FAQ

I’ve prepared a simple FAQ to provide more background on the AHP project:

1. How did the idea of Ancient History Press (AHP) come about?

The first seed came during lockdown in the Covid pandemic of 2020. Like many others, I was given time off work (furloughed) with not much idea of what to do with it. I was already a heavy reader of ancient history and realized I was frustrated both by the limited accessibility of books and also their pricing.

Much as I enjoyed my reading, many books simply approach topics from the same general angle. Additionally, many books routinely cost around $30-$50 brand new, and many others I wanted to read were out of print resulting in eye-watering $150+ price tags for second-hand copies on Amazon.

So I asked myself the question: could I do different and better? Could I write what I knew in a way that allowed me to tackle ancient history from new and more interesting angles, and additionally make such books not simply accessible in terms of how they were written, but also how they were priced?

The rest, you might say, is ancient history!

2. How are you able to write books so fast?

When I came up with the idea of AHP, I began planning, outlining, and writing what I thought was worth publishing. In the years 2020-2025 I had finished writing at least 6 books I was reasonably happy with, plus a similar number drafted to some degree, and another similar number already outlined.

So, really, it was a case that I already had much of the work already started, and a catalogue in the making.

The difference is I was a full-time technical writer by trade, so knocking out 5,000 words or more a day was already routine. Once I lost my job to AI, I simply turned that work rate to the books at AHP. Even still, I’ve already found that keeping to deadlines means having to push harder, certainly in the early months.

3. What are your thoughts on AI?

I lost my livelihood due to AI, but I also recognized that AI offered new opportunities. AI has helped me immensely in getting AHP off the ground and moving forward. I use AI tools for different parts of the publishing process. The most important are planning and editing.

Planning a book takes a massive amount of mental energy and time for research. I use AI tools to explore the topics I want to cover in depth, guide them on my coverage goals, then ask them to look at what else I could be adding. I don’t restrict myself to one AI tool but use ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini for each project to get a well-rounded idea of what I need. I treat them as valued advisors and researchers.

While the planning of a book still takes time, it is far faster than doing it alone. That makes creating an outline for a book much faster and more efficient, and once I have a draft to work from writing comes easiest.

I also use AI tools for editing. Before AI, that would mean trying to find a group of suitable editors for structural editing, line editing, and copy editing. I know from experience that the process can take months for each book.

Working with AI means I can shrink the editing time down to almost nothing, and instead use time for fact-checking the work to try and keep it as accurate as possible. At times I use generalizations some AI isn’t happy with because it doesn’t properly reflect the depth of academic discussion that might follow a specific issue, but I’m writing primarily for the general reader and there’s little point slowing the narrative to discuss divergent views in academia. The simple truth is that every detail of academic research is contested in some way – there are no truths, simply majority opinions that change over time. So I make my judgement call and move on.

4. What can we expect from AHP in the future?

My original vision was to simply write general books around all the major theatres of ancient history: Europe, Asia, South America, Africa. But it quickly became apparent that I don’t know enough to write confidently about everywhere. So I realized I needed to focus on what I knew best: the world of ancient Greece and Rome.

This means the books cover more of a niche than I’d prefer, but the advantage is that I can ask different questions. For example, most books on ancient Greece focus on Athens and Sparta, so one of the first books I began in the early days of AHP was The Other Cities of Ancient Greece, so I could provide wider coverage of those other cities that were not simply fascinating in themselves but also the foundations of Greek culture easily drowned out by the general focus on Athens-Sparta.

However, on saying that, I do have other books planned. I already have extensive notes about the ancient cities of Turkey, many of the ruins of which I’ve explored myself. I am also reasonably well-read on Egyptian history, especially the general overview and the Amarna Period of Akhenaten, so I have outlined book ideas to cover those, and that’s before we get to the Hellenistic and Roman periods I’m more familiar with.

Yet the very first book I completed writing (but still requires editing) was actually a book about the Black Sea region, because it’s such a culturally rich area – Greeks, Romans, Vikings, Scythians, Rus, Mongols, and more! – yet has been completely overlooked and overshadowed by studies on the Mediterranean Sea. I think that imbalance needs addressing. However, I’ll complete my sets on ancient Greece and Rome first.

5. How far do you plan to take Greece and Rome?

I have 8 books for each I’d like to complete first before I consider other options. I can write more, but as above, I’d like to get coverage of Turkey, Egypt, the Black Sea and more, an then perhaps return to Greece and Rome to expand on those.

I’d love to tackle general overviews of Asian history: China and India especially. But I’m going to need to spend a lot of time on research for those before I dare even begin to tackle them. I don’t trust AI enough to do that for me because AI routinely gets facts and details wrong. There’s plenty to distract me first – the ancient history of Mediterranean cultures is so thoroughly documented that there are so many different new angles I would still like to explore.

6. Tell me about your novel, The Odyssey – The Novel.

Ah, well. That was a long-term project I began as a teenager. I love reading ancient literature, and I really enjoyed Robert Fagles’ translation of The Iliad, but The Odyssey disappointed me. I had heard of the various famous stories: the Cyclops, the Sirens, the Lotus Eaters, etc, but found they were covered in brief summaries, sometimes just a couple of sentences, around two-thirds of the way through the book when Odysseus recounts his travels at a feast. I found that intensely frustrating – I wanted more detail. So I began to write a chronological version.

Tidying it up ready for publishing with AHP seemed to make sense at the time, as it was something I had already written and could use. I am not claiming to be a great author, but hopefully it tells the stories more dramatically and more fulfillingly than the original, if it’s not a sin to say so.

7. Why are there no bibliographies in your books?

Two reasons, mainly. The first is time. Anyone who has ever written an essay for higher education will know that setting up and formatting references correctly is a very laborious job. Considering how much longer a book is and the process becomes ridiculously time-consuming. As my focus is getting my books at as quickly as possible, to tight deadlines, I just don’t have the time to dedicate to this.

Secondly, though, is that I do mention ancient sources in the text, which are widely – and cheaply – available. There seems little point directing readers to books that are either going to be inordinately expensive or simply not available, let alone to academic journals that no one will ordinarily have access to unless they are a university student.

So there seems little point including bibliographies that will take a prohibitive amount of time to complete that will ultimately be of extremely limited use to the general reader.

8. Are you really called “Andrew Miles”?

No, I write for AHP under a pseudonym. I am already a published writer – no, not a bestselling author and you probably haven’t heard of me. But it does mean I already had practical experience of working with publishers, even if that side of my work was treated more as a hobby than a serious business venture the way AHP is.

I don’t plan to reveal my real name simply because there’s no point doing so – nothing to gain, and everything to complicate. In the meantime I simply hope people enjoy reading my books, whatever name I publish under.