This isn’t a writing project as such, but I have been pleased to use my skills to help a friend bring their own projects to life.
I met Glyn Williams in 2017 when I began editing the Prescot Cables FC match programme; he was one of the regular contributors. Glyn’s pieces – which were meticulously researched and popular with readers – were, in effect, extracts from a booklet Glyn had written about the early history of football in the town, the manuscript of which he shared with me. During the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 I used that manuscript to create a print-on-demand ready file, as much to keep myself busy as anything else. Glyn was delighted and asked me whether this could be made widely available so, as I had with my own book, I published it through Amazon. Here’s a preview of the Kindle edition:
The book was well-received and Glyn was delighted to have a published work he could hold in his hand and asked me to work with him on publishing a series of travel diaries. The first volume, Travels in Central Europe, came out in February 2022, while a second book, Combing the Celtic Fringe, was released in May 2023. A third collection, The Sweet Life is currently in production as is a dedicated website for all Glyn’s books.
Browse The Travel Diaries at Amazon
Light touch
Although part of the project is to edit each book, I deliberately take a ‘light touch’ to this aspect. Some of the travelogues included were almost twenty years ago and I don’t want to distort Glyn’s authorial voice. What I do see as my key responsibility is to make sure each book is laid out in as attractive and accessible way as possible and to create visually appealling books. My extensive experience with the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of software helps to make this possible.