All Gone - An Amazing Success
A first edition of Skye At Night with the dust jacket over a lovely debossed hard cover.
The last ever Skye At Night book in my stock sold on Christmas Eve.
That’s it. I don’t have any more and I won’t be printing any more. Stock on my online store and Amazon is now at zero. You might be able to find a copy at a retailer in Skye like Skyelark in Armadale or Carmina Gadelica in Portree while they have some.
The whole project has been an amazing success, with well over a thousand books sold. I thought I would be lucky to sell the first print run of 250 books over a couple of years, but they all sold in under two weeks. More print runs followed, and books flew around the world. They have been sold to customers as far afield as Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Norway, Australia, USA, Italy, Denmark, and of course many to the UK.
I sent the final donation of £625 to the Skye Mountain Rescue Team today, bringing the total donated to £6,625 since the book launched in August 2024.
I decided to donate all the profits to SMRT because of the amazing work they do on the island. I am often photographing up a mountain or on a clifftop, frequently at night, and know how dangerous the landscape and conditions can be. I feel it is only right to help out the volunteers that make up SMRT, knowing they are there and ready to head into danger at a moment’s notice.
The whole life-cycle of Skye At Night has been rewarding, frustrating and intriguing. It is my first book. I have learned a huge amount about the book production process. Small things like getting an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), all the way through to obtaining an Amazon Seller account (horrendous) and holding a book launch.
By far my favourite part has been the photography, and the people photography in particular. Documenting some of the brilliant people who work in Skye at night resulted in me making new friends and learning so much about Skye. The way that the word spread was remarkable, and soon I had people referring their friends and colleagues, making for rich experiences and the stories that make the book.
I also loved the landscape photography. There is something remarkable about being out alone at night in the epic landscapes of Skye. The main reason the book took five years to create is the unpredictability of the weather and conditions on the island. Some photographs would take ten or many visits over those five years before I got what I wanted. Some others were pure luck, along with the capabilities to take advantage when good fortune sprang upon me. The stillness of a cold, clear, windless night in the Cuillin, the beauty of a billion stars over a sandy beach, and the swoosh of waves in a sea cave. All memories that will stay with me forever.
Two horrendous moments spring to mind. The first was the mis-spelling of the surname of two of my subjects. Somehow this snuck through all the proof reading into the first edition. Needless to say I was mortified and apologised profusely, providing the pair with free copies of the first and (corrected) second editions. Doh! The second was the realisation, after despatching 150 pre-orders for the second edition, that four pages were in the wrong order. “Trust but verify” was the lesson. My printer, Swallowtail in Norwich, now taken over by Page Bros in Norwich, handled it brilliantly by doing a prioritised reprint and re-sending all those orders out again. Making lemons from lemonade, I then sold the remaining misprints at £15, bringing in a bunch more money for SMRT.
Undeterred, and having some idea about how to produce a book, I was finally confident enough to finish Glas, my magnum opus which I have been working on for 17 years. This very limited edition of 75 books is something I am very proud of, and nearly all are sold already. It was also a huge effort and I’m now rather done-for so will give book-creation a break for a little while.
So that’s it for Skye At Night. I’d like to give huge thanks to all my readers who have bought a copy, and to everyone who agreed to be a part of the book. A special mention has to go to Sarah and Willie Scott of Youtube fame (Living The Skye Life) who have been really supportive and whose viewers have bought hundreds of books. Paddy McKay and his wife Mairi who run the Skyelark gift shop have been my global logistics partners. Paddy has packed and despatched hundreds and hundreds of books all around the world for me, often getting orders away within an hour of receipt. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.
Here is a little gallery of images from the book, from readers and from book-related events. Click to enlarge.
Thanks everyone!
