Self-publishing

Having taken the decision to publish my book myself on Amazon, I never really considered what this would mean.
The Kindle edition has gone very smoothly and the fact that you are publishing to display on several types of device means that issues of formatting are easily sorted- the simpler the better. However, the paperback is a whole new world. It should be straightforward, but it's not.The formatting of the paperback file so that it prints properly is dealt with by means of a Word template. So far so OK, until the book gets to 390 pages and the file starts to choke on the sections.
The text is a piece of cake, but the headers and footers have driven me close to despair. However, I got it into the right place in Amazon, complete with cover design. What do you put on the back cover if you have no ecstatic comments from celebrities and newspapers? Write your own blurb, again---- and again----- and it still doesn't take up enough room!

the back cover

Then the pictures. We had to stage a photo shoot in the back garden to simulate me walking along the beach staring into the distance, and then resort to a heavy edit. It took just over two weeks to get it more or less right and I still forgot to compensate for the fact that the photo makes me look less than glamorous.
The Amazon system allows you to look at an electronic proof copy, so I did and discovered that three proof reads are not enough. I found a completely unbelievable number of errors in the text, mostly tenses and missing words which had got cut out in a previous edit, and a couple of formatting problems.
A week later, I am ready to go again, but Amazon will not let me load my amended file. I don't know why, and am gritting my teeth and waiting for the help desk to get back to me.
What have I learned? This is not to be done in a hurry. I am a couple of months behind where I hoped I would be and the ***** book is still driving my daily life. It's got to the stage where I am anxious about what I will do when I eventually manage to get the stupid thing on sale! I have also learned that being a publisher is something you have to take seriously, and, with a world-wide distribution, you are a publisher, like it or not.
Thank you to the four wonderful people who have bought the Kindle version! I will soon be able to market the thing and perhaps sell four paperbacks.
Job done!

Looking for the Sri Lankan Frogmouth

At a loose end in Cochin one day we decided to take the long drive north to the bird sanctuary at Thattekad. Although not large, the sanctuary was the first in India and contains a rich diversity of the birds which once populated all of the Western Ghats and its plains.
Arriving at mid day in the heat, we were greeted with the usual mixture of astonishment and a polite shrug. We had our passport details noted at the gate, and wandered in to the dispiriting little zoo while we waited for our guide. Sukhdeep was young and passionate about birds. First he took us to his house in the park, small and basic, he was hoping that it would be a homestay for bird watchers one day. Several of these  are situated inside the walls and make it possible for serious birders to take advantage of the best hours for seeing the active birds, dawn and dusk. He warned us that we would see nothing worth seeing, but we assured him that a walk through the sanctuary would satisfy us.
Some canoeists on the lake shouted that there were hornbills nearby, but we didn't see any, only a pile of rubbish round "Hornbill Camp," a concrete tower let out to tourists. We couldn't see any indication of bathrooms or a kitchen area, but they may have been hidden underneath.

Sukhdeep was anxious that I could manage to cross the bridge on the circular walk as there was a gap of at least one metre to be negotiated. Failure would have meant retracing our steps and a longer trek, so I assured him that "Mama" was fit and agile and gingerly crossed the ruined, wooden bridge by means of one of the side struts, not thinking about crocodiles or whatever else might be lurking in the muddy water below.
That excitement over, he took us to see the Sri Lankan Frogmouth. This rare, owl-like bird sleeps during the day, so we crept up on its thicket as silently as we could, taking off our brightly coloured hats. The photograph does not do it justice.


There were a pair of birds and neither of them so much as blinked. If you want to know what one looks like, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Frogmouth

Our story was repeated often by clients we sent to Thattekat, recommending Sukhdeep as a guide. Every one told us that they had seen a pair of these somnolent birds in exactly the same location. We began to suspect that they were stuffed and nailed to the perch.

Text versus pictures

One of the most frustrating things about writing the book has been that I haven't been able to include pictures. Nothing shows the reality better than a photograph snapped in an instant of something unexpected.
Some of my favourite pictures show the way that the past and the present are always mingled together.

An elephant on the road

When we first went to India the Internet cafes were everywhere and always busy. For a few rupees you could struggle with the dodgy connections and eventually get an email through. Hotels were sometimes equipped with reasonable speed connections, but here too, you  needed patience and a non-urgent situation not to go mad as the times whirled and everything cut out at the crucial moment.

Today things are different almost everywhere you go, but a real revolution has come in the decision to skip land lines and go straight to wireless infrastructure.
Once there was a shack with STDC in large and wobbly letters on its side, where you could make a trunk call,. in every village and every stopping-place. These are now confined to remote areas, and even there the mobile phone is ubiquitous. Cheap tablet computers are advertised everywhere and the traditional PC has never arrived.
This picture of a mahout on his way somewhere is typical, phone clamped to ear for the next arrangement.

Not finished after all.

Still struggling to complete the paperback version of the book! The next job is the cover. I have so many photos I don't know where to begin.

I have also been touched at the messages from people finding the book and giving congratulations for actually finishing it. It's not done yet. Daunting.

Chinese fishing nets, Fort Kochi

This picture possibly encapsulates the changes in Fort Kochi over the last few years. The LPG terminal sits at the mouth of the inlet, finished but unused, while the fishing nets, first used here in the fifteenth century, according to legend, go up and down as they always have.

Finished at last!

After nearly three years of slog, I have finished the book and uploaded the Kindle version to Amazon. The paperback will follow as and when I can grapple with the technical complication, but I hope it will be soon.
The point was to write the book. The idea of people reading it feels strange, although I hope they do.
I suspect I won't feel that I have finished until I have a copy of the paperback in my hand!

Everyone asks, why and what is Muziris? Muziris is the semi-mythical port in South India which was used by the Greeks and Romans in the trade for pepper. Semi-mythical, in that although it was known and written about by contemporary poets and traders, the site of Muziris is not reliably known.

MB Muziris

The ancient trading Empires which had contact with Southern India are many, and each one has left relics of itself all over the country, but these are often elusive and difficult to untangle. They are undeniably romantic, as is the idea of India itself. The reality is sometimes different, as our experiences trying to do business there shows.