for a $13 book depending upon what country the order is from and what deal Amazon has with that buyer. [We also sell our books as Kindle edition for about $8.50 with about $2 net per book for us.] Since 2012, with the revision of our first book, all of our books and revisions have been Print on Demand. 

Today we check our sales daily with Amazon. During the Holiday season we will sell as many as 80 books in a month and as few as 10 on the slow months. Our Ireland golf book,

Golf Ireland: A Comprehensive Guide, is our best seller with the 3rd revision of the first Scotland golf book second best. The Scotland and Wales book and our travel stories book sell some, and even the picture book, Scotland in Black and White, sells one occasionally. We can’t live off our second career, Authoring, but we couldn’t have played as many great rounds of golf as we have, without a second career. So, it’s a writer’s life for me!   

AND NOW THE PHOTOS: Last post I showed my best sellers, but this time I’ll highlight  photos which may not have even been put up for sale which I think deserve more wall time than they’ve gotten. I’ll present them in categories and you tell me which you like best by category or for the whole group.

Flora and Fauna

Cactus, Sonoran Desert Park, AZ

Cholla Cactus, Red Rocks Park, Las Vegas, NV

Hie'lan Coos, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Abstracts

Shop Wall, Santa Fe, NM

Back of San Fransisco Mission, Rancho se Taos, NM

Reflection in a lochan, Highlands, Scotland

Landscapes

Blluebells in Forest, Perthshire, Scotland

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Buachaille Etive Mor, Glencoe, Scotland

Loch Leathar and the Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye

Architecture 

Barn that's Seen Better Days, Lake Tahoe

Doune Castle, Stirlingshire

Leadhills, the 2nd Highest Village in Scotland

Melrose Abbey, the Borders, Scotland

The Roman Bridge, Glen Lyon

Stairs

Stairs, Ft Stevens, OR

Stairs, the Glasgow Apartment 

Next: I'll see what I can come up with.

PS. I'm just trying out the automatic Google links--got any comments about them?

Old Travel Just Coming to Light: Wales 2007

Llandudno, Northern Wales

Anne and I drove south from Crieff in central Scotland toward our stay in Wales on my 62nd birthday—so, besides Social Security I got Wales. I’d had a nice birthday breakfast at our Scottish home (Merlindale B&B) with songs and presents. The drive to Wales was six and a half hours with a couple of quick stops for relief and a fast food lunch. We checked in to the Bednobs B&B in Llandudno at 3:45 leaving us enough time to wander down the promenade, shop a little in town, and find tickets to a Welsh men’s choir concert in a local church later in the evening. Dinner—good pub grub—was in a local tavern, The Albert, which was only a block from the concert. Nice town, good B&B, easy drive, good food and music—al in all, a good birthday.

Red Kite near Carreg Cennan Castle in southern Wales

Thus begins our third trip to Wales (spring 2007 before the beginning of this Blog in 2011) and the subject of this post. We are only beginning our post-Covid travel, so I will try to regale you with photos and stories out of our daily journals from this trip where we were gathering information about golf courses, pubs and restaurants, B&Bs, and attractions for our second golf guide, Golf in Scotland II: Hidden Gems of Scotland and Wales, updated and still available on Amazon.

Road around Great Orme

Great Orme from the South

The Road around Great Orme. A toll road goes all the way around Great Orme (Y Gogarth in Welsh), a limestone headland (peninsula) on the north coast of Wales and northwest of Llandudno. Great Orme shows signs of human occupation for at least 4000 years, most in and around the remains of copper mines. The road is one-way and has pullouts which make good photo stops. About a third of the way around is a side road up to the top where there’s a gift shop and observation area. This road is steep, windy, and narrow. Part way up to the top is an ancient church dedicated to St Tudno. Today’s church has bits from the 12th century, but the foundation goes back as far as the 5th or 6th century. 

Parish Church and Rectory of St Tudno

Back around the perimeter road, about half-way around, is a cafe and a lighthouse which has been converted into a B&B. It would make an interesting, albeit inconvenient, place to stay. We finished our tour back on the edge of town. Although there is a cable car which runs up to the top, Great Orme is definitely worth the drive around. 

Anne Teeing Off at North Wales GC

North Wales GC

Isle of Angelsey GC, a True Links Gem

Playing in the Wind. The wind means tough golf for us, we’re not used to it, and it especially complicates playing courses new to us (which is our whole adventure). I’m not talking about little breezes, but at least moderate zephyrs every day, On parkland courses like Abergele GC (east of Caernarfron) 

Abergele GC

the trees will block some of the wind and the grass will stop the ball quicker. Links courses like North Wales GC and Isle of Anglesey GC exaggerate the effects of the wind and make it difficult to control your ball (as if I had any control of my golf ball anyway). Our first windy golf on this trip was the first course we played, North Wales GC, where the wind was a steady 20 mph with 30 mph gusts. The wind was a significant factor on most of the links courses we played on the trip. The wind was especially brutal at Royal Portcawl GC in southern Wales where four flag poles were blown out of their holes and laying on the greens

Anne tries to get Out of One of Royal Portcawl's Penal Bunkers

Royal Porthcawl GC on a Four-Flag Day

—the pro called it just a four-flag-day, but then he’s used to the wind. We did get some windless or light wind days and were especially grateful that one of those days was when we played Nefyn & District GC in Morfa Nefyn at Gwynedd near Pwllheli (sorry, I couldn’t resist including that lovely Welsh address). 

Nefyn & District GC

Nefyn & District GC is a beautiful headland course.

The smallest official village in Wales is directly beneath the cliffs of Nefyn & District GC.

The course is a spectacular headland course which plays out to a lighthouse and back and has a pub to stop in after the 12th hole. As much as we grouse about playing in the wind, it’s just a natural part of golf in the British Isles, and at the end of the day we love our golf here.

Rhuddlan and St Asaph—The Great and the Small. After golf at Abergele GC, we visited these two sites, each impressive in their own ways. Rhuddlan Castle in Rhuddlan, North Wales, is one of Edward I’s series of defensive castles, built to keep control of the native Welsh tribes. Master mason James of Saint George completed the castle 1282 when it became the temporary residence in Wales of Edward I. 

Rhuddlan Castle

Now managed by Cadw, the national heritage trust of Wales, the castle’s impressive two huge towers dominate the countryside as they were meant to. In contrast, the nearby St Asaph Cathedral in the village of Asaph is the smallest cathedral in Britain. 

Asaph Cathedral

The Anglican cathedral, barely a large church, dates back 1400 years. The building we visited was constructed in the 13th century and was home to famous Bishop of Asaph Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1152-1155. While the outside of the cathedral pales in comparison to Rhuddlan Castle, the interior is very interesting with many war memorials, a large number of which are to Joneses. I was particularly drawn to one memorial dedicated to Robert Jones—my Jones family connection is to this section of Wales. It was really strange to see someone with my name being described in terms that I hope would fit me--it was a little like reading my own  obituary. Spooky.  And that’s the great and small of our touring day. 

The Ancient Sites of Wales. On one of our golf days, we played our course for the day and had plenty of time to explore some of Wales’ ancient sites. 

Chapel of Din Lligwy

The first we visited was a small chapel, Capel Lligwy, an 11th century fairly complete ruin (there’s a good oxymoron for you). The chapel is associated with the Din Lligwy Hut Group nearby. Next we visited the monument which consists now of mostly hut foundations and stone walls (probably of workshops) dating back to Neolithic times. 

Din Lligwy Iron Age village.

This small Iron Age settlement was occupied into Roman times (2nd or 3rd century). A few miles away we explored our third ancient site of the afternoon, Ty Newdd, .a neolithic dolmen or cromlix (burial tomb). 

Ty Newdd Chambered Tomb

The partially reconstructed tomb was the oldest of the ancient monuments dating to about 1500 BC. When it was excavated in 1935 finds included flint tools and early pottery. All three of the sites we visited were well cared for and well signed.

Playing with Members of the Club. At St Deiniol GC (Bangor, Wales) we played with Iolo Williams who is the historian of the club and who edited the club’s centenary book. He was a great playing partner and guide, and he spotted us to a nice lunch in the clubhouse lounge after the round. We love it when we get paired with locals as we play their course and ask for local guides whenever we can.

St Dieniol GC in Bangor, Wales

Anne is visiting with Iolo Willams, Secretary of the club, after our round.

On this trip we had the best luck getting paired with locals for our rounds. At Tulliallan GC (Scotland) we had a couple, Dave and Eli, and at Kinross Montgomery GC (Scotland) we played with Jamie Montgomery, an Earl and the Laird and owner of the course. AT Pwllheli (Wales) we played with the Vice-captain Joe and his wife Glenda. 

Pwllheli GC where the first nine holes are parkland and the second nine are links.

Vice-captain Joe and his wife Glenda were our hosts when we played Pwllheli GC.

It was at Tenby GC in the southern Wales area called “Little England” that we played with the best golfers of the trip. Marvin was a 4 handicap (very good) and Heather was an 11 (very good for a lady), 

The tourist village of Tenby sits on the cliffs above the beach.

Tenby GC, Southern Wales

yet both we very understanding that we need to be good writers more than we need to be good golfers—at the time I had a 12 handicap and Anne a 22 handicap. When we got lost trying find Ashburnham GC (southern Wales), Keith Williams and Mike Jones who had planned to be our playing guides had to wait an hour for us. 

Along many of the seaside links holes of Ashburnham GC our guides pointed out leftovers from WWII. This is either a command centre, a lookout station, or a gun placement.

Not only were they understanding of our story about going to the wrong course, they also stayed late and treated us to a fine dinner in the clubhouse.

All of these pairings were wonderful. We’ve met nice people and gotten much more information about the course and the area than we would have by just playing the course. Our writing gig brings us great rewards.

Next: I Continue the Wales Saga

Rambling Adventures Coming from Starbucks

About the New Book:

The Rambling Adventures of a Traveler and Golfer is now available on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk, both in print and on Kindle.  The Rambling Adventures of a Traveler and Golfer is not a travel guide, although through the stories and vignettes you will get plenty of suggestions for what to see and do (or what not to see and do) on your own trips.  After reading about St Ives and St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall you may want to visit one or both.  Perhaps I’ll entice you to find more ghosts than we did in the English pubs or to hunt for different haunts.  I certainly hope that any readers who golf will make the long trek to Scotland’s northwest corner for the great small course there (Durness GC).  You’ll also read about Scottish, English, and Irish B&Bs—that’s where all the action is.

Rambling Adventures contains more than 170 stories about travel (land and air), attractions (the famous and the out-of-the-way), eateries and food, lodgings and lodgers, the people, the golf courses and the people who play golf, the culture, and even some good old family road trips. The stories are illustrated with more than 30 black and white photos.  Rambling Adventures is the companion volume to Ten Years of Travel in Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales (also available from Amazon). 

All these small vignettes were gathered by two retired teachers who began traveling (the British Isles, the European continent, Canada, and throughout the US) and writing when they retired from teaching.  A three week retirement trip to Scotland for golf and whisky, and a two week train tour of Germany, Austria, and Hungary have turned into a love affair with self-guided travel.  The stories Rambling Adventures are the results of those travels.  

About Writing the New Book and my Other Books:

Canby Starbucks Crew

A long time ago in a world far removed from today, I developed the habit of doing my best writing (assuming any of it is good) in a diner or coffee shop.  Late night writing sessions in the Rocket Cafe in McMinnville just down the street from my fraternity house on the Linfield College campus were what got me through college.  Position papers, analyses, term papers, debate cases, oratory and expository speeches were all written while munching the famous Rocket Burger, drinking pots of coffee, and chain-smoking (cigarettes, of course).

After college, the habit stuck.  I would leave early for work and spend an hour in a coffee shop, whether I was teaching or working in the retail sporting goods industry (two years), writing poor poetry or writing magazine articles (sled dog racing, backpacking and hiking, or anything else I thought I could sell).  As I worked on my Masters degree at (then) OCE, hours were spent in Jay’s Restaurant in Monmouth writing papers for professors Baker, Walking-Bull, and Rossi preparing for that degree. While teaching at Canby High I frequented the Cottage Kitchen and then Denny’s to write five books on debate and public speaking for Championship Debate Enterprises.  Next came retirement and Starbucks.

I'm at work in my Starbucks office, my photos hanging on the wall for the month of March.

On our retirement trip to Scotland in the fall of 2000, Anne suggested we write about the  pubs, the B&Bs, the attractions, and the small golf courses in Scotland.  At that point the Canby Starbucks became my office.  I have now written, edited, proofed, and rewritten seven books almost entirely in that coffee shop.  I’ve been asked, “How can you write with all the distractions in a Starbucks—the noise of the coffee grinder, the called orders, the people, the sweeping and cleaning?”  For me it’s easy.  For one thing, I’ve been ignoring those kinds of distractions for years.  I‘ll let myself be distracted for a while if I want a break.  I find, also, that the distractions at Starbucks are much easier to ignore than the distractions at home—the phone, the cat who wants out (or in or out or in), 

Anne at work with me.

Anne (the one who should not be ignored) calling out to me, the door bell, and any number of other homey interruptions.     

Although the Canby Starbucks may not be as famous as The Elephant House in Edinburgh where Harry Potter was written,  let this post be my thanks (my book dedication) to the Starbucks’ culture that has given me the place to write in an office away from home. In fact, on my last visits to Starbucks I have already started my next major writing project, a complete rewrite and update of our Ireland golf guide. 

Canby Starbucks where all my latest books have been written.

Next Blog Post: Our road trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico.