DON’T THROW IN THE TOWEL
Wondering whether to give up writing guide books? Paddy Dillon advises you to think again...
I have one hundred guidebooks to my name,
and naturally some of those are doing very
well and some have dropped out of print
over the years. Whatever laws govern ‘swings
and roundabouts’ seem to be working in my
favour. While I’m never going to make the rich
list, I’m far from being homeless and hungry. A
year ago I was in a very generous mood, so I
passed one of my guidebooks to someone who
I thought might be able to take it further than
me. I’m sure they’ll do a great job. Time will tell.
I recall a number of well-known writers
from my early days in the Guild, who seem to
have dropped entirely out of the public eye,
and despite them having a splendid catalogue
of works in their heydays, you’d struggle to
fi nd anything bearing their name today. I know
that some of them got a bit disillusioned with
the meagre fi nancial rewards associated with
writing about the outdoors, but I suspect some
of them threw in the towel too soon.
I’ve taken on projects that were dead in the
water, yet I’ve earned more from them than I
paid for my house. I’m talking about projects
that included guidebooks to classic long-
distance trails, both in the UK and overseas,
where the original authors had either given up
due to lamentable sales fi gures, or failed to
keep their works up-to-date, resulting in them
becoming less and less useful each year.
I took on one project where a UK guidebook
hadn’t sold its initial print run after a dozen
years. With both stagnant sales and being
long out-of-date stacked against the book,
I nevertheless took it on as a project simply
because I liked the trail. I thought it would be
great to walk it, but I didn’t expect to break
even until maybe ten years had passed.
Imagine my surprise when the book sold out
within its fi rst year! Imagine my further surprise
when it went on to be my best-selling book,
reprinted almost every year, racking up royalties
far in excess of what I paid for my house.
The same thing has happened overseas,
where I took on a guidebook project that the
original author simply didn’t want to update,
and the person contracted to write a new
version actually died on the trail. When the
project was very quickly passed to me, I have
to admit a certain amount of trepidation, but for
the past twenty years I’ve continually improved
on the book, seeing it through multiple editions
and reprints, and yet again it’s earned me more
than I paid for my house.
Authors have died and their books have
died with them, then I’ve been off ered the
6 Outdoor focus | winter 2019
Paddy Dillon is one of
Britain’s most prolifi c
outdoor writers and
photographers. Visit
his website to see
his full range of guide
books. His latest book
Walking on the Azores
is available November
2019, published by
Cicerone Press.
www.paddydillon.co.uk
chance to completely overhaul their works
and breathe new life into them. Authors have
simply given up on books they no longer
believe worthwhile, then I’ve been tasked with
creating new editions and keeping them up-to-
date. That’s all these books needed - a bit of
loving care from time to time - instead of being
neglected.
When I passed on one of my books a year
ago, it wasn’t without a lot of forethought. Sure,
I could have done all the work myself, but on
the other hand I’ve been involved in keeping
many of my books up-to-date over the past few
years, and I had to decide whether to spend a
couple of months on that book alone, or maybe
update three other books over the same period
of time. I feel more like a juggler than a writer,
keeping so many projects in the air at the same
time, so on balance I think it was probably right
for me to drop at least one, and concentrate on
the rest.
Having fi nally divested myself of one
project, I’ve been looking carefully at my back
catalogue, and I might be tempted to pass on
one or two more of my books, despite the fact
that I’ve already outlined what happens when
writers thrown in the towel! If you’ve been
reading carefully, then you’ll realise I haven’t
even mentioned the titles of any of my books,
nor the routes, nor the areas I’ve covered. I’m
not going to drop any hints about the books I’m
willing to pass on either, but I will say that in the
right hands, they’ll do well. One of them has the
potential to do exceptionally well.
So, much as I would counsel any writer
against throwing in the towel, I’m considering
just a little towel-throwing at this stage,
because I’d be interested to see if the good
fortune I’ve had over the years is something
that other writers can replicate. There are
tough trails and rugged mountains that are
best explored by younger writers. I’m aware
that many younger writers feel that all the
guidebooks that need to be written have
already been written, but just remember that
when the original authors give up, either
through boredom, old age, infi rmity or death,
someone has to pick up these projects and run
with them. In the right hands there’s money to
be made out of them.
Handy hint - it doesn’t take a genius to be
able to spot one or two books on my website
that I might be willing to pass to a younger,
fi tter model, provided that they’re willing to put
in the time and eff ort…