I know how some in the shooting industry like to make out that I am coining it in from writing Inglorious and that I’m just in it for the money. So wrong!
Here is my latest royalty statement from Bloomsbury as far as it applies to Inglorious. Lots of numbers but if you were to turn over the page then you’d find that I have been paid £153 for Inglorious, Birds and Forestry and A Message from Martha combined for book sales in 2019.
Since all the stock of Inglorious is sold then I should simply get the last of the retained sums next year – c£30. So, not a life-changing sum, but I did the work back in 2014 and 2015 so it’s a nice long tail spread out over quite a period (which is handy for tax purposes).
I am looking forward to the third edition which will require quite a re-write of the last half of the book so that it describes the role of many others in ending driven grouse shooting – that would be a great reward, although not necessarily financially.
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Great to hear that it’s going into a third edition, but perhaps sad in some respects that it needs to. But, you didn’t expect it to be instant resolution and we were warned that it would be a long haul to achieve reform and a return of the uplands to delivering public benefit for the many not just the few.
Thank you Mark and to all your network and associates who are working to bring an end to wildlife crime in the countryside and particularly the upland moors.
I strongly suspect that the only authors who make a real living from their writings are those who write popular fiction or cookbooks not those who write the sorts of books that scientists and conservationists write.
Given their basic tenets I suspect that even if you showed the spreadsheet to the likes of the Countryside Areliars and their other pals amongst the grouse botherers most would still not believe you Mark.
Luckily for them the return on book writing is poor as if you had received riches beyond the dreams of avarice you could have bought the odd grouse moor and stopped anyone killing anything on it.
I’m sure the commenters would have chipped in a few quid to make up any shortfall.
As it is the best we can do is get one of your books out from the library (or would do if they weren’t shut).
As so many in conservation seem keen to re-run the forestry disputes pf the 1990s, could I reccomend the Birds and Forestry so that at least their putdated biews can be accurate !