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Maybe I’m getting slightly delusional, but the whole process of getting a book successfully over the line and into the public domain seems closer to attempting alchemy than the simple business of putting something on sale and hoping people buy it.

A book is an excellent way of introducing people to a story, but to persuade them to read it is a different matter. After all, who tracks down a 500 page doorstop on a subject they’ve never heard of, and buys it on spec? Potential purchasers need to at least know of the story, the book, or (ideally) both.

The holy grail is apparently Word of Mouth. This is when enough people have been nudged towards buying the book (via friends in the know, advertising or media reviews/interviews) that they start reading it, find it to be something of a page-turner, and are sufficiently motivated to tell their friends about it.

This requires critical mass. If you hear good things about a book from a friend/colleague, and then see it in an Amazon newsletter, and then hear a passable interview with the author on the radio all in the space of a week, you are far more likely to buy the book than just hearing about it via one specific channel or in dribs and drabs over a period of months (or even years).

Dream big

The trick is in the timing. If it all happens at once, and it’s done in the right way, the effect is exponential, and the book goes up the charts. Then it becomes self-perpetuating. Then – if the book is any good – you hit Word of Mouth and you start seeing it in peoples’ hands on the tube or train.

With no experience but the insane optimism of someone who thinks this project might have a chance, I am going for Word of Mouth. This means trying to get people who know about the story and the book to talk about the story and the book.

The personal motivation is there. If we sell enough copies:

a) I don’t lose money on it and neither do the publishers, which will please Mrs Wallis and the publishers,

b) we can start filling the coffers of the nascent Horizon Scandal Fund (which we hope to formally launch in 11 days) and,

c) (the big kahuna) more people get to hear about the Post Office Horizon scandal.

If it comes off, everyone wins, but the mechanics of trying to make it work are like nailing jelly to the ceiling.

And so…

Tomorrow is the first proper public salvo in the launch cycle. The Daily Mail, which, through the work of Tom Witherow and Sam Greenhill, has done amazing things to inform its readers about every development in this story, is serialising The Great Post Office Scandal over three days. I am profoundly grateful for their interest in the story and, as a consequence, my book.

Just to warn you the serialisation is an adaptation, re-written from the manuscript for a readership the newspaper knows far better than I do. The relationship of what appears in paper to the actual text of the book is similar to that of a trailer to a film.

I am delighted to let you know that when we told the Daily Mail we would be donating 10% of their serialisation fee to the Horizon Scandal Fund, the Mail’s editor, Geordie Grieg, doubled it without a second’s thought. We are extremely grateful to him for that, and his paper’s commitment to spreading the word.

Next week Bath Publishing hope to take delivery of the printed hardbacks. Barring a disaster at the printers and the distribution hub, you will start to see your books arrive on your doorsteps towards the end of next week.

The official book launch is on the 18th, and we are hoping bookshops up and down the land – possibly one near you – will choose to stock it. If you know your local bookshop owner – please ask them. I’d genuinely like to know the answer (+ if so, why/if not, why not).

Enough about you

Sorry – I thought it might be of interest. You’re right. What’s new?

I’m please to say the transcripts from Monday’s hearing can be read here. The visual feed of Monday’s hearing at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry has been restored and can now be seen though it’s interesting to note it’s been redacted. I’ve written about it here.

What was striking to me was that whilst the barristers for the Subpostmasters and objective/independent experts were willing to make oral statements to the inquiry, neither BEIS, the Post Office, Fujitsu or UKGI could bring themselves to say a single word. Not just nothing of substance, but not even the courtesy of saying how much they welcomed the opportunity to put their point across and how much they intended to co-operate with the inquiry. Nothing.

I spoke to someone from one of the above agencies and she told me they weren’t making any oral submissions because they thought it was a day where the Subpostmasters’ advocates should take centre stage.

I spoke to one lawyer during the lunch break and it’s fair to say he was animated by this. He told me this sort of silence was “completely unacceptable”.

I asked him why the Post Office et al hadn’t said anything. He told me it was because they wanted to say the absolute minimum possible. The inference being that they don’t want to co-operate with this inquiry, despite saying they do.

I wish Sir Wyn Williams luck. He certainly seemed exercised enough by what he heard to issue BEIS, the Post Office, UKGI and Fujitsu an ultimatum on the disclosure of documents. It expires Monday. Then we’ll find out if the stated desire of the above to co-operate with the inquiry means anything.

I’ve gone on long enough. Please buy the Daily Mail tomorrow. Please tell your friends about the book. And thanks for reading this far!

Nick