SPEEDMAN PRESS

LIMITED

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 Fly With the Stars

(click here to purchase)

INTRODUCTION

We are proud to be able to launch this website, along with our fledgling limited company, born essentially out of the frustrations caused by NPI Media (previously Suttons), the original publisher of Fly With The Stars, going into administration just weeks after the book was launched. 

The site is also to be used to promote the publishing services that we can offer. These are aimed at individuals and organisations who have serious works they wish to bring to market in our specialist fields (see above).

The happy news on the Fly With The Stars front, is that rights have been reclaimed by Susan and Ian, and Speedman Press now holds and controls the existing stocks of the book and are making it available through usual wholesale and retail channels. Please enquire at your local outlets or why not buy the book directly from us by following the links below. For further in depth information on the book please visit Ian's website at http://www.flywiththestars.co.uk/ .

For any frustrated authors who have also fallen foul of the demise of their publisher please take a look a our services below and see how maybe we can help breathe some life back into your book. Take a look at Susan Ottaway's narrative of the heartache and frustrations caused when Suttons and then NPI went into administration and Fly With the Stars found itself at the History Press.

BOOK PUBLISHING - A SPEEDMAN PRESS PERSPECTIVE

We all know that book publishing is a specialist process, requiring meticulous care if the end product is to meet the needs of the author and the book's intended audience. Self publishing is a particular minefield and all too often leads to poor quality results and disappointment, albeit at a high cost. Don’t assume either that conventional publishers will always get it right. They are always looking to improve their profit margins and reduce costs, often, unfortunately, to the detriment of quality. 

Speedman Press has many years of experience of the entire pre-press side of book publishing and can provide services  to ensure professional end products as demanded by authors and their readers.

Our goal will never be to push out high volumes of poor quality tomes but to work with organizations and individuals who have histories that need to be told and either be put into the public domain or made available to a private group. We can help by taking over the entire publishing process or can provide tailor made editing, proof-reading, typesetting and indexing services.

Our services can also extend to those producing family histories who wish to have them presented for posterity in a professional and appropriate form.

SERVICES FOR AUTHORS

It has been said that everyone has at least one good book in them.  You may have written that book but have been unable to interest a publisher in taking it on. 

What do you do next? 

You could take it to a vanity publisher or you could decide to self publish.

From our experiences, vanity publishing is not to be recommended. We have clients who have been down the vanity publishing route only to see an end product that has not been edited or proofread, has been badly designed and printed, and not marketed or distributed other than by their own efforts. And for this privilege they have had to hand over sometimes many thousands of pounds.

If you self publish you will still have to invest a lot of time and effort in marketing and distributing.  It will not be an easy task but the chances of success are greater if you have produced a book that is well written, properly edited and designed, and professionally printed.  Speedman Press can help you through the maze of the various processes involved:

·         Editing

·         Proofreading

·         Indexing

·         Design and typesetting

·         Obtaining an ISBN

·         Sourcing a suitable printer

·         Distributing to wholesalers and shops

SERVICES FOR PUBLISHERS

However much you want to keep control of your production processes, it is no longer as cost effective as it once was to employ editors, proofreaders, indexers, designers and typesetters in house. 

Outsourcing these services from a number of different suppliers can be a nightmare as projects are usually time critical and it can be difficult to ensure that each company completes its task in time for the next stage of the production. 

Because we have the skills to undertake all these tasks, Speedman Press is able to help you with all the production processes on an ad hoc or contract basis with work that is professionally carried out and at competitive rates. 

You can pick and mix which of our services you wish to use and we will be happy to supply you with a quote for any of your requirements.

Please e-mail in the first instance with your requirements.

UK destinations:     

THE HISTORY PRESS EXPERIENCE

My brother Ian Ottaway and I spent approximately seven years researching and writing a book, Fly with the Stars, about British South American Airways (BSAA).  We undertook the project as a tribute to our late father, who had worked for the company, but also because we felt it was a fascinating story that had long been ignored and deserved to be told. We also wanted to dispel some of the myths that surrounded the airline.

Having approached Sutton Publishing we were delighted to be given a contract and were asked to deliver the typescript before Christmas 2006.  This we did, taking it and all our photos to the Sutton Publishing office ourselves on Monday 18 December 2006.

Just over a month later we were told that Sutton Publishing had been sold by its parent company, Haynes, to Alan Sutton on 24 January 2007 and would henceforth come under the umbrella of his new company, NPI Media.  We were assured that our book would still be published and that we had nothing to worry about. The book had been due to be available by August 2007 in time for the sixtieth anniversary of the famous loss, in the Andes, of one of BSAA's aircraft, Star Dust.

Fly with the Stars was eventually given to an editor but August came and went and nothing seemed to have happened. Eventually we received our proofs which were a complete mess and we were given ten days to put everything right with the proviso that we could not make any real changes as there was no longer any time to do them. Within this same ten days we had to compile the index. We also discovered that when the company had changed hands in January several of our photos and the specially drawn maps had been wiped from the company's computers and had to resubmit several photos and then change the captions which someone at the company had decided to do themselves despite a total lack of knowledge of aviation in general and specifically passenger aircraft of the late 1940s. The missing maps were eventually produced from some photocopies they had made of the originals and every offer we made to re-supply the original high-quality maps was rejected.

At the end of November 2007 Fly with the Stars was finally published, too late for the anniversary and also for a number of book signing sessions that we had arranged at air shows. We just hoped that there was enough publicity and enough time to sell some of the books as Christmas presents.

Three weeks after the book came out, NPI Media went into administration. We received letters telling us of this and informing us that a new company, The History Press – supposedly not connected to NPI Media or Alan Sutton – had been formed and that our contracts had been moved to this company. I contacted the Society of Authors, of which I am a member, and was told that publishing contracts cannot be passed between companies without the consent of the authors concerned.  It became clear that there were a great many authors who were having similar problems to us. We were still owed the final part of our advances for the book but were told that unless we agreed to transfer to The History Press these would not be paid.  In the meantime The History Press was selling our book and we were not going to receive a penny. It also became clear that there was a lot of doubt about whether or not NPI Media was involved with The History Press. Having read numerous blogs, forums, articles and letters online and in the press, it seemed that the general consensus was that The History Press was NPI Media reincarnated. This may or may not be true but it appears to be the belief of many authors.

Fly with the Stars had, in the meantime, been receiving some excellent reviews and while Ian and I were feeling angry and helpless at this appalling situation we discovered that it was possible to take back our rights to the book. We decided that since The History Press was making money from the book but had no intention of paying any to us, we had nothing to lose. We wrote to the company telling them that we wished to take back our rights and the unsold copies of our book and began the surprisingly complicated task of distribution and sales. Since I had been working as a freelance editor, proofreader, indexer and typesetter for a number of years I decided to put all these activities into one company and thus Speedman Press was born, we regained control and are now successfully selling the book through normal wholesale and retail channels, as well as through this website.