Announcement: From Van to Home book – revised edition coming soon

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: 

1. I’ll print a limited run to test things and to gauge demand and also costs
2. 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.