Halfway there and a rival book!

When I first started this project I did a little market research and discovered that the last book published about Romiley history (Frank Beard's Romiley Pictures of the Past) was in 2001. 25 years ago. So would you believe that another local resident has written and published a book about Romiley local history?! It will be published a few weeks after mine and appears to be based around photographs instead of the 90,000 words of fanatical research about one section of one street at one timepoint that I have created. Hopefully the two books will work well in unison but I suspect many people (who aren't infinitely fascinated by tiny historical details) will be drawn to the excitement of old photographs, leaving my book to gather dust on the shelf, the ghosts of Samuel Robinson and Ellen Chappell weepingly imploring someone, anyone, to read about their lives...

Despite my sales expectations being low, it has been really fun seeing which websites the book will appear on next. Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Walmart, Glose (?), bookshop.org, Brazilian Amazon! Who would have imagined?

Half of the 83 Romiley Road 1871 households are now on the website. Part of me is frustrated that I don't have the time to do every household justice, but I'm glad that their stories are being told. Perhaps one day in the future when I have loads of time of my hands I will return and edit every page. I'm wondering whether it would be a good idea to have a table at the start of each one, or a screenshot of the census. I probably should have thought of this at the beginning...

The technicalities of making a website are still a mystery to me. Having remembered that Back and Next buttons are a thing, the website designer software started shouting at me for having so many separate web pages and suggested I try something that I have no understanding of. I had visions of trying this new method and accidentally deleting everything I have written (another thing I should have thought of...saving things) so currently I am ignoring the constant prompts and continuing stubbornly with my method.

I've restarted the "A Walk Down Romiley Road in 1871" videos on my TikTok. Tonight I shall be posting number 19, the Mosscrop family who ran the draper's.

If you like to read your books on an e-reader you can pre-order "The Residents of Romiley Road" now from various places. If you prefer the paperback you will have to travel to the USA to order it from Barnes and Noble, ask your local bookshop to order you a copy, or wait patiently for the 29th September.