Manchester The City Years Kindle edition now available

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Gary, with regards to the photos you have of Hyde Road, who owns the image rights to them after so long?

Always the agency/source the publishers or I have bought them off. They came from a variety of archives, including the newspapers themselves (such as the archives of the Illustrated London News) and some came via the British Library. They supplied the material and own the copyright on those images they've supplied. The publishers have to pay reproduction rights and, one of the reasons why they are reluctant to produce ebooks at the moment, the providers usually limit their use with further fees for ebooks etc. As my books tend to have a lot of images it would be too costly for an ebook.

I've seen people lift the images in the past to use on their sites and publications but that's illegal without getting permission (and paying reproduction fees) to the copyright holder. I know that many of these images were originally captured so long ago that copyright shouldn't be an issue, however the argument that the archive/owner uses is that they will take the photo/scan of the original (or newspaper) and that will then be a modern day image. As they may often be the only place where that original image survives then the publisher/author has to pay what it takes to use it and accept the restrictions. I've tried to argue against this saying that the original newspaper was produced in, say 1904, and the photographer died XX years ago, but it's not a valid argument. It's a big industry and shows the value in any organisation developing its own archive.

Are there some images you were interested in using? If so let me know and I'll trace the copyright holder. Thanks.

Thanks Gary, no, I was just curious as to why 80 years on they were still copywrited / permission needed. As you say, the photographer or even the newspaper may not with us anymore. That's a shame that they would prefer them to just gather dust and not be seen. Although appreciate if they have bought the rights then they would expect a return for publication..

 

[Cellarite]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

My copy of this book got delivered from Germany on Saturday and I have to write and say how disappointed I am and thought this was the best place to state my complaint.

I bought this book with the intention of reading it but that seems impossible. Such is the perfection of this item, I barely dare touch it. It's like a freshly served kebab or a beautiful woman's bottom. It's exactly what you hoped for but you know that once you get started on it, it's immediately lost some of the magic that it holds before you get your grubby little hands on it.

Please Gary, if you are intending to do anymore of these types of books, could you find your way to making them a little bit shabby from the off so that I don't actually mind opening the thing?

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

My copy of this book got delivered from Germany on Saturday and I have to write and say how disappointed I am and thought this was the best place to state my complaint.

I bought this book with the intention of reading it but that seems impossible. Such is the perfection of this item, I barely dare touch it. It's like a freshly served kebab or a beautiful woman's bottom. It's exactly what you hoped for but you know that once you get started on it, it's immediately lost some of the magic that it holds before you get your grubby little hands on it.

Please Gary, if you are intending to do anymore of these types of books, could you find your way to making them a little bit shabby from the off so that I don't actually mind opening the thing?

I'll see what I can do with the next one! Actually, you may well have bought the last copy. There appear to be none on sale now, unless there's the odd copy hidden in a branch of Waterstones.

Hope you enjoy it - when you open it of course.

 

[Damocles]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Gary outside of your Mercer book, why are very few of your City books available for Kindle purchase?

I don't want to pay £1.84 for a certain section, I want to pay a larger amount for the entire book.

I'd buy a digital edition of Manchester: The City Years and Manchester: A Football History in the £15 range no problem.

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Gary outside of your Mercer book, why are very few of your City books available for Kindle purchase?

I don't want to pay £1.84 for a certain section, I want to pay a larger amount for the entire book.

I'd buy a digital edition of Manchester: The City Years and Manchester: A Football History in the £15 range no problem.

Most of my books include a lot of images and my publishers have had to pay rights to use them. If they were then to publish them as ebooks the rights would be increased (doubled in some cases) and so a decision was taken with the Mercer book to do a text only version for the kindle but, to be frank, it hasn't sold particularly well (in either format - times have changed I guess).

I'd love to publish all my back catalogue as ebooks in full (with images and so on) but not yet found a publisher who will pay the costs to the photo agencies and take a gamble.

Maybe we should strip out all the images and publish a text only version? I'm open to any ideas, advice, contacts, ebook publishing expertise etc. Thanks

 

[Damocles]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

It's the text that I'm interested in more than the images to be honest.

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

It's the text that I'm interested in more than the images to be honest.

Seriously thinking about it, but depends on publishers. I did notice last night that the City Store in the Arndale has copies of Manchester The City Years and Manchester A Football History left, but only a few. Could be the last Manchester stockist, though I think the NFM shop has a MTCY still.

 

[Damocles]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Is it more beneficial if I buy off of them, or wait for the Kindle?

I believe that a vast majority of the Kindle sale goes to the author which is what I'm after here. You make great books and I want to know that when I buy your books it gives you the financial incentive to make more.

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Is it more beneficial if I buy off of them, or wait for the Kindle?

I believe that a vast majority of the Kindle sale goes to the author which is what I'm after here. You make great books and I want to know that when I buy your books it gives you the financial incentive to make more.

I wouldn't wait as there is no date set or effort behind a kindle book at the moment. On royalties - it all depends on the agreement. Self published ebooks on amazon authors can get 35 or 70 per cent of cover price but those by publishing companies depend on the agreement. All the contracts I have signed show that I would currently get the same percentage.

My best income for a book comes from face to face sales like when I talk at a supporters branch etc. in those cases I sell the books £5 cheaper and I make more than normal royalties, but I don't have any MTCY or Manchestr A Football History left I'm afraid. Plenty of Joe Mercer Football With A Smile if anyone's interested. Thanks for positive comments. Much appreciated.

 

[sambrookonthewing]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Hello Gary,

I have a query about 2 old City players and wonder if you could help? I am reading a WW1 book called "Cheerful Sacrifice- The Battle of Arras" by Jonathan Nicholls (written in 1990). On page 58 he quotes a soldier from 9th Royal Scots, 4 Platoon who was serving in the 51st Highland Division. Apparently this platoon was very keen on football. The soldier writes, "We had Bill and Jimmy Broad, 2 brothers who were professional footballers with Manchester City - that made the 9th Royal Scots the best team in the division."
I have checked the list of players in your "History of Manchester City" book and there is a T H Broad mentioned at that period, but the initials don't tie in with Bill or Jimmy. Can you shed any light on this?

John Ogden