ABBA The Complete Recording Sessions - More Info

Two weeks 'til crowdfunding blast-off...

Published January 14, 2015

 

Today, it's exactly two weeks until the crowdfunding campaign for the revised, updated and expanded edition of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions kicks off. All the pieces are beginning to fall into place and I'm really looking forward to pushing the launch button. Here are a few random thoughts at this particular point in time.

THE NUMBER OF PAGES IN THE BOOK

As I hinted in my previous blog, my initial page count estimate proved to be insufficient. After discussing the matter with my designer and the printer, we're now looking at somewhere between 400 and 500 pages (originally I'd thought we'd land somewhere between 300 and 400). A little more than I had envisioned, then - but this is no time to compromise on the inclusion of interesting information about ABBA's recorded work, is it?

THANK YOU

Since I first announced the plans to publish an updated edition of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions about a month ago, I've had a fantastic reaction from the ABBA fan community. There is so much enthusiasm out there that I'm really overwhelmed. Some have even reached out and offered to help out with information and materials - to say that I'm touched and grateful is a gross understatement. Every author of ambitious factual books knows that there is no way you can do absolutely everything by yourself, you always rely on people helping out through enthusiasm for what you're trying to achieve and with no other reward than the gratitude of the author. I'd like to extend a warm thanks to everyone who has shown their support so far, whether through offering to help or simply showing their support for the project.

AND, FINALLY, A REMINDER...

More information about the updated version of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions can be found here. It's easy to be notified of updates about the book and the upcoming crowdfunding campaign by following me on Facebook or on Twitter. (If you're worried that you're going to be inundated with updates and tweets, fear not - I seldom post things not related to my work, and you will usually only hear from me a few times every week, at the most.)

Please keep on spreading the word about the crowdfunding campaign, which starts on 28 January: ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions will only be published if the campaign succeeds.

http://www.carlmagnuspalm.com/blogs/abba-blog/two-weeks-til-crowdfunding-blast-off

ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions - more about new features

Published January 11, 2015

These are interesting times at CMP headquarters.

As I revealed in my previous blog, Maria Nicholas has come on board as the designer for the revised, updated and expanded edition of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions. I have a few finished chapters of the book - finished in the sense that they have a structure, and a beginning, middle and end; there is still much information to be added to the texts. Earlier this week Maria took one of the chapters and created a sort of "test layout" for it. I learned two things from this: a) Maria knows what she's doing and the text looks really nice on the page, and b) there is no way this is going to be a 300-page book, as I thought might possibly be the case. We're looking at 400 pages - possibly more, but we'll see what happens as we fine-tune the page designs.
I certainly don't want this to turn into a massive, unmanageable book, so in order to keep the page count on a sensible level, some of the new features I intended to include in the book are now in jeopardy. After all, the story of ABBA's recording sessions, and how they created their music in general, is what this book is all about, so my number one priority will be to make sure that all those stories and details are included in the book.
That said, the features revealed in my previous blog will definitely remain. And another new feature that's also a sure-fire inclusion is the "sidebars", or "separate articles", focusing on interesting aspects related to ABBA as a musical entity. For instance, one such article could be entitled "Agnetha and Frida as vocalists". This article would focus on ABBA's two lead singers, their special qualities and methods, and so on. Another article could be "Janne Schaffer", giving the reader some background info on one of ABBA's most frequently used studio guitarists. If you have the original edition of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions, you will perhaps remember that the subjects mentioned as examples here are already featured in the text, but I think the book will benefit from presenting these indepth features as separate articles in the book - and with more detail, of course. I also have ideas for completely new themes to explore in these articles.

I will return with more information about the book in a future blog. As I'm writing this it's only 17 days until the crowdfunding campaign starts on Wednesday 28 January - exciting...!
More information about the updated version of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions can be found here. It's easy to be notified of updates about the book by following me on Facebook or on Twitter. (If you're worried that you're going to be inundated with updates and tweets, fear not - I seldom post things not related to my work, and you will usually only hear from me a few times every week, at the most.)