ABBA blog

In putting together ABBA On Record - Packaged Promoted Reviewed, I am fortunate in having a designer, Maria Nicholas, that is not only supremely skilled but also a true ABBA fan. This means that I don't have to explain what the book is about, as she knows the subject very well indeed. Maria has also shared, quite spontaneously, her reactions to the text. Some of these are below, but first an important reminder:

21 October 2023: Please pre-order ABBA On Record no later than this date if you want it personally signed by me(just place your order and you will automatically get it signed). Copies of ABBA On Record bought after this date will not be signed for as long as this edition remains in print. 21 October is also the deadline date for UK customers to buy the book at the current UK price. After that it will be Europe prices (please visit abbaonrecord.com for more details about the prices and to place your order).

When Maria Nicholas first began design work on ABBA On Record a while ago, she was reading the text for the first time, and this is what she wrote me after having received the first few chapters:

"The amount of research you’ve put into this work is truly incredible! The content is both captivating and interesting, and importantly, it eloquently and effectively captures the significance of a world that has just about disappeared in this day and age, making it a very important historical study. In that sense, I personally feel the appeal of this book will extend beyond ABBA fans to general 20th century music industry aficionados (dare I say, perhaps even more than The Complete Recording Sessions did)."

In her next email, she offered more:

"The more I read, the more interesting I find it. To learn about all these behind-the-scenes details/hear the backstories to releases we’ve known about and lived with for such a long time just adds an entirely new dimension; it’s like they’re coming to life again in a completely different way. "

In the years that I have been researching and writing the book, my proofreaders Ian Cole and Paul Carter have read several drafts of the manuscript, so I already knew that they liked it very much indeed. Now that Maria entered the picture, she did so with an entirely fresh perspective, being the first after Ian and Paul to read anything from the book. I hadn't asked her to comment on the text, but she did so anyway, and I am so happy that her reaction was so positive.

I'm not sharing this to beat my own chest (well, perhaps a little), but because her comments confirmed to me that all the hard work on the book has actually been worthwhile. After working on a book for so long, it is somehow inevitable that you're no longer sure whether what you've written is good or bad, but after Maria's input, I am confident that ABBA On Record is a book that every ABBA fan will enjoy.

Maria, was of course, was the designer behind my book ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (Revised and Expanded Edition). That book turned out great and so I was naturally eager to enlist her services for ABBA On Record as well. But for a while, it looked like she wouldn't be able to help me with this title as she was busy writing, designing and publishing a book about her late father, the famous Greek singer Apostolos Nikolaidis.

However, fate conspired to make ABBA On Record very much delayed, while Maria published her book and finished promotion of it just recently, which meant that Maria was able to take on the design after all. What she's done so far looks very good indeed, and I hope to show you an extract soon.

Learn more about ABBA On Record and order your copy at abbaonrecord.com.