In 2015 I wrote and released my first book to the world from the back of my van:
From Van to Home – How I made an old rusty van into my cosy off-grid home (link here)
Five years later it’s time to give it a refresh…
This is an announcement post
1. There will be new revised edition of my first book, From Van to Home.
2. A print version will also exist – although limited at first (read below)
As promised, everyone who already has the book gets the updated version for free (ebook)
Why an update?
This was my first book, my first attempt at many things – formatting, writing, editing. The truth is, I just never thought this many people would read it. The positive feedback exceeded anything I imagined.
But I know it can be improved. In the first version there are things that I feel were not completely clear, in the writing and in the annotated photos. I’ve also made some additions and modifications to the van since then, as well as having more experience with the van and on the road.
Who else would like to see this book in print?
I will do my best to make it happen. It’ll probably go something like this:
- I’ll print a limited run to test things and to gauge demand and also costs
- If the demand is there I will do my best to create more and set up proper order fulfilment
Cost is the main reason it isn’t available in print
Big publishers are able to produce amazing colour hardbacks and sell them for £15. For a self-published book in a niche market, and after storage fees, postage, and processing fees, that’s extremely difficult – I would love to be proven wrong on this… anyone?
I’ll continue down this path and see what happens. At the very least there will be a limited run of print copies.
Join in
Being able to get feedback, suggestions and help from people on this blog has been invaluable. I went from being scared of writing to becoming a best selling author in multiple categories.
But more importantly, the feedback and support from this blog helped me create things that people all around the world have found great value in. So thank you! If it wasn’t for this blog, and you, I would never have known I could write a book.
I have been noting comments, feedback and suggestions ever since I released this book
But you have any more for me, now is probably the last chance. I’m listening.
Hmm. And another thing…
Can anyone recommend a good Interior book designer? I’ve been learning Adobe Indesign and have already started on a design for the print layout. Balancing logical flow with aesthetics is difficult with this high ratio of images to text.
My plan is to go as far as I can and then hand it over to a pro to make it nice. Do you know anyone creating lovely book interiors, including yourself?
And any suggestions on the cover? the existing cover works (thanks to Robin’s help back in 2015). It’s bold and gives a clear message of what the book does. But I’m always open to suggestions.
Note: I changed the background colour to blue on this cover, rather than the cyan colour.
Thanks
That’s all for now.
I bought the original and found it invaluable when converting my van. I have had plenty of experience producing short to medium runs of books Mike – happy to give advice
Oh cool thank you! I think I’m getting somewhere now 🙂
Yes please, I would like to buy a print version. X
Hi!!
I’m extremely interested in doing something like this! For me and my boyfriend and our pups med size! I was curious what you Van did you use??
Thank you!!
Hey, well I hope this blog can help you, along with the two books – there’s a whole chapter on choosing a van in my second book ‘How to Live in a Van and Travel’. My van is an LDV Convoy. 5.5m length. It’s not a large van but it’s a good size for me and not so difficult to manoeuvre in small spaces etc.
Good luck! 🙂
Hi,
Have you seen:
Motorhome self-build and optimisation by Ulrich Dolde
And
Vehicle-dependent Expedition Guide by Tom Sheppard?
I don’t know what process they use for printing and distribution but these are expensive books but they have superior content so people buy them. I am sure yours would be the same ?They seem to be ordered direct from the author?
Mike, print on demand is easy for hard copy books. No storage costs because they’re literally printed one at a time as people order them and are mailed to the buyer by the printer. No stock management issues and order fulfillment demands for you. Just collect your cut of the price you charge. You can do paperbacks via Kindle Direct Publishing (the production arm of Amazon) or Ingram Spark. IS also does hardbacks. Set up properly, they appear on automatically on Amazon and elsewhere You can also order ‘author’s copies’ from one to as many as you want if you wish to carry ‘stock’. I do POD for writers for a living and it’s easy. Doing ‘runs’ of books and fulfilling orders yourself is so last century.
Thanks, yeah I used print on demand for my second book ‘How to Live in a Van and Travel’, using IngramSpark linked to Amazon, who then deal with order fulfilment.
I know what you mean about doing runs of books being ‘so last century’ but when a book gets popular this is exactly what has to happen to be able to deliver orders by next day, or Prime, all around the world. So my second book is technically print on demand but to deal with the demand there has to be a buffer in the Amazon warehouses, distributed according to projected demand – volume and also geo location. When someone buys that book it is taken from a shelf in the closest warehouse to the customer’s address, not the printer.
It’s possible to set this up yourself. For example, you find a printer in the East (China have some of the most advanced printing machines in the world and also the cheapest) and do a ‘run’ which will then go straight to an order fulfilment centre (Amazon for example, but there are many other non-branded ones) who will then store, pack and ship the book when a new order comes in. And that is literally what Ingram POD are doing with my second book, they’re printing quantity at a time.
This is what I’m talking about when I speak of doing runs, because the POD model just isn’t efficient or economical when the demand gets higher. Amazon knows this, Ingram knows this. The thing is, you’re paying a higher price for the ability to print an individual book whilst Amazon and other book distributers can benefit from price breaks and other discounts when ordering quantity, but you, as a POD author, get charged the same.
Ingram are good though. Great customer service. But it’s expensive. I just used their calculator to estimate my first book (Van to Home). Trim size 8×10, paperback, premium colour, 280 pages. The print charge is £21.34. Then adding the wholesale discount at 40% means that if the book retailed at £35 I would be losing money on every sale (£-0.34).
So that’s why I’m going to have to look at different approaches.