Working Wednesdays: My First 5 Book Appearances

During the pandemic, I was able to finally release my first solo printed book series (Backpacking Centurion), along the wayside, I forgot I already had appeared in 5 books before that. A hat-trick of E’s and a brace of printed ones. For today’s Working Wednesday, I thought I would put them all on one post. I have no idea if you can even still buy all of these, but I will put the links anyway.

Working Wednesdays: My Published Author Book Appearances

1.Green and White Army – The Northern Ireland fans by Ivan Martin

Year of release – 2008.
Type – Paperback.
Available – Green and White Army

From 2005 – 2009, I was chairman of the South of England Northern Ireland Supporters Club. It was a completely crazy time of my life looking after a bunch of buck eejits. I was asked to be a part of an excellent book on the Northern Ireland football fans. That book was released in 2008 and can still be bought on Amazon. Despite appearing in university magazines, fanzines, newspapers and websites, this was actually my first real “book” appearance, although not quite as an author, but as an interviewee…

The Green and White Army – Northern Ireland fans by Ivan Martin

The Green and White Army – Northern Ireland fans by Ivan Martin

2.Albania to America by Shaun Schofield

Year of release – 2010.
Type – Paperback.
Available – Not available but the prequel is here – There’s Always One: Ten Years of Watching Northern Ireland (June 1995-June 2005)

In 2006, Northern Ireland football fan, personal friend, author and gallivanter Shaun Schofield released his first book, There’s Always One. A year later whilst drinking with Shaun in Gillingham in England (watching a Northertn Ireland v. England ladies match), Shaun and I planned to go to Belarus together to watch a match. That match was Belarus v. Northern Ireland ladies in August 2007. In the end, Shaun pulled out and I went alone and because of that, he asked me to write a guest chapter for his next book, Albania to America, which I gladly did. My appearance in that book was my first time being a published author. I wrote all of Chapter 16 and also contributed a photo to the book. That was in 2010, and now when I checked – the book is no longer available, but I have my own copy and a special hardback copy thanks to being included as an author in the book.

Albania to America by Shaun Schofield

Albania to America by Shaun Schofield

Albania to America by Shaun Schofield

3.My First Ever Travel Blog by Jonny Blair

Year of release – 2015.
Type – E-book.
Available – My First Ever Travel Blog: School Trip to the Netherlands, 1991

I decided that the first ever e-Book I would release should be exactly what fits it – my first ever travel blog. So my actual Travel Blog from 1991 on my first ever backpacking adventure to the Netherlands became my first ever e-Book. I might have released it 24 years too late. But it was important for me to put that trip out there to the public as it was my first ever trip without my parents, back in 1991 and it no doubt inspired a life of Wanderlust. A condensed version of that e-Book will appear as part of a chapter in the upcoming printed book, Backpacking Centurion.

My First Ever Travel Blog: School Trip to the Netherlands, 1991

My First Ever Travel Blog: Trip to the Netherlands, 1991

4.The Backpacker’s Guide to the Inca Trail by Jonny Blair

Year of release – 2015.
Type – E-book.
Available – The Backpackers Guide to the Inca Trail

When I backpacked through South America, I once had a plan to release a few e-Books on that continent, as well as one on Antarctica. I completed the Inca Trail on Christmas Day 2010 and released my e-Book on it. It is a guide on how to organise, plan and do the real Inca Trail. That one was released in 2015. I didn’t really promote it much. I also later shelved the other two similar books I had at the time – The Backpacker’s Guide to Antarctica and The Backpacker’s Guide to Montevideo, Uruguay. They never saw the light of day, nor will they.

The Backpackers Guide to the Inca Trail by Jonny Blair

The Backpackers Guide to the Inca Trail by Jonny Blair

5.South America Borders by Kali Kucera, Lorraine Caputo and Jonny Blair

Year of release – 2015.
Type – E-Book.
Available – South America Borders: The insider’s guide to crossing over 40 borders in and out of 12 countries by bus, boat, or a walking stick!

In 2015, I also co-authored a book with fellow South American backpackers Kali and Lorraine. This was a great book about how to cross every single border in South America and it has been updated too. Given that I backpacked about 10 borders there by land and boat, this was quite easy to write and release. However none of 3, 4 or 5 on this list were ever released as paperback books!

All that’s left to say is watch this space as I try to bring the fourth volume of the Backpacking Centurion series to you very soon. It has been a long and delayed process but finally with those three books out of the way, I can focus on my next project!

Stay safe and happy reading!