Final cover

Here it is, the new "improved" cover where my name is finally spelled right! It's still difficult to see that Don is a drummer, though, and NOT a Noddy clone. It's difficult to see that the title of the book is "Look Wot I Dun" and NOT "My Life in Slade". It's difficult to see that I wrote the book and NOT Don. And it's difficult to see that the book is about Don's amnesia too and NOT just about his work with Slade. What it's not difficult to see is, however, that Don and I had no say in how the cover ended up looking as this is definitely NOT what we wanted! But to be honest, we were never told about the cover and didn't know it had been made until we saw it on Amazon! But here it is and I guess, although we had imagined it a lot different, it could have been worse. They could have spelled my name wrong or something…oh, wait! They did, didn't they? And didn't correct it until last week….
Be assured thought, that despite the cover being misleading, the book itself is what Don and I wanted, telling the true story of an ordinary man with an extraordinary job and his lifelong struggle with amnesia that altered his personality and changed his life forever. We hope you're gonna like it! :-)

Photos finished

We finished picking the photos for the biography a week ago and it was a long and troublesome process. Originally we'd sent the publisher 33 photos for the biography, but the photo editor wanted more, so we sent her another 19, the final number being 52. At least for a while. Then the number was cut down to 32 of which only 17 of our original photos were used as well as 7 from our "second choice" batch. The remaining 8 photos the publishers picked from the usual Slade/Don Powell promotional pics from the 1970s.

The selection is okay, I guess, but it was sad to see so many old and rare photos being rejected and replaced by Slade photos that we have all seen a hundred times before. This was done in the name of promotion, but I think the rare photos would have done the book a greater favour than the usual Slade photos. Oh well… Hopefully I'll be able to show you some of the rejected pics here sometime.

Biography cover

I saw the biography cover for the first time today. They have spelled my name wrong....

Express & Star

This article was in the Express & Star yesterday: http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/07/04/i-still-cant-remember-tragic-crash-says-slade-drummer-don-powell/

Originally it said that the book was an autobiography, but they changed that after they had talked to me. I like it better than the misleading article in Sunday Mercury last week. I'll write a bit more about that soon, but until then; enjoy the Express & Star article!

Sunday Mercury

Here's the link to the Sunday Mercury article about the biography: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/slade-drummer-don-powell-facing-4750241 Unfortunately the interview that I gave to the paper didn't make it to this online version, but the comments from Don and Chris Charlesworth are there. Can't wait to see the paper version as there should be more photos and a longer article.

Promo

The promo for the biography has started. Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, UK) did an interview with me last week and the journalist managed to get hold of Don for a comment yesterday. Hopefully the article is going to be in the paper this Sunday.

Photos

I heard from the photo editor today. She wants MORE photos. Usually they want less! :-D

Back flap bios

At the moment I'm writing the short author bio that is to go on the back flap of the book. As Don has been made the co-author of the book for commercial reasons, the editor is writing his back flap bio, so I only have to write my own.

Copy edits

I finished going through the copy edits of the biography earlier this week. Had to send it back to the publishers 3 times before things were okay, but now it looks fine.

Copy editing

The copy editor has finished work on Don's biography and at the moment I'm going through the edits. I've seen the finished back cover text as well and it looks fine.