Look! Look! Book! Book!

Paperbacks: though without the lovely cover pic on the barbershop one...

The repetition in my title is for two reasons. First, because *both* of my books are now out in paperback. And second, because this was a surprise to me. The copies just arrived by post, without any prior communication from the publishers.

But a very pleasant surprise, I have to say. Both books came out originally in hardback, produced by an academic publisher which mostly focused on specialised material printed in small numbers and marketed primarily to libraries. As as an academic reader, this seemed perfectly normal to me. Most of my reading of specialist material takes place in (or from) libraries too. They are very useful amenities.

So I wasn't necessarily expecting further print runs after the hardbacks sold out. The pricing of the original runs was such as to deter most casually-interested readers, and the content of both was pretty niche, too. Such is the nature of specialism.

But apparently there is enough of a demand to make a paperback print run commercially viable. Which of course is great news for anyone who has been thinking, 'I could be interested to read that, but the price is way out of my budget'. They're not exactly cheap even now, I'm afraid - if you just want something to read on the train, you'll find better value in the non-fiction charts at WH Smiths - but the pricing level is such that I won't be quite so embarrassed when people ask me about them.

So that's fun. I didn't think I'd have any publications to plug until next year when the Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy comes out with a chapter from me in it. But there's still that to look forward to for anyone who has already read everything I've published :-)