As we all know, we’re living in very uncertain times. I have to make plans so that the business will survive, and so Jane Badger Books can continue in its mission to bring you the best classic pony books.
I am going to make a few changes to how I do things and what I produce. I think it’s important that the sort of book I publish gets out there, because they give us somewhere to go that provides a little bit of relief from our grim old daily situation: these books live in a world where everything is certain. But there are a few changes I need to make.
1. Publishing schedule
My aim is to get as many books as possible out there on pre-order, so that if I’m ill, there isn’t a huge hiatus before things get done. I’m therefore going to pursue getting all the titles as yet unpublished (the six Josephine Pullein-Thompson titles) out on pre-order as soon as possible. The three Marjorie Mary Oliver titles are already available on pre-order.
This means that One Day Event, by Josephine Pullein-Thompson, is now out on pre-order, and Pony Club Camp and All Change will be put out for pre-order as soon as I can get them ready. The same will be true for her Woodbury Pony Club series, which will be out on pre-order as soon as possible.
I want to get as much out on pre-order as possible, staggering times so that it’s not overwhelming.
Paperbacks
New books will only be available in eBook form for the foreseeable future. Paperbacks take a lot of time to produce, and they also need delivery, which increases the chances of contact and infection for people who buy them, and indeed deliver them.
Covers
As getting permission for original covers is time consuming, to say the least, I will stop doing this for the foreseeable future, but will concentrate instead on developing new photo covers for all my titles. If, when things get better, it’s possible to get permission for the old covers, I’ll look at this again. But I’d rather the books get out there so they can be enjoyed rather than faff about trying to trace copyright permission for original covers.
Platforms
I had been investigating putting the books on platforms other than Amazon. For the moment, I’m shelving that so that I can concentrate on getting titles out.
2. New titles
I will still be looking to sign up new titles, but the priority will be on getting out the titles for which I already have permission.
3. What happens if I am ill
If I go down with Covid-19, hopefully I will not be ill for long, but one never knows. I therefore need to plan for the worst. If I am too ill to continue, or die, my daughter will take over the business. She already helps out with the marketing and graphics production, and I’m putting together briefing notes for her so that the production of the books themselves is clear. I’m aiming to have as much as possible in the can, as it were, so that she can take her time and get to know how everything works without the pressure of having to get titles out to a particular schedule. I should add that, at the moment, I’m feeling absolutely fine, and I hope you are too!
So that’s it! Do let me know if you have any comments or questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Stay safe people
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