I was telling a friend about the saga of my book Following a Thread arriving and ended the sentence with “you couldn’t write it!”. I will tell you what happened…
All sorts of not-so-glamorous things go on behind the scenes of creating a book. As I have written over 20 books, some self-published, I like to think I can anticipate the pitfalls. I may work from home in the Cotswolds, but my lovely barn is not blessed with outbuildings, so storage was an issue, not to mention calculating the space 3000, 300-page books would occupy. I talked one neighbour into lending me some garage space, so I thought I was all set.
The books were arriving from the docks in Felixstowe, and the agent had been in touch on the Friday to say the books would arrive Monday. I emailed back immediately to remind them that the destination was a private house, not a warehouse and that I would be alone and need forklift assistance.
Monday arrived and so did the longest articulated lorry I had ever seen and parked outside my neighbour’s house. I waved and said you have got a forklift, haven’t you? Nope, he replied and he showed me the contents of the wagon. Phone calls were made, threats were issued and off he went with promise a of another attempt at delivery on Thursday with a smaller lorry, and a pump-up pallet jack.
Thursday arrived and so did the lady driver with smaller lorry and an electric pallet jack. So far so good. My excellent driver came back to me at the house to say that the “f***ing bloke” who used it last had not recharged the jack, so she was stuck. I could have wept! We had a deadline of delivering 1000 books to Sewing Street TV by the following Monday…
The amazing lady made phone calls and somehow a wonderful chap from Hacklings was nearby and appeared with a fully charged pallet jack and my sanity was almost saved. I say almost because the larger of the pallets could not navigate the gravel just outside the garage and we had to unload by hand.
After all that, there was just the small matter of signing the first 1000 books…
My signing hand has now recovered sufficiently to offer any special dedication you like in a copy of Following a Thread. Drop me an email when you order.
