A misunderstanding…

Clearly, I must be doing something very different.

Judging by some of the Instagram comments, I am being lumped together with the YouTube sailing channels. I had this discussion with Paul early on (it became rather heated). He, too, had the idea that, because I post on YouTube, I want to be a “YouTuber” – I want to make my fortune by encouraging people to pay for “exclusive content” and “merch” and the like.

No, no, a thousand times No. YouTube is for cute young couples wearing not many clothes (Sailing La Vagabonde), or retired fifty-somethings with a lifetime of video expertise (Sailing Fair Isle) – or just anyone willing to film every moment of their life (pick your own favourite from the hundreds out there).

I am different. I am a writer. I have been from the age of 20. It’s what I do – I would do it even if nobody read it (and you would be surprised at the amount of material that never sees the light of day).

The video channels are merely advertising for the books. The Oldmansailing Book Club on YouTube is a blatant teaser: Watch onboard video while listening to me reading an extract from one of my books. At the end of each episode, I say: “If you would like to know what happens next, we will be returning to this title in ten weeks’ time … alternatively, you can buy the book on Amazon…”

Please understand that I would still like to make my fortune – the idea of laying up in Guatemala for a month, having the whole of the interior professionally painted and varnished and the hull Awlgripped while I attend a month’s residential Spanish course is still a lifetime ambition.

But I would be paying for it out of book royalties. That’s what I know. I have no interest in becoming an internet performer. Indeed, the idea of asking people to pay to watch me setting sails or pulling up anchors – or just drinking cold beer in the sunshine fills me with revulsion. The whole Patreon thing seems like begging – or at the very least a street performer passing round the hat.

And yet people still don’t get it. A comment on Instagram yesterday said: “If you would like me to access the blog, I require 6 dollars a month. And for that price I will retweet it with endorsements in X.”

They meant it kindly, but they still misunderstood. It does not cost $6 a month to access the blog. The blog at oldmansailing.com is free – it has always been free (all the way back to 2017). What people are getting for their £6 a month is the book: Samsara Circles the World – my version of Chichester’s classic Gipsy Moth Circles the World.

I will publish mine, just as he did, when I get back to Plymouth – except, I won’t have to put myself in the hands of a traditional publisher. I will publish it myself on Amazon, keep total control and make it available instantly all over the world.

But in other ways, I am being very traditional indeed: I am doing exactly what Charles Dickens did with The Pickwick Papers. He published it first in instalments as he wrote it. With Barnaby Rudge and The Old Curiosity Shop, he cut out the middleman entirely by starting his own magazine – the modern equivalent of the oldmansailing books page where the ten titles are linked to my Amazon Associates account (effectively, making me both wholesaler and retailer.)

All of this seems to me entirely ethical. I am creating something of value. People recognise that value and are prepared to pay for it.

So please, please don’t think of me as a YouTuber or an Internet Personality.

And please don’t think I am asking anyone to pay for “content”. They are buying books.

And there is always something magical about buying a book.

Get yours here