Local author celebrates book success

Todmorden based author Rob Chapman is celebrating the phenomenal response to his self-published novel Unsung : Unsaid which is based around a series of fictional encounters in 1974 between the musicians Syd Barrett and Nick Drake.

Published via Amazon on January 1st of this year the book has already sold over 300 copies with very little publicity other than on social media.

Rob says “despite having a good track record with major publishers – I’ve had music books published by Routledge, Faber and Faber, and Omnibus – nobody seemed very interested in taking up the option of this one so I decided to publish it myself. I knew I’d written a good book that had strong commercial potential and that it would sell and I’ve been proved right.

Rob says that he has been overwhelmed by the reception the book has received. “I’ve been getting five star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and some amazing feedback on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. People haven’t just been saying they like it. They say they love it. One person said that it was their music book of the year already”.

Rob already has offers to appear at a few literature festivals later this year but in the meantime is looking for a local venue in Todmorden or Hebden Bridge that might be interested in hosting an event. “I love a good natter about music subjects that interest me and my talks always seem to go down well when I’ve appeared at festival like Glastonbury and Green Man. Nick Drake and Syd Barrett were such enigmatic characters, they really lend themselves to be being fictionalised so there’s plenty to talk about.”

If you can help Rob stage something local he can be contacted at [email protected]