The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

My Photo on the Front of a Book by a Bestselling Author

It’s true! Victoria Hislop, bestselling author of The Island (over a million copies), The Thread and The Return has a new book out called The Last Dance and Other Stories and on the cover is one of my photos!

However, and I’m sure you knew there would be a “however” in there somewhere, this won’t prove to be my breakthrough moment into the world of book covers of author photos.

Firstly, it’s not a photo of the author; secondly, my photo only makes up a part of the overall image; and thirdly, someone managed to screw up the credit for my contribution.

Back in August I was approached by a picture researcher, on behalf of the publisher. They were working on the cover of the new book and wanted to include a bouzouki in the image. It turned out the photo I’d taken in my blog post about my bouzoukis (see Bouzoukis) was exactly what they needed. I was offered a small payment and a link to my website in the credits.

It would have seemed churlish to refuse.



My complimentary copy has arrived and it feels more than a little odd looking at the cover and realising the bouzouki doesn’t just look like mine, it IS mine.

Unfortunately, on the inside flap at the back of the book, they have spelt my name and web address wrong.



Ayers is the most common misspelling of Ayres, and it crops up in letters all the time, but publishers usually have proof readers that are a bit more on the ball.

OK, so the writing is tiny, and the only people who are ever likely to look at it are those mentioned, but as one of those mentioned, it is a little disappointing.

I have phoned the publisher and put it into an email, but it’s a bit late for anything to be done about it. Discussion is now underway to see if it’s possible to correct it if it’s reprinted in the future.

13 comments

Freakazojd said...

Silver lining? If I type in the web address as they've spelled it, up pops "Did you mean 'kimayres.co.uk'?" Congratulations, that's exciting!

Barry Russell said...

you could always register the kimayers.co.uk domain and point it to the correct web address. I have done similar before when someone misspells a web address and it goes to print.

BarryR

hope said...

Well, at least we know YOU are talented...and can spell.

I agree, if there's a 2nd printing, you deserve the correction!

Kim Ayres said...

Freakazojd - that's only if you type it into the search engine. If you put it directly into the address bar, it comes up as not found...

Barry - I have been considering this since I saw the misspelling, but part of me thinks no one is going to follow the link anyway - and if they did, expecting photos of bouzoukis, they'd be disappointed anyway. However, given how common that misspelling of my name is, it might be worth doing.

Hope - :)

Anna van Schurman said...

Cool, but yes, disappointing. I used to write book jackets, and I once screwed up a really famous (academic) author's quote on one of our books. Well, it had been distilled by someone else, and I never hunted down the original. It was jibberish, but I just figgered that's how academics talk. If it's any consolation, I got a sound bollocking.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Like Freakazojd, I googled the wrong link and came up with "Did you mean 'kimayres.co.uk'?"

But as you say...

That's disappointing for you, Kim. I hope they correct it.

Out of curiosity, I also googled anything on portraits and photography. Wow. There's even a National Portrait Gallery.

Anonymous said...

sad...probably figured you didn't know how to spell your own name :( HOWEVER how lovely to have your photo on a book cover...and your friends here will now know it's you :)

Anonymous said...

Now that's cool! Upon reading the first couple of sentences I took a closer look at the photo and thought..isn't that one of those things Kim plays?
I can relate to the name misspelling.

Hindsfeet said...

oh Kim, no!! : ( I'm *feeling* your pain on this one : ( no no no... : (

oh Kim... : (

pooh : ( .....wait! does anyone have that other address already? The misspelled one? Could you commondere it and put a link to your actual web address on it?

...crossing fingers over here for you.....

your friend,
Liz~*

Rab said...

These things never go quite to plan but don't let that detract from a fantastic achievement. I'd be very proud of seeing something I shot immortalized in this way. Well done Kim. We live and learn and I am sure there will be a next time.

All the best and congrats,

Rab

Kim Ayres said...

Anna VS - I know, screw-ups happen all the time - the strange thing is when they don't...

GG - I received an email earlier today saying they are correcting it for the next edition and the paperback version due out next year

Theanne - at least they didn't call me Miss...

Allen - I know 3 different Alan/Allan/Allen's each with different spellings. And sometimes people write to me as Kym

Liz - I have now registered the misspelling and have it pointing to my proper website :)

Rab - thank you :)

Freakazojd said...

Hi Kim! I actually did type the web address into the address bar, and google chrome asked if I'd meant your site. Now when I type the incorrect address into the address bar, it automatically corrects the spelling and directs me to your site. I tried it in internet explorer as well, and it did the same. :)

Kim Ayres said...

Freakazojd - that's because I've now bought the wrongly spelled domain name and have it set to redirect to the proper one :)

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