Who Wants A New Book? – 31/3/16

Today I need to ask everybody a question – how many of you would be prepared to buy a new book by me should I be able to publish one at the end of this season?

Firstly I would just like to thank everybody who was kind or daft enough to purchase a copy of Ahead Of The Game. I am eternally grateful to all of you and only hope that you enjoyed it and were happy with your purchase.

My publisher, James Lumsden-Cook, the owner of Bennion Kearny was brave enough to take a real chance on me and probably against his better judgement decided to go ahead with the last book which thankfully received some fantastic reviews and has exceeded all expectations by selling the best part of one thousand copies.

Now the time has almost come when we need to decide how best to proceed regarding its potential successor.

The last book was pretty straightforward as it catalogued an unexpected but quite wonderful series of triumphs interspersed with the massive trauma of Warburtongate but this time it is likely to be a very different story given all the happenings and ups and downs both on and off the field since last July.

What the publisher quite understandably wants to know is how many Brentford supporters will really want to buy a book that is more concerned with lost opportunities, over expectations, defeats, disappointments plus a few massive high points too as well as an inquest and analysis into the many things that have gone wrong plus of course those that went right and an explanation as to why certain actions had to be taken?

I have already written the best part of a quarter of a million words regarding all the events of this season, both good and bad, and the book will be fair, balanced and objective and will look forward as well as back, rather than just being a moan-fest.

Hopefully there will also be a few unexpected guest writers who will provide their own perspective on all things Brentford.

For those who like their nostalgia, there will also be several more esoteric pieces on players and events from the recent and more distant past which I hope will be evocative and stir a few memories from all fans of a certain vintage.

The new book has provisionally been titled Growing Pains, which I think is a fair summation of where we currently find ourselves in the Brentford Project.

Like the first book it would be around four hundred pages in length, contain some fantastic action photographs from this season and retail at around sixteen pounds.

The BFC Talk blog has been going from strength to strength and the readership levels have risen dramatically this season and particularly over the past three months, so the key question is how many of you who either bought the first book or who read my blog either regularly or from time to time are going to be interested or likely to buy a copy of Growing Pains if and when it is published in June?

My publisher and I have spoken at length about this subject and he wants to guage likely levels of interest in the new book before he gives the project his final go ahead.

I am therefore going to ask if anyone with an interest in buying the book could please email BFC@BennionKearny.com and confirm that they are more than likely to buy the new book should it come out in June.

Reading between the lines we need to know that a minimum of three hundred people are likely to buy the book in order to make it a viable proposition.

Should the publisher receive significantly less than that number of emails expressing interest then the project could well be mothballed and the book not be published.

That is the situation in a nutshell, if enough supporters confirm their interest in buying a copy then it will be published – even, perish the thought, if we are relegated, unlikely though that prospect is.

I am desperately keen for all my work to see the light of day and very much hope that as many of you as possible will send an email to BFC@BennionKearny.com within the next couple of weeks as we need to make a final decision by the end of April.

Please don’t just leave a comment on Facebook or Twitter or on the blog itself, please send your email to the publisher.

Obviously sending an email does not commit you to buying a copy (and please also let us know if you might even be interested in buying an extra copy or two as a present for someone else) but it will certainly give us a reasonable idea of whether the book is likely to be a success or not.

Apologies for having to make this request but I am sure you can all see why I have to do so and hopefully you will all respond accordingly and send in your emails.

Thank you for all your interest and support.

Best wishes

Greville