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Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs
31 July 2017
10.03am
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Joe
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I received the first proof copies this morning – I’m officially a paperback writer!

It’s great to finally have it in hand. The beta readers are still sending in corrections and suggestions, so it’s not the final version, and the artwork isn’t ready yet. But it’s looking really, really nice.

20170731_160049.jpgImage Enlarger

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31 July 2017
1.16pm
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sir walter raleigh
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I love those chapter names! Does it also have an index?

"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"

-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"

-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl

31 July 2017
2.33pm
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Joe
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No, sorry. It might be something I add to a later edition, but it would be far too time-consuming this time around. Also, because the book is still being edited, page numbers are liable to change, so it’s not worth even thinking about right now.

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7 August 2017
11.58pm
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Desmond
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Hey @Joe , I love that concept for the book. I want to know more about how the drugs they were taking and how it effected their music. Drugs were a part of my beatles experience. I can’t wait to buy your book! 

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8 August 2017
1.41am
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ewe2
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Joe said
No, sorry. It might be something I add to a later edition, but it would be far too time-consuming this time around. Also, because the book is still being edited, page numbers are liable to change, so it’s not worth even thinking about right now.  

The latest Something About The Beatles Podcasts mentions that two subjects needing a proper historical examination are drugs and the Beatles relationship to women, so you’re on a good thing. I hope you have a bibliography and references!

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8 August 2017
4.28am
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Joe
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@ewe2 Thanks. I’ve heard about that podcast. I should check it out.

Yep, I have citations and endnotes! There are 96 books in the bibliography, plus additional magazines, newspapers, journals and websites. There are 565 citations in the endnotes at the moment. Pages and pages of them. When people read it I hope they’ll see the thoroughness of the research.

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8 August 2017
1.58pm
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ewe2
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The podcast interviewed the author of this book: The Beatles and the Historians: An Analysis of Writings about the Fab Four, it’s meant to be a college textbook, and it sounds really interesting (to history/historiography suckers like me).

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8 August 2017
3.47pm
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meanmistermustard
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@Joe will you be doing the promotional rounds for your book? 

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8 August 2017
3.58pm
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Zig
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Joe said
I received the first proof copies this morning – I’m officially a paperback writer!

It’s great to finally have it in hand. The beta readers are still sending in corrections and suggestions, so it’s not the final version, and the artwork isn’t ready yet. But it’s looking really, really nice.

20170731_160049.jpgImage Enlarger

  

 
bibliography.jpgImage Enlarger

  

Wow – this is very exciting to see this come to (near) fruition after all these years. Joe, I am so happy for you!!!

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8 August 2017
8.53pm
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georgiewood
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Fantastic, Joe! It feels like our dad has achieved a major accomplishment of which we can all be proud. Incidentally, generating an index may not be that difficult if your work was produced in MS Word. Even if it wasn’t, it could be converted for indexing purposes. I used to generate tables and indices in briefs all the time using a “mark-up” process, similar to what is described here.

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I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'.
Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake, 1997

8 August 2017
11.37pm
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sir walter raleigh
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meanmistermustard said
@Joe will you be doing the promotional rounds for your book?   

Maybe he will do a world tour and I can get an autographed copy. 

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ewe2

"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"

-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"

-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl

9 August 2017
8.32am
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Joe
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I’m not planning any tours and promotions, though I might go to next year’s Beatlefest in Liverpool. I was considering holding a book launch in my local record shop but even that fills me with fear. TBH I’m somewhat publicity-shy by nature, which is why I’ve never put my full name to this website. I almost went with a pen-name for the book too, but decided against it. I’ve always turned down media appearances, even when I worked at the BBC and producers pleaded with me to appear on the radio. Nah, not for me.

I’m not sure I’ll sell autographed copies either. The advantage of print-on-demand is that I don’t have to handle any stock, orders or shipping – Amazon does it all for me. I’d have to buy in copies from the US, sign them, then send them out again – it’s not really worth the cost or effort. But I’d be happy to meet people in the pub in Cardiff and scribble my name in their copy (please don’t stalk me).

@georgiewood said
Fantastic, Joe! It feels like our dad has achieved a major accomplishment of which we can all be proud. Incidentally, generating an index may not be that difficult if your work was produced in MS Word. Even if it wasn’t, it could be converted for indexing purposes. I used to generate tables and indices in briefs all the time using a “mark-up” process, similar to what is described here.  

I wrote the book in Scrivener and formatted it with Vellum, both excellent software. I could generate a .docx file from Scriv, but the page numbers wouldn’t be the same as in the paperback, unless I started the formatting process all over again. Plus I haven’t finished the editing yet, so references might move around. I would quite like an index, though, so it might be something I’ll work on when everything else is complete. Thanks for the link.

Edit: I suppose I could manually paste every formatted page into a new doc, one Word page per paperback page, and generate the index from that. Something to consider…

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Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

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19 September 2017
9.06am
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Joe
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“Dear sir or madam, will you read my book…?”

Hello! Riding So High is coming out on 9 October. Here’s the artwork:

riding_so_high_optim.jpgImage Enlarger

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The Kindle version is now open for preorders. I’m going to do the same for paperbacks later this week, but there are a couple of small things to sort out first. I’ll post full links once it’s all sorted. In the meantime, if you want to order it on Kindle please do! 

I’ve also submitted it to Smashwords, which will distribute the ebook to iBooks, Kobo, B&N and a bunch of other places. So if for some crazy reason you have an ereader that’s not a Kindle you’ll be able to order it from this link (from 9 October; they don’t seem to do preorders). Not sure about Google Play yet – I’ll look into it.

I’ve tried to keep the ebook price fairly low so people can afford it, but a lot of work has gone into it and I didn’t want to undersell it. It’s likely to remain US $4.99 or broadly equivalent in other countries (eg £3.99 in the UK).

The paperback will be a little more – probably $13.99/£10.99/€11.99. It’s 374 pages long and looks very lovely – definitely the sort of thing needed on your bookshelves. Buy copies for each of your relatives this Christmas! (Man, I hate marketing, it’s the worst.)

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20 September 2017
6.10am
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Joe
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Preorders for the paperback will open in 3-5 days, according to Amazon. Wish I’d known that before. Oh well, I’ll start marketing on Monday.

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23 September 2017
7.16pm
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georgiewood
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Got mine!

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I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'.
Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake, 1997

25 September 2017
7.43am
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Joe
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Thank you @georgiewood! It’s very much appreciated.

I’ve just lowered the ebook price to $2.99, and similar in other currencies (the changes might take a while to go through). I want to get it in as many people’s hands as possible, short of giving it away. Hopefully your pre-order price will be adjusted accordingly – Amazon are normally good with that.

$2.99 is likely to be the ebook’s launch price, at least until 8 December. I might keep it that way for longer, depending on how sales go. I don’t think it’d go lower – I still have to feed my kids 🙂

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Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

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26 September 2017
4.27am
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I hope you can get a Google Play edition @Joe  I have a bunch of google money doing nothing george-martin

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26 September 2017
6.49am
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Joe
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I’m not sure about Google Play Books – apparently they have a habit of slashing prices without warning, which Amazon then price matches. I’ll do a bit of research and see if there’s a way to stop Google from doing that.

Edit: Turns out they’re not accepting new sign-ups. Sorry ewe2. I might be able to use a third-party; I’ll let you know.

TBH although I’m an Android user I never think to buy ebooks on GPB – I buy everything through Amazon and read them on my Kindle. I wonder what Google’s market share is for books.

I accidentally put the paperback live on amazon.co.uk over the weekend and sold three copies. Oops! It turns out you can only have pre-orders for ebooks – for paperbacks the listing goes live once you sign everything off. I should have paid more attention! Oh well, I’ve withdrawn it again while I run some final checks. I think I’ll bring forward the publication date though – it seems silly to wait, and I’d rather get the word out. Stay tuned.

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26 September 2017
8.38am
Paul Mason
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Hi, regarding the topic of The Beatles and Drugs, and there being no books on the subject.

Well, some months ago my book ‘The Beatles, Drugs, Mysticism & India’ was published – more information available via https://www.paulmason.info/Bea…..India.html/

26 September 2017
10.29am
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Thanks, Paul. Your book looks interesting. While both are on the topic of drugs, it looks like yours emphasizes their practice of TM and begins in 1965. I think Joe’s book has a different emphasis.

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