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the acknowledgement section, but there were others who just didn’t have the time.

Once we had made up a book of sorts, which took us nearly a year, we approached a large

publishing company. Their response was mixed, they were enthusiastic about what we had

but, in their own words “were concerned about the small market for such a book”. They
suggested we look around for a sponsor and so we did. The problem was that our “sponsor”

was not prepared to make a commitment, even though the various experts they sent our
material to felt it was a worthwhile project. After nearly another year of writing and rewriting

for our “sponsor”, we were still no closer to any form of contract.

What we had learned in the meantime was that if they sponsored the book, and it sold for

R100, Iain and I would get R12 to share for each copy sold.

We then came across a book called “How to get published in South Africa” and, among other

things, it said “beware of the publisher who refuses to enter into a legally binding contract”

and we therefore decided to publish the book ourselves.

And so we set about the layout of the book. This is the area where it can get very expensive:

making sure you have permission to use material and do not infringe on any copyright; paying
professional people who know all about layout; setting up margins, headings and page

numbering; scanning and placing pictures with their captions in the correct places; and

working on the design. Fortunately, we both knew what we wanted the book to look like and
Iain knew about computers. We were lucky enough to have a few “bright” friends who could

teach us how to do some of the tricky things, like the index and keeping the text together.

All of this took months of working long hours each day and well into the night. Eventually,

with our book on Zip discs we made a printed copy and went about getting quotes from
printers. It was quite a shock to find such enormous differences in the quotes, some thousands

of rands more than others. But we had seen one book similar to what we had in mind and it

had been printed by Nationale Book Printers and it turned out their quote was the best we
had. And here I will add that their help and enthusiasm were a great contribution too.