Minnie Seed/Jimmy Seed book update

I thought I had already posted about this, but perhaps I haven't? Couldn't see anything in my Post history.

Just wanted to say that I've now got a publisher for my book on Jimmy and his sister Minnie.

The project initially began all the way back in 2000, when When Saturday Comes reviewed The Jimmy Seed Story, and pointed out that his involvement in The Great War was dealt with in a single paragraph, and his England career in only four words (‘and of course, England’). I had the germ of an idea to republish the Jimmy Seed Story with extra chapters that filled in the gaps. Self publishing, probably, as there was unlikely to be huge demand. 

Initially I was releasing the material on the Jimmy Seed Blog, when I discovered, in around 2016, that his sister Minnie had also been a footballer.

This led to some serious research (my 2017 retirement fortunately giving me a little more time) as there was very little information about her. As none of the remaining family even knew she had played football I really had my work cut out. I started writing a chapter about her, but as it grew I realised that as a seperate chapter in Jimmy's book it was never going to work. 

So I eventually started the book from scratch a couple of years ago.

Towards the end of August I sent the manuscript to about 25 publishers who I thought might be interested, and one replied within a few days. However, they weren't interested in the book as it stood, but said that if I moved the focus more onto Minnie they would definitely be interested. A few days later, after discussions, they offered me a contract. I’m now in the process of writing their requested 8,000 words covering the history of women’s football. The old title, Jimmy & Minnie Seed: Football, Love & War has gone, as they prefer 'Minnie Seed: Football's Forgotten Heroine' (or 'Trailblazer').

The added bonus has been that they have also offered me a contract for an expanded version of my dad's memoir, although the prospect of writing the expansion bits is pretty daunting. He left three audio tapes of material which totally 19,000. They want up to 60,000.