No more PDF's

I am taking the unusual route of discussing my business, Mark Howard Publications, instead of the action on the track, which has been prompted by events in recent days.

I began writing One Jump Ahead 34 years ago when I was waiting to go to University, which I left with a degree three years later without a 'proper' job. With a great deal of help and encouragement from the late Jimmy FitzGerald, I decided to make a go of it as a career. This entailed placing flyers on cars at race meetings, which yielded little return. With the assistance of my family, we used our summer holidays visiting various branches of W.H.Smith in the north of England offering 10 / 20 books on a sale or return basis and did likewise via the telephone for the rest of the country. We eventually built up a considerable trade via W.H.Smith, although with a 62% discount, it wasn't overly profitable. The demise of W.H.Smith and other bookshops resulted in the production of my Updates for OJA and AOTF, which have now been running for 29 years in the former's case.

Mark Howard Publications Ltd consists of myself and my parents, both of whom are pensioners. Between us, we undertake all the packing and posting and necessary functions needed to produce the books and Updates. Unfortunately, book sales arem't as strong as they were 10 / 15 years ago - due to a combination of things including the emergence of the internet (free information) and younger people haven't got the patience to read books like they used to do.

Nevertheless, I have a strong and very loyal band of clients many of whom have been with us since OJA's inception in 1993. It is their loyalty and continued support which has triggered this post.

As many readers will be aware, I offer a PDF version of OJA and AOTF. Last week, I forwarded a number of PDF's and, within hours, one person had forwarded it to someone else and information from the book was plastered across X (formerly twitter). Needless to say, the person responsible didn't have the guts to admit it - reflective of a lot of people on social media who hideaway under pseudonyms. The matter is now in the hands of our solicitor. 

Having spent nearly a year compiling the information, along with the hard graft of packing and distributing the book, it was very disappointing to discover this. Many of my long-term clients are aged 65 plus and they will be equally disgusted by this - I am afraid it is a generation thing where people aren't prepared to do the research, just copying and stealing from others. They are parasites and don't have any relationships with anyone within the sport - they don't speak to any owners, trainers, bloodstock agents and probably don't even go racing. The highlight of their day is updating their X page and being first with the news they have gathered from someone else. It is pathetic.

While it may have cost us 100s and 1000s of sales, we still have plenty of very good clients who wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. Sadly, it does, however, means that we won't be sending out any more PDF's. A small number of people have spoiled it for everyone else.