Reminiscences on Publishing, Courses and Books
When I finally returned from Spain to England, my first thoughts were to publish all the philosophical writing I’d done there. However, a catastrophic fall in the Iberian housing market meant that I needed to make money, not lose it — which is what philosophy famously does.
I decided to utilize my former science background by setting up an educational publishing company — Dial Publishing, specializing in courses on technical writing, editing and publishing. Here’s the cover of our first course :
I also had a book on Technical Writing published by trade publisher, Newnes, now part of William Heinemann. Here it is :
The splendid news for us (me and my business partner) was that the British Government was at the time paying 80pc of students’ fees for accredited courses. After a lot of unnecessary compliance work, ours were accredited. We had six courses in total under the series title of Writing for Business and Technology, all written by yours truly.
However, to justify the name Dial Publishing, I also edited and published a literary quarterly : The Dial. Here’s the cover of the first issue :
This phase rapidly came to a close when HM Gov — in its wisdom — suddenly scrapped the £2 billion ($3.8bn) scheme because, it said, it was being abused by Animal Rights activists. Well, Pooter lives.
After that bombshell it seemed simpler to take to the net where you sank or swam by your own efforts, not at the behest of hopeless ministers and civil servants. And that, folks, was when Syntagma Media came kicking and squealing into the world.
I haven’t mentioned my philosophical books because they’re not quite relevant here. But one is to be published next June by Humdrumming. It’s called : The Nirvaneans — The Natural History of Nirvana.
And that’s not the pop band — although I suppose pop bands could have a natural history since they smoke so much grass.
I’ve also got three short stories coming out in May (again under the Humdrumming imprint) in the form of Naked Tales, another in the series of books produced by our writers’ cabal, Writers Blog Alliance.
But I’m name-dropping too much here. Ah, one name I’ve forgotten, though : Dial Publishing, now the print publishing arm of Syntagma Media, is set to rise again phoenix-fashion from the Ashes urn, with The Syntagma Story — How a Cashstrapper Became a Serial Publisher of Network Magazines.
Not to be missed.
And that ends my short series on one strand in my publishing career to date. Anyone still out there ….?
John, it was fun reading your journey into publishing.
Why is it we learn so much when we fall into a heap of ashes? May Dial Publishing rise like a Phoenix.
By Robyn McMaster on November 30th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Thank you, Robyn. I’ve always found life is much simpler when you take control of your own destiny. Not so easy, perhaps, but simpler.
By John Evans on November 30th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
I’ll Humdrumming to that.
By Steve Newman on November 30th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Where did you get that name, Steve?
By John Evans on November 30th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
I believe it was Guy Adams’ doing with the assistance of Lee Thompson, our brilliant design fellah whose stock is very much on the up-swing with the brand new TV-Tie-in book for the Life on Mars series hitting shops now. The volume is worth just picking up and looking at for the layout and graphic styling. You may suddenly find you’re handing someone money so you can take it home.
By I.A.M. on November 30th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Interesting read indeed. I’ve also dabbled in print, although in smaller scale. Well, most things in Sweden is in a smaller scale compared to the UK but hey, anyway…
But John, seriously. Pop band? Pop? Now, I’m no Nirvana fan but really, they became the defining factor of the grunge rock (as in rock, not pop) genre. That counts for something, yes?
(Sorry for the double post, my keyboard got the hickups, heh. Please delete the one above. Thanks!)
By TDH on November 30th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Name-dropping again, Ian.
Still, I’ve been looking out for that one. I enjoyed the TV series a lot.
By John Evans on November 30th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Grunge rock? Hmmm. Not quite what I had in mind for the book, but maybe a lot of the fans will buy it by mistake.
By John Evans on November 30th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Maybe they will. They’re crazy about Nirvana. Put a shotgun on there, and something blurry that might be Kurt Cobain and you won’t have to worry about VC funding anytime soon.
By TDH on November 30th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Thord, don’t give my publisher, Steve Newman, any ideas. He reads this hogwash, you know.
By John Evans on November 30th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Do I?
By Steve Newman on November 30th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
I just look at the pictures.
By Clive on December 1st, 2006 at 10:42 am
I’ve got Nirvana over at my place.
By Andrea on December 2nd, 2006 at 10:04 am
That’s a very cryptic comment, Andrea.
By John Evans on December 2nd, 2006 at 10:14 am
Or even a Kurt one…
By Clive on December 2nd, 2006 at 4:14 pm
[...] Dial Publishing Dial Publishing was my first attempt at being an independent print publisher. It concentrated on educational books and courses, and was successful until the market went pear-shaped (see here for more details). [...]
By SYNTAGMA » Syntagma Media Projects 2007 - 2009 on February 11th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
[...] offer : 20 years experience in trade, general, and educational publishing — see here, here and here – and, in particular, one and a half years building Syntagma Digital from scratch [...]
By SYNTAGMA » Dial Consultancy for Digital Publishers on March 3rd, 2007 at 10:28 am
[...] offer : 20 years experience in magazine, general, and educational publishing — see here, here and here – and, in particular, one and a half years building Syntagma Digital from scratch into a [...]
By Dial Publishing - Books and the Printed Word » Dial Consultants Take the Stage on March 12th, 2007 at 4:50 pm