The Good, The Bad, and the Really, Really Annoying.

Photo used courtesy of John Downer Productions.

... Thanks!

First things first: the good stuff. Our donations page is now up and running:

http://www.createafund.com/dakiniBooks/Tigers

I've set it up so that people can donate any amount they like, but we're hoping that most people will go for the book pre-order option - everyone who chips in £29/$45 or more will receive a copy of Tigers. Not a bad turn out so far - there's been a steady flow of visitors to the site. Now we just need another 4000 or so people to order a book...

I've also been chatting to the lovely people at WWF - in the UK, in Russia, and in Malaysia - about how we can work together to raise funds and awareness, using the book and otherwise. So far, we've decided to dedicate 30% of all funds raised, including through book sales, to WWF's Tx2 Campaign to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. The WWF are co-hosting the Heads of State Tiger Summit in Vladivostok this September, which means that they will be especially well placed to target world leaders, and the media, over the issue, and so we've been going over different ways that we can combine our resources to really make sure the message gets across.

So, all positive on that front.

Now for the headaches.

Headache 1. Back in the office last week, we came up with a genius stunt to get people talking about tiger extinction over here in London. However, the technical and artistic details were a teensie bit out of our skill set... apart from anything else, it involves complicated life-size sculpture at below-melting point temperatures, which I just don't think my AS-level art credentials will cover.

After extensive research (i.e. calling the other half, who works in design) I was advised to get in touch with the talented young design collective Puff&Flock, who would know about this sort of thing, when they got back from Milan - where most of the design world was headed last week for the Design Fair. But, judging by the photos of steadily gathering clouds of volcanic ash splashed across the news today, it would seem that this is where much of the design world will be staying for the foreseeable future.

This is at least the first time in my life that I can say my plans have been scuppered due to a giant plume of sulphur grounding all flights across the continent.

Headache 2. Now, this is a serious headache. As I've said, we're making a book, on tigers, to raise money for various tiger charities and to raise general awareness for the issues affecting tiger survival. We've found the photos we really love, and the photographers - in principle - are quite happy for us to use them. But, it turns out that they leased the photos to a different publisher several years ago, and now we have a potential rights quibble on our hands.

This was for a very different kind of book, and the people I've managed to speak to there have even said it shouldn't be a problem. Nevertheless, we like to do things properly, and we just wanted to check with them that this won't cause any trouble.

I've now been trying to get hold of the right person at said publishers for the past month to clear this with him. All I need is a simple "Yes, that's fine" or "No, you'll need to do this", but a dozen phone calls and emails later I still haven't heard back, due, it seems, to a mixture of bad luck, bad timing and... well, I wouldn't like to speculate. Rumour has it, though, that he will be at the London Book Fair tomorrow. Looks like it might be Press Passes at Dawn...