In my recent conversation with John Kay, we spent some time discussing the merits of self-publishing. The Long and the Short of It is not the first of his books he has published himself, but it is the first which is not simply a collection of previous columns. At this early stage - the book has been out nearly 2 months - he is very positive about this route. He argues that the main service publishers can provide is distribution, still critical in the US market and for certain types of book - textbooks for instance. His book is written mainly for UK readers, and with a well-known FT column and loyal fan base, he can do his own marketing and distribute adequately online and via the biggest high street bookseller. The other bits of the publishing package are now reasonably easy and relatively cheap to put together, John says: financing, printing, editing, design and copy-editing, and sales/PR/marketing. The reader-facing parts of this package, the design and editing, are of high quality - higher than is the case with many 'published' books (the cover design is pictured below). John opted to publish immediately as a trade paperback, not the tradition in the UK market but now happening more and more often.

He published the previous essay collections under a creative commons license. This one has a standard copyright notice but John is clearly basically relaxed about the copyright issue. As he wisely puts it: "Creative people need others to use their material." It's clear he's not profit maximizing on this title either. The price is £11.99 - £7.89 on Amazon when I looked - and without the usual price discrimination tactic of a hardback edition for impatient readers. However, out of a first print run of 10,000, John told me about 1,500 were left in stock, the bulk therefore either sold or on the book shop shelves. So it looks like he is on to something in terms of his real maximand, readership.

I've now started my copy and recommend it to modest investors based in the UK. It's full of sound common sense, and goodness knows we need every piece of good advice we can get in present conditions.