my second ebook - a cycle beside the canals of France

It�s fair to say I was a sceptical first-time ebook author. 

I�d had twenty �real� books released with reputable publishers, who had assigned extremely experienced and helpful editors to assist in transforming my messy manuscripts into readable books. These publishers also spent considerable time, money and expertise in providing quality covers and design work, as well as marketing and publicising the book when it eventually hit the shops. They had, to varying degrees, also released ebook versions of the paperback books. So far, these ebooks have accounted for only 5% of total sales. Not the supposed ebook revolution we�ve been told is just around the corner.

However, in 2012 I�d written a travel memoir that I knew was highly unlikely to be accepted by one of my publishers. Not because it wasn�t well written (come on!!), but because it was aimed at a rather small niche market. baguettes and bicycles is the tale of my cycle across France from the Atlantic Ocean to the German border and also includes a section devoted to my exploits in attempting to cycle up and down the French Alps. 

How many readers are interested in the adventures of a middle-aged man cycling in France? I �self-published� baguettes and bicycles as an ebook through Amazon. I set the price at a paltry $2.99 and waited. After three months, I�d sold a few hundred copies and received a dozen encouraging readers reviews. I was happy to file it away as �a worthy failure.�

However, in May 2013, I noticed that the sales were increasing rather dramatically, particularly in the UK. Suddenly I was selling between ten and fifteen copies per day, every day. This mildly impressive tally held all the way through the northern summer. By August, the book had sold two thousand copies. Not a best-seller by any means, but no longer a worthy failure. The sales have dipped slightly but show no real signs of fading away. 

My wife suggested the sales spike from May to August was connected to hundreds of Britons deciding to do some research for a possible summer holiday. What better way than to purchase an inexpensive (cheaper than a cup of coffee!) memoir of a bike ride from west to east across France. Even if they didn�t take the trip themselves, they had a few days of hopefully entertaining escapism in the pages of baguettes and bicycles.

What excited me most about the �success� of baguettes and bicycles was that I was reaching a readership totally unrelated to my previous books, which were either aimed at children or young adults. From the increasing number of positive reviews the book was receiving, I knew the readership was primarily middle-aged men and women who had a taste for alternative travel, linked to cycling, slow food and back road wanderings. 

Canal du Midi

In the northern summer of 2013, just as the sales of baguettes and bicycles were peaking, I was already in the process of writing and researching my next ebook. This involved my wife Cathie and I cycling down the Canal de Garonne and the Canal du Midi - a trip from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. I finished the manuscript in September and after two months of editing, it�s now available on Amazon, titled bordeaux and bicycles.  (UK link here)

It follows a similar format to baguettes and bicycles, focusing on food, landscape, people and the memorable villages of a beautiful region of France. I�m pleased that I can publish my second travel memoir almost a year to the day after publishing my first. And yes, I�m already planning my third, a cycle along the Danube from Basel to Belgrade. I reckon I�ll call it bratwurst and bicycles.

I'm a convert to the ebook form. I've discussed the issues between reputable publishers and ebooks in more detail here, if you'd like to click through.

In the Minervois hills

Near Homps

I'll finish with a few photos of our journey down the canals of South-western France. I'm pleased to say this was my 'office' for a few weeks earlier this year.

South of Toulouse