Chaplin Books

25/12/2023

Chaplin Books wishes all its authors and customers a Merry Christmas. May your presents all be books!

09/11/2023

We've produced two poetry books by Portsmouth poet Wendy James over the last few years, so it's satisfying to complete the trilogy this month with 'The Return'.

08/11/2023

Looking forward to the launch tonight of How Can You Eat That? At the moment, the paperback is only available direct from the author, Lily Johns, but an ebook version will be out later this month.

18/10/2023

Out now! Sucker Punch is available in paperback at £14.99 and in ebook (around £7.50) from your preferred supplier. It's a well-researched and fascinating look at boxing movies from the heyday of the genre, including Hollywood and British films. Find out more at the website: https://boxingfilmsbook.my.canva.site/

21/09/2023

It's often difficult to explain to people what copy-editing involves. Sometimes it's just sorting out grammar, spelling and syntax, but at other times it's like unravelling knitting. Here's just one paragraph from a book we've been editing this week: this is the text exactly as the author submitted it:

“On the phone” No I am fine, it must be what three months, yes see you then. I could see by Peter’s face that he was delighted to see me Hello stranger, handing me a pint of his local bitter. He is over there pointing, I recognised him from the picture in our local newspaper

21/08/2023

Coming soon from Chaplin Books, a harrowing but ultimately uplifting true story about Lily's descent into decades of anorexia and depression - and her remarkable recovery.

24/05/2023

We're currently putting together the pages for this new title, which will be out at the beginning of September. Lots of nostalgic photos!

13/04/2023

Before the first book rolled off the presses in 2009, we wrote (on the back of an envelope) our 'publishing ethos'. It's interesting to look back on that: three of the items on the list were to respond promptly to all manuscript submissions, to treat authors as we would like to be treated ourselves, and to set high copy-editing and production standards. We think that's held up well in the subsequent 14 years.

04/04/2023

Tune in to Dotty McLeod (pictured) in her breakfast show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire tomorrow and you'll hear her interview with Chaplin Books author Tizi Hodson. The programme will be available to listen to on BBC Sounds after broadcast.

31/03/2023

Chaplin Books author Tizi Hodson will be signing copies of her book 'To Live is to Fly' at Oundle Bookshop (Market Place, Oundle, Peterborough) on Saturday 8 April between 10.30am and 12.30pm. If you're in the area, pop in and say hello ... and snap up a copy of her extraordinary autobiography.

17/03/2023

Some rather alarming statistics from the US.

07/02/2023

Derek Brown's memoir 'Gosport Born and Bred' has proved so popular that he's just ordered a reprint from us.

30/01/2023

Musicians often complain that streaming royalties are ludicrously low - and now we know why. Tracks from the CD Dear Miss Landau (inspired by the book by James Christie) have been streamed 740 times in countries ranging from India, Denmark, Australia, the USA and Germany as well as the UK. Total revenue? £7.14

27/01/2023

When you look at the £16M advance given to Prince Harry and the £500K advance given to Boris Johnson, you'd be forgiven for thinking that publishing is a money-making business. But the reality is that 75 percent of ALL titles published in the UK sell less than fifteen copies. Yes, you read that right: less than 15 copies!

25/01/2023

We were delighted to work on a book for Jackie Mitchell that's a memoir of her grandmother. With digital printing techniques, it's fast and affordable to produce memoirs designed to be given to friends and family.

02/01/2023

Coming soon from Chaplin Books: the autobiography of daredevil pilot, motorbike stunt rider and horse whisperer Tizi Hodson.

01/01/2023

Happy New Year from Chaplin Books!

20/09/2022

Book-launch! Do come along on Saturday to The Book Shop at Lee-on-the-Solent for the launch of David Gary's hilarious new novel.

06/12/2021

25/11/2021

It's good to see that The Book of Deer, the oldest surviving Scottish manuscript - sometimes described as 'forgotten' despite being more splendid than the Stone of Destiny - is in the news again because it is being returned 'home' to Scotland. So there's never been a better time to turn to James Christie's novel The Legend of John Macnab, which has the story of the Book of Deer at its heart. Published by Chaplin Books, it's available in paperback from bookshops and internet book-sellers - and there's an ebook version too.

08/11/2021

It's exciting to be editing a book whose film rights are being bought by Hollywood! Ssshhh ... no more details because it's top secret at the moment!

14/10/2021

We'll be at this vibrant new market - come and see us!

20/07/2021

It's been a busy year so far for our 'bespoke books' side of the business. We've edited and produced two hardback autobiographies - 'Jottings' by Jeremy James Osborne, and 'Telling Tales' by Rodney Todd (both men are in their 90s), who are going to give copies to friends and family. We've also been working with established author Mardi Marsh on editing her forthcoming rom-com novel 'He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not' and we're about to start work on David Gary's follow-up to 'An Incident on the Gosport Ferry', a comic novel set in Gosport.

01/04/2021

Chaplin Books are delighted to announce that they are to publish J K Rowling's next book, due out in the autumn. Called 'Dia de Bobos' it's a fantasy novel for Young Adults set in Brazil. JK Rowling said that choosing a small publisher like Chaplin Books was a good way to ensure that small independents survived, rather than continuing to give her books to large multinational publishers.