Apologies if I repeat anything here but I have only just read the first few posts of this thread and felt I had to respond.
I co-wrote the book with Tommy and have been responsible for organising the book signings. Perhaps the first thing to say is that there is really no fortune to be made in writing sports books unless it really takes off in the way perhaps Martin O’ Neill’s book has.
For every book sold at Waterstones or on Amazon, Tommy and I get £1.25, that’s 62p each. We can buy the books from the publisher for £12.50 a copy. We have sold these on line for £18 or £20 at a signing session. Therefore on a £20 sale we would make £3.75 each.
Neither of us undertook the project to make money. Tommy wanted something to leave to his grand kids so they would know his story. For me, I wanted to fulfil the ambition of having a book published. I would have been content on breaking even on the project, which I will just about do. Tommy might make a couple of thousand if he is lucky.
I saw the comment in an early post that Tommy was just being greedy. This claim could not be further from the truth. Tommy is a great bloke, very down to earth and not interested in the slightest about money. Since getting to know him over the past couple of years I have seen several acts of kindness from him towards the people he has met.
A few weeks ago Tommy did a signing at the Crewe branch of the Man City supporters club. I think everyone had a great night. I spoke to Wayne who organised that session saying that we were struggling to get into Manchester City to sell the book. He said he might be able to help.
Someone Wayne knows spoke to Oli Hamer, who organises aspects of hospitality at the club. Oli then got in contact with Tommy and me and invited us to the Arsenal game. When I spoke to Oli I asked about the prospect of selling books and there didn’t seem to be an issue. I also asked about the prospect of the club putting Tommy up in a hotel on the night of the game. I was told this wasn’t something Man City usually did.
You’ve got to remember that Tommy lives a five hour drive away from Manchester and is 76. It’s not as if he could easily drive there and back in a day.
On the back of the offer Wayne put me in touch with Mike who organises things for a Cheshire branch of the City supporters club. He kindly agreed that if we came on the Thursday (yesterday) the branch would put Tommy up in a local hotel for the night. Mike told me that there would be about 35 people at the Q and A with Tommy. That’s about the same as we had at Crewe when we sold ten books. We would therefore make about £80 from book sales on the night, £40 each. This would be great if we were able to sell maybe 100 books at the City v Arsenal game the next day but would have left us both out of pocket as an individual one off event that we both travelled to, him from Scotland, me from Coventry.
On Tuesday of this week I had an email from Oli with the itinerary for tonight’s match. It looked great until I saw the part where he stated that we would not be able to sell any books at the game.
I phoned him and he told me that there simply wasn’t the space at the stadium to sell books. Also that the club didn’t have the facilities to handle other people’s money. I told him we would not need any help with the money as we would do this ourselves.This didn’t matter, I was told, as the club simply couldn’t let the books be sold. I said okay and that I would let Tommy know.
I spoke to Tommy and he felt it just wasn’t worth coming down (up in my case) as we would both be out of pocket.
I therefore wrote an email back to Oli letting him know we wouldn’t be coming. I contacted Mike at the Cheshire City branch to apologise and say we wouldn’t be able to attend. He was great, said he understood and not to worry.
I then had another phone call back from Oli at the club. He was upset that Tommy felt that the club did not value old players in the way that perhaps they should and he was upset that I had said that perhaps the spirit of the old club from Moss Side had disappeared. I explained that all Tommy’s old clubs had welcomed us in to sell the book, including Alloa where he had had a great time the previous Saturday. Oli told me that, with respect, City weren’t Alloa. He meant this in a different way, but he had confirmed the point I was making. He also told me that City were not allowed to sell books at the stadium because of the contract they have with their retail partner.
He told me he was going to speak to Tommy as he was disappointed he would feel the way he did.
Tommy then phoned thirty minutes later to let me know Oli had been in contact. He had been offered a hotel room for the two nights of his stay (something that wasn’t offered before) and that Oli would try and see if he could change minds above him and allow us to sell the book.
I contacted Mike in Cheshire to tell him we might be back on and waited for Oli’s decision.That came late yesterday afternoon and was in the negative. We would not be able to sell. Tommy wasn’t going to budge so I told Mike that we would not be coming.
To me, the book sales were really the payment for the ‘work’ that Tommy would have done. He would have spoken to fans in two lounges and been interviewed on the stage in City Square. He would also have been available to speak to City fans and have his photo taken with them. I can guarantee that people would have left with a Spring in their step. He is a funny, warm and engaging character. I would have thought City were getting their moneys worth for effectively giving us two tickets. (remember, initially no hotel room was on offer, and we would have still come without theses being made available). Tommy would have been the entertainment for corporate guests and for those in City Square.
Oli was saying that the book would have been given tremendous publicity by Tommy talking about it and by showing it on the big screen. All true I suppose, but it would still have been an exercise that cost us money with no guarantee of the publicity translating to sales.
City do stand out from the other clubs Tommy played for with their no books rule and that’s a shame (I do know that Brian Horton was able to sell his book a couple of years ago, so perhaps also not that consistent?).
Tommy is booked to do a Q and A session at the Abbey Hey City supporters branch on February 9. This is the day before he is at a dinner at Blackpool FC with other former Seasider players to celebrate that clubs exploits in the Anglo Italian tournament 50 years ago. Being in the north west for that event means he can come over and talk to City fans again with out being out of pocket. Anyone attending that night will have a great time and will meet someone who really appreciates the time and effort given by those who come to see him.
