Hauptberuflich bringt die in Japan geborene Misako Udo als Fremdenführerin den Touristen in Schottland die Sehenswürdigkeiten des Landes nahe. Nebenbei hat sie aber in akribischer Recherchearbeit Informationen über alle aktiven und sehr viele nicht mehr aktiven Whisky Brennerein zusammengetragen und in dem Buch The Scottish Whisky Distilleries: For the Whisky Enthusiast veröffentlicht. Bisher hat sie ihr Werk in kleiner Auflage im Selbstverlag als 480 Seiten starkes Taschenbuch herausgegeben und hat nun endlich einen Verlag gefunden, der sie im Oktober dieses Jahres mit einer neuen aktualisierten Auflage (576 Seiten, Hardcover) endgültig in die Liste der namhaften Whiskybuchautoren einreiht.
Author raises a glass to whisky book deal
A JAPANESE-BORN tour guide is the toast of the town after finally landing a major publishing deal for her guide to Scotland’s distilleries.
Misako Udo had been resigned to leaving her meticulously compiled book on the shelf after a fruitless search for a publisher.
But an article in the Evening News raised her spirits and sent her on the way, hopefully, to the bestseller list.
The article about Leith-based Black and White Publishing led her to write to the firm’s managing director Campbell Brown. A meeting quickly followed and he signed her up straight away.
The publisher is now convinced the 47-year-old’s guide will be a hit at home and abroad.
Ms Udo, of Tollcross, said: „I had tried two or three other publishers but they all said I needed an agent to deal with them. I don’t have an agent so I was going to leave it at that.
„But then I saw the Evening News article about Black and White Publishing so I sent a letter in to them, got a meeting with Campbell Brown and they got me signed up.
„If I’d never read that article, who knows if I’d ever have found an interested publisher.“
Although a print run or financial deal has not yet been confirmed, the publisher says it expects enough copies of „Scottish Whisky Distilleries – the ultimate companion for the whisky enthusiast“ to be sold to get it into the top ten bestsellers list in Scotland in the run-up to Christmas.
And it is also to take the book to the world’s biggest trade fair, in Frankfurt in October, where it is hoped that international wholesalers will be keen to take it on and help make it a global hit.
(…)
An initial batch of 300 books that she self-published and advertised on eBay brought great interest among tourists taking part in her tours and people further afield.
And now that the search for a publisher to take it on to the mass market is complete she is sure it can become a big hit.
(…)
She had a brief spell running a restaurant in the Grassmarket that boasted nearly 1000 single malt whiskies. M’s opened in 2002 in the former premises of The Three Quarters.
Black and White Publishing says her book is expected to be out in October…