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Writer's Magazine |
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Getting published – a self-publishing success
Getting published, we all know, is difficult. Some books pose a particular problem. If the topic of your book cuts across a number of fields or genres it can be difficult to find a publisher. Just such a situation arose with A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels’ Impact Event. The book is about an archaeological artefact, a clay tablet on which in 700 BC a Sumerian astronomer had made notes of an unusual event. For 150 years this enigmatic tablet had puzzled scholars in the British Museum. An archaeological publisher might have been interested in how the markings can be interpreted. But the authors Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell, both renowned aeronautical scientists, then took the possible interpretations and began doing some complicated mathematical modelling. The book which resulted would not normally be bestseller material because the audience would be too small. From maths, the plot continues through aeronautics to geology to work out the track of the object which the Sumerian observers had seen to vanish over the horizon, only to be replaced by a plume of dust. By following the computed track, the authors produced a credible hypothesis to explain what looks like the impact of an asteroid on a mountain in Köfels in Austria on the 29th June 3123 BC. That is where this piece of scientific detective work ends. The authors relaised that getting their book published would not be easy. Just as a writer expects their work to be the subject of appraisal by editors, agents and reviewers, so scientific works are normally submitted for peer review. But when any work crosses so many intellectual boundaries, it can be a real problem to get the information out into the public domain. It moves outside the comfort zone of most journals and other publishers are frightened lest they publish some speculation that turns out to be wrong. Who can guess at how much has been denied to us by the conservatism of those who have held the keys to the printing presses over the centuries? Happily, self-publishing is now an alternative which, when coupled to the Internet as a marketplace, means that we can now discover and read about a range of awkward theories and discover some challenging ideas. This is how the authors summarise their conclusions: ‘The observation made by the Sumerian astronomers in the Early Bronze Age was skilled, precise and objective and must be a candidate for the earliest known scientific work. The information it records is still of immense value over 5,000 years later, not only because it gives an explanation of some of the history at the start of the Bronze Age and an insight into the level of human advancement at that time, but because it gives new understanding of the NEO capture processes, the dynamics of the entry and impact, and their global consequences.’ A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels’ Impact Event has been taken up by filmmakers such as the Discovery Channel in their series which explores emerging explanations of some Biblical observations. This near earth object which the authors calculate exploded above Austria 5,000 years ago might, they think, be linked to the story of destruction embodied in the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their theory may, or may not be true. The important point is that a cogently argued case for a cataclysmic event has been published. This provides another stepping stone on our pathway to greater understanding of our past, present and future. Thanks to the opportunities offered by self-publishing, the authors were able to bypass traditional publishing and publish their book themselves through WritersPrintShop, reaching a global audience through the Internet. Given the fascination of the subject-matter, perhaps it’s no surprise that the book is selling very well, and the authors are continuously reprinting it. It is available through WritersBookStall and can be ordered through any bookshop. The authors are also benefiting from their ability to sell direct and retain the publishers’ profit for themselves. © Chas Jones 2009 |
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