Progress: British Flies - an introduction and key to families

In late November I posted a piece that was intended primarily as market research, but also to alert the world of Natural History to the possibility of a new guide to flies. There were lots of positive comments on my associated Facebook posts but also a few question marks as to whether such a book was really needed. Stuart and I firmly believe there is a need and that the moment is right to write such a book. Leave it any later and we may be too old (or gone). Even though there are quite a few Dipteists who could write such a book, most have other priorities. There are far fewer who have done as much testing of keys and understand the needs of novices. So, unless we do something nobody will!

Last Monday, Stuart and I met the publications unit of the Field Studies Council to discuss their possible role as publisher and to explore what they would want from us. I could not say anything in November about this meeting for obvious reasons. Our discussions were very positive and ended with an agreement that we (Stuart and I) would aim to deliver the package of text and illustrations by the end of 2019 or early 2020, witha view to publication in 2020. The timing is tight but we can do it provided we get cracking.

The really great thing about working with the FSC is that they understand keys and what works. They are also set-up to produce books that will have a long life-time in print and are not vastly expensive. The critical issue is to cover costs but there is not the same need for a particular profit margin as would be the case with a traditional publisher. The FSC model is to print sufficient books to meet expected market needs in the relatively short-term in order to minimise storage of large volumes of paper. The print run would be geared to anticipated demand and would be repeated at intervals when the need arose; thus keeping the book in print for as long as it was needed but allowing break points for revision if needed. We think the initial print run would be somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 units. Printing would be in the UK, which has a positive impact on the book's carbon footprint and keeps jobs in the UK too. The basic proportions are as described previously:

1. It will be a B4 book running to between 400 and 450 pages and composed of 3 sections:

• A substantial introduction. This would cover areas needed to understand the keys such as explaining the taxonomy and anatomical terms. An account of their life styles, biology and ecology of both adults and larvae, including treatment of medical and economic importance. Some very general coverage of the flies of macro-habitats.
• Keys to the families that occur in Britain. These have been rigorously tested and developed over the past 10 years. This key has been used in previous FSC courses run by us, as well a substantial number of other courses run by Dipterists Forum. We have some ideas about how to arrange the keys in ways that would make them a little less daunting to the novice.
• Descriptions of each family intended to be laid out in double page spreads with text on the left-hand page facing illustrations. The detail in each family description will vary, with some of the more obscure, small families perhaps having a half page with one illustration whilst the larger and better known families (especially those where there is a Recording Scheme) better covered with more text and several pages of photographs. Family descriptions will include coverage of the larval biology, where known, and a header summarising things like the number of species on the British list, their size range, the ease or difficulty of identification and whether it is covered by a Recording Scheme.

2. It would NOT aim to cover all species, even in popular families, but should be regarded as a companion to such guides as the Larger Brachycera, Syrphidae and Tipuloideae.
3. It would be illustrated by a combination of field photos, detailed photos of preserved specimens and line drawings to highlight specific features. It may not be possible to obtain field shots of some of the more obscure families especially where the species are very small. At this stage, we are anticipating full colour throughout, but we may have to re-think if printing costs are too high.

We discussed ideas such as crowd-funding and pre-publication offers. Happily there is no need for crowd-funding (at least we don't think so). There will be a pre-publication offer and we will be working to maximise the numbers of people who order a copy in advance - that should help to ensure that the book covers costs and that the shelves in Telford are not stacked high with unsold paper! It is too early to say much about price, but the market research from my last post indicated that the likely upper ceiling for such a volume would be in the £40-£50 range. We think that the final price should be somewhat below £40 and just possibly below £30 (subject to price changes in the next two years).

We have quite a bit of structural planning to complete and need to construct a project management chart to track progress - that is one of the jobs for me this Christmas. After that, we need to do some writing - the introduction is going to be a challenge. We have draft species accounts that need a thorough going-over by Graham and Tony. Nevertheless, I think we should have the text in place for peer-review by the end of 2018. The bigger challenge will be to populate the illustrations. I will be doing a lot of internet trawling this winter to establish what is available; after which we will just have to go and find the animals ourselves! That will be fun, but very demanding.

So, with any luck we will be providing a stocking-filler for Christmas 2020.