Oh dear, that didn't go so well, did it? Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you .. the September sales report for my self-published book. A little disappointing, to say the least. I knew it was going to be hard to market but .. Jeez!
Hey ho, October is another month and, God knows, there might be ONE of you out there that fancies a read of it ..
Is there? Anyone? Help .. !
(Here comes the commercial break ..)
There's nothing new in photography anymore. I've known it for a long time, as I scroll through Instagram and Twitter, looking at all the 'up and coming' new stars of photography. Yeah, yeah, same old, same old. Same for music, too. Same for ..
Oh, shut up and get to the point, Martin ..
The point? There is no point. (Jeez, that sounds heavy, doesn't it?) No, I just wanted a reason to show you this pairing of photographs, taken 44 years apart - the donkey yesterday and the horse when I was a mere lad of 18. Both shots amusing in their own ways, but the 'horse' shot all the more interesting now because of its historical emphasis. You just don't see phone-boxes like those any more. (I explore the idea of photography as 'recorder' in my book, 'Page 99, by Joe Bancroft', if you're interested) ..
So perhaps there is a point, after all. The idea that every generation's got to have their spurt of creativity, before you're forty years on and your work is same old same old ..
Haven't I written this before? ..
I'm proud to say I was once the 'official' photographer to The Queen. I was covering an event in London's Hyde Park, at which only one photographer was allowed to take photographs for the sponsor. This was 1989, long before digital photography, and I was shooting on both 35mm and a Mamiya 645 120 roll film camera. I'd love to be able to show you the results, but the client insisted on taking my negatives, and I've never seen them since! ..
What I can show you is this rather odd photograph, taken in about 1975. I was fourteen or fifteen, and had learnt that Her Majesty would be passing down the motorway on a Royal visit to the area. I snuck out of school, positioned myself ready for the moment and .. well, thank God that lamp-post wasn't another two feet to the right! ..
I'm not a Royalist and, despite having photographed many of the Royal Family over my years as a press photographer, I still begrudge having to kow-tow to people who are only in their privileged positions because of ancestry. However, today's a day to stop and reflect, and to think of the amazing years of service given by Queen Elizabeth. May she rest in peace ..
It's twenty-five years since Lady Diana died in Paris. Time to dive into the archive for this shot of her getting off Prince William .. so to speak! The Princess was in South Manchester to inaugurate the boat, which still gives cruises down the Bridgewater Canal in Sale. (It's certainly had a better start in life than the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier!!) This is one of two times I photographed Di, and she was always great to us cameramen, squashed into whatever corner the Secret Service had corralled us into ..
Now all I want to know is .. where the hell did those twenty-five years go?
Sorry NASA, you may not have blasted off to The Moon yesterday, but I've already spent the last couple of years working there. Kind of!..
I'm delighted to say I've just finished a series of children's adventure books based on Space travel. I've written and illustrated a set of four books featuring The Moon as one of the main characters, along with the Sun, the Earth and a cast of stars and planets and .. a Black Hole!
The books are aimed at children from the age of eight, and are fun and educational with lots of interesting facts about astronomy.
(Brief diversion .. if I was ever to believe in omens, a Beatles song has just come on the radio. Which song? Across the universe! You couldn't make it up ..)
Anyway, have a look here for a glimpse of each book, including pricing and details of a free print offer, and you can contact me directly for any of the books.
I'd love it if you gave them a try ..
Today's cancellation of NASA's moon rocket launch took me back in time. In 1989, a pal and I set off on a Pan-Am jet to Florida to watch the launch of a Space Shuttle. "Oh, don't y'all know?" said a stewardess on the Jumbo. "It's been cancelled!" ..
Cue a week of boozing on Daytona Beach and a bizarre night in a bar to watch The Climax Blues Band.
The only song of theirs we knew was 'Couldn't get it right' .. Whoops!
When I was a kid - seven or eight, probably - I received a postal order for a pound after I'd had a letter published in my weekly 'Speed and Power' comic. I was absolutely thrilled. About as thrilled as I am this morning, having received an e-mail from Amazon with the details of my first ever Royalty payment. Yes, I am earning money from my book, at long last! (I'm not going to tell you how much, but let's just say the yacht's on hold for a wee while yet!) ..
'Page 99, by Joe Bancroft' is what I call my 'factional' story (a mix of fact and fiction) of a young Manchester lad who lands his dream job as a press photographer on a local newspaper. It took me about five years to write, edit and finally self-publish on Amazon but, oh boy, has it been worth it. The reviews and comments I'm receiving are like honey to my heart, and it's fascinating to see how the book hits readers in different ways. There's been lots of 'laughing out loud', lumps in the throat and sadness at the way Joe Bancroft's life progresses, and one reader even told me it related to her own experiences of dealing with dementia and COPD ..
I now have five 'five-star' reviews on Amazon's website, and sales from as far afield as the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Requests for signed copies from friends and family are always a delight, too ..
I apologise if I'm 'going on' about the book but, having enjoyed my position as author, I must now take on the role of the Marketing and PR department .. (Sales! Graphs! Units!) .. but, above all, I want to get the book out to as many people as I can - people who'll enjoy a good read, a good laugh, a heart-break or two and a warm look back at life at the end of the 1970s ..
Spread the word .. please!
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We had a lovely afternoon in the village yesterday. Our library held an event called 'Partir en livre' .. basically 'Lose yourself in books' .. and, very flatteringly, I was asked if I'd join several (real) authors to give a reading from my books. (One writer was a friend who topped the Sunday Times fiction list when her book came out last year). In the end, I managed two chapters from 'Page 99, by Joe Bancroft' before I was squeezed by the schedules (ouch) and had to forget about reading from my children's book 'Swapsies' ..
But what a 'novel' experience it was. I got some great feedback and even shifted a few units to add to my million-seller target. (How lovely to be asked to sign the books, too.) To top it all, one lady said "Loved the Book Fest. Great readings from Martin, super book, loved listening to it in Martin’s northern accent .. "
Eeh, that made me reet chuffed, that did!
The first man on the Moon .. seems so long ago, doesn't it? Probably because it is! Fifty three years ago today to be precise. But what exciting times they were, especially to a nearly-nine year old like myself. I was absolutely fascinated by 'Space', forever gluing Airfix Lunar Modules to papier mâché 'moon surfaces' whilst watching James Burke and Patrick Moore explaining the intricacies of forthcoming 'TLI' manoeuvres. I did a lot of reading, too. The Observer Book of Astronomy and the Peter Fairley Space Annual were never far from my side ..
Which brings me to a new book about 'Space', one which I've written myself. I say 'one', but it's actually the first in a series of four adventure books I've created for children and which I'm thrilled to launch today ..
"Swapsies" is my story of The Sun and The Moon and The Earth, and of how The Moon helps The Sun to find all its friends in Space. The books are educational yet funny, and I'm very proud to say I did all the illustrations, too. I'll be reading from Swapsies at a book event this Sunday in our local park, and I hope it's soon filling a space on the bookshelves of many a wide-eyed new young space enthusiast ..
( If you'd like a copy, you can click here to order .. )
Three, two, one .. lift off!
"I was hooked from the first page .." So begins a lovely message from a new reader of my book "Page 99, by Joe Bancroft'. "Joe is wonderful .." she continues. "I laughed and I cried. So many people will be able to relate to this book in so many ways."
Well, what more can I add, dear blog fan? Constantly trying to think of new ways to market my book, I can do no better than relay her words to you, and hope they move you enough to buy the book. (Think how you'll boast when it finally comes out as a film. "Oh yes, I was one of the first to read it, you know?")
Pleasing for me was the fact that this person found "it was an eye opener to read about the life of a press photographer" (though relax .. it's not a book about press photography) and, best of all, she describes my work as "a real person telling it how it was .."
I am very flattered! Very flattered indeed ..
Writing a book, they say, is the easy part. After that, you've got to market the bugger! So here I am, marketing the bugger, and you're going to have to get used to me going on about it. Yes, I've finally self-published my book, after probably four years of writing and editing (and trying to find an agent!) ..
Page 99, by Joe Bancroft, is the semi-autobiographical tale of a young Manchester lad who lands his dream job as a press photographer on a local newspaper (ring any bells?) There's a lot more to it than that, of course, and it feels good that it's finally all down on paper ..
I've already had a great review, which ends with the line "Personally I loved the book and can't recommend it highly enough, I can relate to so much that Martin has written about, a joy to read, go on treat yourself to Page 99" .. so that's a good start, isn't it?..
If you fancy a good read, you can get hold of your own copy on Amazon Kindle.
I really hope you'll give it a go ..
An accident in the family meant that I've just had to go back to the UK for the first time in four years. Can't say I was delighted about the trip but decided to make the most of it by having a little wander around some of my old haunts (once the emergency was over!) The changes were astonishing, and I thought it would be fun to put some new shots together with old pictures from my archive. I have to say that poor old Eccles is looking a little worse for wear. (Either that or it was always so, and I just never noticed because I was just a kid.) Lots of vape shops and boarded-up pubs, take-away food shops and litter. Quite depressing, really. I won't be going back for a long time ..
Well, she made it! Seventy years on the throne and good luck to ya, missus! Can't say I'm a big fan of The Royals, though I WAS once rather chuffed to be the sole photographer allowed to cover an event with The Queen in 1989. (I don't own a single shot from the event .. the client insisted on taking all the negatives and says now they have no idea where they might be!) So, enjoy your four-day holiday UK, and here are a couple of photographs from the 1977 Silver Jubilee, taken when I was a mere stripling of sixteen. (That's my sister, in her bedroom!)
God Saved The Queen!..
And so I mark another year since the death of my Dad. Thirteen now, though it seems like only yesterday. Here's the daft bugger with a big Bell's whisky he won in a raffle. When the booze was gone he filled the bottle with one and two pence pieces and gave the whole amount to the Children's Hospital in Manchester. You can be sure I'll be raising a glass to you tonight, Dad!
It's International Women's Day, so here's a selection of my shots of International Women, though the only ones that are really on my mind at the moment are those poor ladies in Ukraine. God help you, ladies ..
It feels like the world has been turned upside down this morning. Russia has invaded a European country and I can scarce believe I've just typed that ..
I can only hope that Putin comes to his senses (!!) and that this disaster resolves itself quickly. I pray for the people of Ukraine ..
Two, two, two, two, two! Another excuse for a blog and what better than my lovely archive shot of Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths, taken almost forty years ago at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. The Smiths? What've they got to do with .. ah, well .. wasn't one of their songs 'Vicar in a TU-TU'?
Groan!
On another day, I might have called today's blog "On being smug and thinking it was better in the old days" .. because that's exactly how I'm feeling!
I saw a tweet the other day from a photographer asking how they could cut down on the amount of time it took to edit their work. I wasn't the only person to reply "Take less shots! Yesterday I watched a TV programme featuring a young photographer from Liverpool, who's made quite a name for himself by photographing gigs. At one point a caption came up that said he took 'between 1,000 and 2,000 shots per gig'. Reader, I nearly fainted! Holy shit, that's a lot of pictures. I've never taken that many shooting a whole bloody wedding! Does kinda make you think he just leaves his finger on the shutter button and machine-guns what's in front of him, doesn't it?
So why am I feeling so smug? Well, I'll tell you. When I photographed the Joy Division gig in 1979 I sensed that this new band was 'different'. They were so exciting and different to anything I'd heard before that I decided to throw caution to the wind and use a second roll of film. I took the sum total of 72 photographs! Man, I was crazy in my youth ..
(And just a quick note on today's photo. It's from the Manchester Air Show, circa 1978. I love the guy shooting on a Mamiya!)
It struck me the other day that I haven't written anything here for a while and so, when I got onto this site, I was surprised to see that, this month alone, eighteen people have already read my blog .. and we're only two days into the month. (And that's without even writing anything since last November!) So I got all pretentious and precious and thought that I must write something new today, simply to please 'all' those interested people.
What to write about was a different matter. (Things are pretty quiet around here these days!) My photography consists only of Instagram posts showing leaves and frost and trees - and, of course, I haven't shot a wedding for a long, long time - so I'm hardly in a position to blow your mind with any new photographic insight.
And then it struck me. Today is 2.2.22 and if that's not reason enough to write a blog then what is? Now then, I've had this picture of my Dad on my computer screen for quite a while now. (He's sticking up TWO fingers! See what I did, there?) The reason for the image is that I've written a book that's kinda, sorta based on the years I spent sharing a flat with him, so I've looked at it a lot when I've been searching for words to put down. It's called 'Page 99, by Joe Bancroft', and I'm very, very, very, very proud of it. Getting anyone else to show any interest in it is another matter altogether. I've now submitted it to .. get this .. eighty-nine literary agents without a sniff of anyone wanting to take it forward. (Make that 90 .. I've literally had another rejection this afternoon!) But keep trying, I hear you say. Think of J.K. Rowling. Well, I've thought about her and it doesn't help in the slightest, thank you very much. No, I think my next move might have to be self-publication. Amazon Kindle beckons, and I'll let you know when I hit my first million.
If anyone out there .. anyone! .. is interested in reading my book then please let me know here. It's all about music, looking for chicks .. oh, and press photography .. and is funny, sad, historically interesting and a fab look at the shared lives of two working-class blokes in 1970s Manchester.
As with all 'authors' I feel that, once it lands in the right place, my book will prove to be very successful. When it is, I'll then unleash my second book on the world and try to get used to all the world renown. My second book? Yes, that's right. I've written TWO!
We're a few days into the COP 26 conference in Glasgow and, not surprisingly, there's been rather a glut of depressing tv programmes about climate change. On one, an Australian woman was talking about a plague of mice her farm had suffered, after enjoying a bumper crop of cereal after years of drought. Literally famine or feast! The presenter then cut to a shot of Madagascan islanders, starving to death because of the way we're fucking up the world. And then it struck me..
Which was the more sensible species? The mice, obviously! Their population only exploded when there was ENOUGH food to go around. Our population is expanding regardless of any such consideration. The mud hut in Madagascar was literally teeming with little children, brought into the world even though their parents knew they lived under incredibly unfavourable circumstances, and you have to ask yourself .. why? The matriarch of the family described the kids as 'gifts from God'. He should have given them the gift of reason, and perhaps they might have worked out that having so many children might not be such a good idea after all. Religion has got a lot to answer for!
I can't say it enough. Contraception should have been the first thing the COP 26 delegates discussed this week. We have GOT to cut down on the number of people on this planet. Critics of my position tell me that, if my parents had used a condom that chilly November day back in 1959, there would have been no such thing as 'me'. My answer is .. well, I wouldn't be here to worry about that, would I?
COP .. Contraception on Prescription!
Please!
