ABBA blog

In just a few weeks now, the new edition of ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions 1972–1982 will be delivered to my distributors for further shipping to everyone who pre-ordered a copy of the book. Exciting times!

Just the the other day it hit me that, by rights, this book shouldn't exist at all: not even in its original 1994 edition. It started out as a dream of writing a book about how ABBA's music was made, even though I had no financing and no means to stay afloat while I was doing it. But I was determined to see the dream through, because I was so excited about the project, and so I was prepared to live on the proverbial bread and water for more than a year. The work was fun, but surviving under those circumstances was, to put it mildly, a challenge. When the book was finished I was paid very little by the publisher, so from a financial point of view, ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions never made any sense at all. Yet, there it was.

Flash forward a couple of decades. A book like this will always be a special interest title, so the prospect of getting a second edition – with its limited sales prospects – off the ground seemed dim, unless I went back to the bread-and-water situation, which I didn't feel much like doing. Yet, I had learned so much more about ABBA's music and career since 1994, that I really wanted to try to make it happen.

Fortunately, there were the wonders of crowdfunding, and because there were enough people who shared my passion and wanted to read a significantly improved version of ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions, I was able to finance it. But self-publishing also meant taking on a number of responsibilities and worries that I wouldn't wish on anyone. It would have been easier just not to do the revised and expanded edition of the book. But I went through with it and it was successfully published in 2017, even winning an award.

Which brings me to the present, third edition (the second revised and expanded edition). Gauging the interest in this edition, the response was not overwhelmingingly positive, but I thought if I could print at least 500 copies, then I could make it work. Another crowdfunding campaign and another round of self-publishing, with its attendant challenges and worries.

At the time of writing, around 1,000 copies have been pre-ordered, which is great. Not a best-seller, but through a collective effort, those of us interested in making this edition become a reality have made it so. Again, logically, this third edition shouldn't exist, and yet it will soon be a physical artifact.

So, thank you to everyone who supported the crowdfunding campaign by pre-ordering one or more copies. Special thanks to those who donated a little extra to ensure that the crowdfunding met its goal. I am beyond grateful!

There are so many ABBA-themed books I would like to write, but most of them fall under the "special interest" category, so with the financial realities being what they are, I feel crowdfunding is the only realistic way to create the miraculous circumstances necessary to make them happen. I can only hope that you will want to join me on my future ABBA book adventures.