“A Gem Of A Book”
Skye At Night review by Eilidh Macpherson in the West Highland Free Press
“The best photographic book highlighting the Isle of Skye to be printed this century.”
High praise in this lovely review from Eilidh Macpherson in the West Highland Free Press today.
To say I’m extremely chuffed would be an understatement. This is my first book. It is the product of five years of extremely enjoyable photography, and a lot of learning about how to create a lovely physical thing to hold and cherish.
Today’s book review feels like the culmination of all that work. I’ve come to realise that the effort that goes into creating a stylish coffee-table photo book is every bit as tricky as the actual photography itself.
I hadn’t realised just how much is involved in layout, flow, design, font selection, paper choice, cover selection, proof reading, uploading, downloading. The list goes on and on.
To keep costs down, and maximise the profit to be donated to the Skye Mountain Rescue Team, I didn’t use any actual professional book design/production/publishing people. I handled all of this myself, using Adobe’s Lightroom book module. I made plenty of mistakes along the way (the second edition will definitely have fewer typos!). But I also learned a lot in the process.
Selecting a printer was one of the most nerve-wracking parts of the process. Entrusting years of work to a company who would convert it into the physical article, and having to pay up front with my own money, was rather scary. However, Swallowtail Print have absolutely smashed it out of the park. The quality level is top drawer. The help they provided to ensure I got everything right was very gratefully received.
Sales are well above my expectations. I’ve just approved the copy for the second print run as I’m just about out of stock. I suspect sales will calm down a bit now the launch is done, but I’ve still got to put it on Amazon and TikTok shops so that will be interesting. I suspect there will be good demand in the run up to Christmas too.
With £1,700 already sent to the Skye Mountain Rescue Team, and averaging £10 donation per book, I hope we can get a good pile of cash to them to support their life saving work on Skye.