Job done!

My first ‘ghost writer’ assignment is done and dusted. The initial assessment and structural edits are finished, the publication date’s been set … and I’ve been paid! 😀

This is not the kind of thing I ever thought I’d be involved with, but if an established, ‘traditional’ publisher comes knocking, well …

When asked if I’d be interested in producing these two books, I looked at the brief and thought:

“Dawdle. Easy.”

Realistically, even had I considered the task to be ‘mission impossible,’ I’d still have chosen to accept it. I mean, these opportunities don’t present themselves too often – in my case, never before.

Summersdale Publishers (Summersdale) are part of the Hachette UK Group. Their parent organization is listed as Octopus Publishing Group Limited. They produce in the region of a hundred books each year, specializing in travel writing, hobbies, lifestyle and well being, gift books and humour.

As you’ve probably surmised, ‘my’ two books fall into the latter category.

I’ve placed the word ‘my’ within inverted commas because although they’re all my work, subject to editorial discussions and tweaks, my name doesn’t appear on the front cover. There will be a small acknowledgement credit on the inside pages, but they will be sold under the publisher’s pseudonym of Kate Freeman.

The reason is that with worldwide distribution, retailers are familiar with books authored under this name and can relate to previous high sales performance.

I signed over copyright to the material, so Summersdale now own the rights to my work. Hey ho! At least I didn’t have to sign over my Granny, as some unscrupulous publishers would have writers do.

For each book, I was required to produce forty-five humorous captions, and describe an appropriate, fun cartoon to go on the opposite page. (These were drawn by the esteemed illustrator Ian Baker, who has had his work published in Private Eye, The Spectator, The Times, The Sun, Penthouse, Reader’s Digest (UK & US), SAGA, Nickelodeon (US), New Statesman, among others.)

So, that was forty-five captions & cartoon descriptions for ‘How to Survive Retirement,’ and forty-five for ‘How to Survive Being a Grandparent.’ Inspiration for the first ten of each book came reasonably quickly, but being neither retired nor a grandparent, ideas soon became more difficult to envision.

And it wasn’t even as ‘simple’ as that sounds. No. I had to think along the style of humor displayed by the publisher in their earlier books; I had to bear in mind that what may raise a laugh in the West of Scotland may not do so in West Coast America; use of anglicised phrases and expressions would perhaps not be understood in other parts of the world; the illustrations couldn’t be supplemented with any words, as the formatting and spacing would be thrown out when translated into other languages.

The captions themselves had to be restricted to a twenty-word maximum.

It certainly wasn’t a dawdle or as easy as I initially thought it’d be!

I thoroughly enjoyed working on it, though. I learned a lot – as I’ve done with each my other (self published) efforts. I’m even more critical now when reading anything from pavement signs to books. (For anyone reading Richard Osman’s new book, ‘We Solve Murders’ I’m convinced there’s a continuity error between pages 86 and 87. 😉)

And I must say what a pleasure it was working with my three editors, Siobhan, Claire and Abi who were most supportive throughout … and very kind with their comments when some of my ideas proved a little too subtle, or too off the wall!

So, my input is now completed. I’ve still to hear in what countries the books will be available, and into what languages they’ll be translated. It may also be a few months before we know what retail outlets here in the UK will stock copies. Previous books by Kate Freeman can be found in several High Street bookstores like Waterstones etc..

The publishing schedule now allows time for typesetting, proofread, editorial and design checks, and then being sent to the printer.

Each of these stages takes time – which is why the publication date has been set for 12th June 2025.

Yeah, it’s a fair bit off, yet … but both books are available to pre-order on Amazon right now!
(How to Survive Being a Grandparent.) (How to Survive Retirement.)

OK – so now it’s back to editing my new ’70s themed book (subscribers to this blog will be first to receive notice of progress to publication) – this time with an even more critical and experienced eye. 🙂

THANKS SUMMERSDALE. 🙂

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