Would you buy the book ?

ExploringRTW

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Hi Chaps,

We'd like to enlist your help and opinions again please.

MikeP and a few others on and off the site have kindly encouarged us to write a book about our adventures. Initially I have been wary, and still am, but John and I are very aware that our Threads are more of a chronological listing of events with primarily only the really highs and lows listed, in fact only a few of them compared to how many we really had. John recently said that he feels that "some of our earlier entries are more like Post cards" compared to what we were really going through.

So, our thoughts are that if we wrote a book we would want to re-write the whole account with much more 'mid-level' detail containing the more gritty and amazing personal sides of our journey so we can convey more of what it is really like living on the road for the 2-3 years that we did as ordinary blokes which was a valid point MikeP made.

To give you an example, the day we left the UK was absolutely crazy. We woke up in our respective houses with them primarliy furnished as we'd lived in them for the previous 4+ years. By 5pm, the contents had been packed away and removed into storage. We were standing in just bare shells of what had been our homes and it was odd. By 6:30 pm John arrived at my Mum's house with a Taxi to take us to Heathrow. We were to be living for two years on the road on the proceeds of our houses which still wern't sold. I lay awake on our last night in the UK at a Motel near Heathrow with my mind racing and I was panicking, and I mean really having to keep a lid on all my fears - Job, home, relationships, worries about pensions all left behind. I didn't know how much I had in my bank account, even to the nearest £3-4k ! and I wasn't rich either. I was woken by a 747 landing which sounded like it was going to crash right into our Motel-It summed up how I felt very well. And that was the first morning of our travels....which was then shortly followed by an intimidating interview with US customs in Dublin as we headed towards the States.

I think it would be fair to say that we don't think we put enough personal stuff in our threads which is something others noted when I asked for feedback in 2006, but something we thought was ok at the time. Oh, the benefit of hindsight !

The other issue which a few have asked us about is advice on various aspects of this sort of journey, e.g. how to budget etc ? / Central & South America Border crossings. Do you think it could be incorportated into one book or should be considered as two ?

Last but not least, assuming you would be interested, would you prefer to read about it as one massive jouriney around the world ?, or split into continents/countries ?

What we'd really like from you guys is wether you would find it interesting enough to go out and buy ?, bearing in mind that the journey finished mid-2008, and the book wouldn't be published until the end of this year at the earliest. It would take about a year to write hence one of the main reasons for our questions.

Thanks very much for reading and in anticipation of your responses.

Mike & John
 

Monsieur

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Personally speaking I would read most travelogues, whether its on foot, boat, air, bike, cycle etc.
I enjoy the writing, the adventure, the stories within stories so, yes I'd buy it :thumb2
 

Sgt Bilco

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Guys

I`d be inclined write 2 books. One on the personal and another for the technical.

When I read a travel book, the personal ones are much better i.e Road to Gobblers Knob was superb but hardly mentioned bikes:D I think Jupiters Travels is more of a personal log rather than a simple travel guide and much better for it:D.

I`ve just started a personal account of my US trips. It`s tougher than you think.

Write the book, you`ll regret it otherwise:thumb
 

chad

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Personally speaking I would read most travelogues, whether its on foot, boat, air, bike, cycle etc.
I enjoy the writing, the adventure, the stories within stories so, yes I'd buy it :thumb2

ditto:thumb2
 

Ash

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Personally speaking I would read most travelogues, whether its on foot, boat, air, bike, cycle etc.
I enjoy the writing, the adventure, the stories within stories so, yes I'd buy it :thumb2

:thumb:beerjug:
 

Fanum

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Yes I'd read it, but I wouldn't do two books IIWY....have a section in the back for the mods, kit list and mini-reviews and the tech stuff that you can refer to through the story itself- then tell it how it was :thumb2

It's the human interest part that would sell the book to the general public- the ups and downs, the emotions, even the rows, doubts and fears....but you do need to have the the tech, planning and kit bits in it somewhere to satisfy people like us ;)

I would take some time to read some of the other books that go down really well.......from Jupiter's travels to Sam Manicom's fine works.....make a note of what you enjoy as you read them and and that will tell you why they've been successfull :thumb2

The more honest and open the book is, the harder it'll be to write but the more engrossing it'll be to read, so don't hold back....a sterile tale of 'on Monday we did 300 miles and saw xyz then we turned left and saw abc and then did another 300 miles' would just be pants :)
 

madmax

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Why are you sat reading this letter! get on your lap top and start tapping away at them there keys and get it out in print.
You've already done the hard bit.
Good luck boys, signed copy please when your done.
GO FOR IT

:beerjug:
 

alex-reed

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Not much action in this thread lately, any update on the book or what not, really enjoyed reading this.
 

Mr K

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Most of us will never go round the world or even have more than 3 weeks of "big trip" a year.
Reading about other people doing it helps.
Don't worry about the format: Do it how you feel at ease with. The varying styles of the various writers I have read add to the individuality of the story....

:beerjug:
 

ExploringRTW

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Currently in the process of first Draft chapters

Thanks for your interest. I've actually written 6 draft chapters and am in the process of editing them and preparing some other literary requirements before it is sent off to a Literary Agent for consideration in the next month or so.

Regards,

Mike
 


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