More is Less - Kevin Perkins

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Kevin
please order 2 copies - I'd like one

Truly gutted!

Kevin.
I understand exactly where you are coming from.

I wrote some years ago to the fishing mags with the letter published by them regarding how boring were the repeated articles by the same old sponsored anglers. I suggested they try some more atmospheric articles and stories by unknow anglers in the spirit of tales of past like Venables , Yates etc.

Those older anglers will remember Creel magazine and its Good day -Bad day competition. So succesful and introduced new writers.

How boring are those that are written just to sell bait or similar. I mean the one following this is not any use except to try flog bait. Certainly doesn't inspire.


I took the route of vanity publishing. More to leave something behind than anything else.

The first book...about 350 mix of hard and paperback issues sold out in a week.
The second book 400 mix sold out before printing.

I know they were no works of art. But pleased me and now go for more than twice SP at least.

I had intended to compile a contributors book, but lost impetus just like you feel now it seems.

Go on. Print your favourites. Youll be greatly satisfied and make a few quid as a bonus.

Graham

Thanks for all that's gone and good luck with all that is to come.

Kevin,

I have always thoroughly enjoyed reading your excellent articles as well as the adventures of Donald and Damian and I still have your book on my shelves here in my home.

I do think it is a terrible shame that you have taken this decision but at the same time also understand your reasons, as many of the "originals " have ;left over the years.

At least we are not losing you for good and the forum will be a more enlightened and humorous place with your participation from now onward.

Cheers for now, and many thanks for your contributions.

Deeply saddened by this loss.

Kevin, angling magazines would rather use their valuable space for things like "fishing horoscopes". You were shooting far too high for them mate.

I wonder how many of those magazines that said your stuff was "not what our readers want" have now disappeared because they had no idea what their readers wanted? Along with others I shall miss your articles Kevin and would like to thank you for the laughs you have given me in the past.

Hi All

Many thanks for your kind words. I felt it was time to take a break, I certainly don't want to write articles just for the sake of putting something up on the site. I could trawl through my 'back catalogue' and rehash something almost every week, but that would make me no better than the angling weekly/magazine contributors I have railed against in the past.

There are plenty of talented contributors on FM and new blood is always to be encouraged.

And whilst it is easy to trot old the cliche 'Never say Never', I am more for 'Let sleeping dogs lie' :wh

Best regards

Kevin

As someone whose angling writing career has run in parallel to Kevin's yet broken into print there is obviously something missing with what Kevin is writing. I did close on 250,000 words on Fishing Magic (200 articles but averaging more than 1000 words), then found a way to get published with two book publishers - three jointly written and three solo efforts, of those six three have gone into reprint - and articles in several magazines and the weekly papers - about 500,000 words in print. Kevin writes well - no problem there - but needs to identify where he can make his mark. There are many types of angling writing from the technical instructional where you need to know your stuff through story telling, humour, biography, anthologies, and, as Martin Bowler once told me and really summed it up (apologies for the name-dropping) 'it's show business'. The object is to entertain, enthral and educate; do that and you will succeed but it means spending a lot of time researching what the readers want.

Changing the subject slightly, what Graham Elliott described as 'vanity publishing' is in his case self-publishing; he took the risk with his own money but controlled the sales which repaid his costs and hopefully made a few bob and nothing wrong with that. A friend of mine has used Lulu.com to publish some books about his favourite rugby team - he hasn't made any real money but it hasn't cost him anything either. The vanity press latches on to hopeless novelists and poets and takes their money - many thousands - with promises that the book will sell which it doesn't and the failed novelist/poet is left with a few copies of a dud and no chance of recouping their outlay.

You are right of course Mark.

I guess I meant my own vanity!!!

It was actually very good financially, although that was not the driver. I wanted to keep it small and as you say control sales ( and as it happened - keep all the profit)

Its a way to go..and of course if demand then well exceeds supply, one could always consider looking at a publisher deal.


Graham

Whilst Mark and Graham have talent, experience and ability to call on when writing, I profess to have none of those attributes, and as Mark kindly says:

Mark Wintle said:

Kevin writes well - no problem there - but needs to identify where he can make his mark.

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There is my problem. Without any form of reference or natural ability, I have applied a scattergun approach to writing. Prior to my first FM ramblings ,the largest piece of creative writing I mustered was my CV....

Having no guidance as to where to concentrate my mediocre skills I have just bumbled along without managing to master anything.

Of course, I must hold the FM members entirely to blame for this due to their stubborn refusal to offer up hardly any form of feedback.....:wh

Hi KP, sad to hear that you’re hanging up your boots, many thanks for the all the articles you’ve supplied to FM, I’ve enjoyed them all. As an occasional contributor one has to agree with the comment that there is hardly any feedback. It’s a bit off-putting to say the least when you spend a few evenings getting a piece ready then get virtually zero response except the few regulars. I haven’t sent anything in for over a year now although I have many drafts on the go, and I don’t know why. Let’s face it, if you did it for the adulation we’d have packed in years ago. See you in the forums…
Andy

I am sad to hear that you are melting down your wax tablets and snapping your stylus......hope that isn't too painful. Your work will be sorely missed by a number of the regulars here at FM. I am glad that you are not wasting away totally but will come to haunt and nibble at the forum warriors.

I also assume that the eternal lifetime guarantees for all Tickle Tackle products still apply...although many of your customers never read the extremely small print that made it absolutely clear that it was Issac Walton's lifetime that was guaranteed.

I look forward to being pestered....although rather disappointed to find it would be by you and not the sweet young thing in accounts!

Poshers

Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC) said:

I also assume that the eternal lifetime guarantees for all Tickle Tackle products still apply...although many of your customers never read the extremely small print that made it absolutely clear that it was Issac Walton's lifetime that was guaranteed.

Poshers

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Ah Tickle Tackle

The sticker that without doubt still adorns the boot of my long sold car was the source of one of my favourite angling moments.

Parked in a northern car park by a northern lake, having made the long drive north, a small huddle of northern anglers were gathered by said boot.

It seems they had not heard of Tickle Tackle and were becoming desperate to learn more.

"if you need to ask, then you will never know" was my response as I eventually drove away in a southerly direction. It may have been my non northern accent but they didn't seem to understand mg:

True story

Could that have been on a Northern fly fishery....in the Derbyshire region Neil? :whmg:

Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC) said:

Could that have been on a Northern fly fishery....in the Derbyshire region Neil? :whmg:

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Might have been, and...

When your back door almost opens up onto Dancing Ledge on the Purbeck Cliffs and one wrong turn sends you into The Channel, everywhere is "north". :wh