Jon Blake's Blog - Posts Tagged "hippies"
A surprise from the libraries
Every year about this time I get my Public Lending Right payment from UK libraries, which gives me a good idea which of my books are the most popular. Much to my surprise the runaway winner this year was Peace And Love At The House of Fun, borrowed over twice as many times as Daley B or The Last Free Cat. This was kind of poignant, as this was the book which Hodder's marketing team decided to rebrand halfway through publication, so that there are copies called by the original title beside copies called Stinky Finger's Peace and Love Thing. Hodder made the change because they didn't think the series was selling enough to justify their outlay: the first book sold about 20,000, the rest all about 10,000. Sales dipped following their rebranding (which was probably inspired by the success of the lamentable Horrid Henry series, with which they tried to compare my books in publicity), and the series was ended after one more volume.
Perhaps as a result of this, I've always considered Peace and Love possibly the weakest book in the series, but seeing its popularity in libraries I reread it and was pleasantly surprised how much good stuff it contained, the kind of stuff which (with all due modesty), David Walliams could not write in his wildest dreams. The quality of the book, however, will mean nothing to the publishers of today, who more than ever are ruled by the pitiless test of sales - despite the countless examples of songs which fail to chart, appear in an ad, then go to number 1.
I have one ambition for the series now, and that is to get my rights back from Hodder and republish, possibly in e-book format, still hopefully with David Roberts' illustrations (luckily he's one of the biggest fans of the books). In the meantime please look out Peace and Love and let me know if you think my opinion of it should be lowered!
Perhaps as a result of this, I've always considered Peace and Love possibly the weakest book in the series, but seeing its popularity in libraries I reread it and was pleasantly surprised how much good stuff it contained, the kind of stuff which (with all due modesty), David Walliams could not write in his wildest dreams. The quality of the book, however, will mean nothing to the publishers of today, who more than ever are ruled by the pitiless test of sales - despite the countless examples of songs which fail to chart, appear in an ad, then go to number 1.
I have one ambition for the series now, and that is to get my rights back from Hodder and republish, possibly in e-book format, still hopefully with David Roberts' illustrations (luckily he's one of the biggest fans of the books). In the meantime please look out Peace and Love and let me know if you think my opinion of it should be lowered!
