About our Guidebooks and Authors

If you have purchased a guidebook through Cicerone.co.uk then you will automatically see your books in your library when you log in. However, if you have bought Cicerone guidebooks elsewhere, there are still reasons to register these guidebooks in your library, in order to get free update information and gpx files if we have them.

You can also create an account without having bought any books directly from Cicerone. This will allow you to add all your Cicerone guides , provided they are currently in print, and receive the benefits of automatic update information and downloadable gpx files, but with no obligation to receive any other forms of correspondence from Cicerone, if that is your wish.

1) Log in to your Cicerone Account or click My Account

2) Click on 'Add a Book'

3) Complete the details there to add your book to your library.

A reprint is organised when our stock of a current guide runs low. Reprinted guides carry minor changes and corrections to the guide’s previous print run, not wholesale revisions. Many things will already have been noted and published as an Update on this website. Authors are contacted a short time before publication and asked to check carefully for anything that needs updating. (It is also part of a Cicerone author's responsibility to keep track of any significant changes relating to their guide all the time that it is in print.)

A new edition of a book is commissioned when a guide becomes more significantly out of date, in terms of content or design, or when the lie of the land has changed so dramatically that the guide is no longer valid. A new edition requires a thorough updating of the text, confirming all the routes and revising any information that may have changed, which may result in some structural changes and new photos or maps as required.

An edition of a guide can stay in print and be reprinted (with updates if necessary) multiple times over a period of years. It is only when the current edition becomes out-of-date, in need of a new design or invalid that it is ready to become a new edition.

The bibliographic information under the front cover image on each book’s page on our website shows the book’s last published date, which is the date of the last print run (this can be the first print run of a particular edition or a reprint). In between printings the Updates tab on the book’s page carries any corrections or updates that we know about.

We are always grateful to readers for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground. After the author has checked them over, they will be published under the book’s Updates tab.

Books currently with PVC covers or sleeves benefit from additional protection against hard use and the weather, to help ensure that the guide remains functional in challenging conditions. However the cost to the planet is something that is of growing concern. We want to ensure that all our guides remain as robust as possible, but without continuing the use of PVC. We realise that Cicerone's use of PVC is relatively insignificant, but if all companies think that way, the world would make little progress. It’s a question of balance, and we are doing our best to get this right. To find out more on this subject, please take a look at this article on Extra.

Accordingly, all new guidebooks published after March 2021 will no longer use PVC, but will have the benefit of flaps both front and back. Flaps provide considerable protection for a book, and have the additional benefit that they can mark your place in the guide for easy access, as well as providing space for key information referenced frequently such as an overview map and map key.

Absolutely. All Cicerone guidebooks are printed on FSC certified paper. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification gives public reassurance that timber products originating from a forest are managed in a responsible and sustainable way – something that is becoming increasingly important.

We are always working to improve our range of guidebooks, even in the areas we already cover in depth.

We will continue to publish guidebooks for the world’s best walking, trekking, mountaineering or cycling areas, as well as doing our best to respond to emerging trends. If we’ve missed anywhere that you think is important, let us know!

You can see the guidebooks that we will publish in the next three months here.

There are a number of possibilities such as Amazon, AbeBooks or eBay. Second hand bookshops are the best places to find second hand copies of our guidebooks but you do have to hunt around for them.

If the book has recently gone out of print you can ask us - we may still have copies.

If we get lots of enquiries about a particular guidebook, then we will listen, and may see if we can make the book available again.

Hopefully we can answer your question as the author may be away and unable to respond quickly.

If your query is about a book and its contents please check the book page thoroughly. If the answer you need is not here, let us know, and we’ll add it.

If you're after advice or guidance please have a look through Extra - there may be an article covering your issue.

However, sometimes you just need to go straight to the author with a question. Where possible, we try to help with that. Here are some ways to get in touch with our authors:

1) If an author has a website or social media profile, these details are given on their author page. We don’t give authors’ email addresses on our site, at the authors’ request.

2) Secondly, you could email us saying ‘I have a question for the Author’ on our Contact Us page. We will pass the question on.

If you have spotted an error or route change in a guidebook then please send us an update and we will pass your information to the author for use in future editions. Once this information has been verified we will add it to the relevant book page as an update., so that all our customers can benefit from this information.

We know that a guidebook can be out of date as soon as it is printed. We do our best to help readers with this by passing on any update information we have.

Updates are available for free either by visiting the book page or by subscribing to Updates in your account. You can subscribe to all updates, or just choose the books you need updates for. We send update emails every Friday but you will only get an email when there is something new to send.

If you have an update for us please let us know: Send Us an Update.

Many trekking companies will give or sell you a Cicerone guide for your trip. Indeed many treks are based around Cicerone guides.

The trekking company will give you enough instructions and briefing, the leader will know the route and the paperwork will summarise it. You could certainly manage without a guidebook.

But our purpose in writing Cicerone guides is to help the walker and trekker have a great time. The extra information in the guide may help you do this, so why not take the guidebook? Planning and enjoying your journey doesn’t stop just because it’s organised.

As we only cover outdoor activities and are walkers and trekkers ourselves, we hope we have our ear close to the ground.

Ideas can come from requests from enthusiasts, retailers, magazines and other media, and specialist groups. Our authors both existing and prospective are a fertile source of ideas and we work closely with them to develop a range of ideas, as well as our own opinions and plans!

Out of all this, plus a little more formal thinking, comes a broad plan of what we will be doing over the next few years. We tend to be scheduled about 3 years ahead, but have a rough plan that keeps us thinking up to five years in the future.

You are welcome to Suggest a Guidebook if you have a great idea that we may not have thought of. If you are an author and want to make a proposal, please read our Prospective Authors information.

Because we are a specialist publisher, some of our guides will never be best-sellers. There are steady sales, but no amount of marketing is going to sell more.

Specialised guides, especially to new and emerging areas, are an important part of the service we offer to walkers, trekkers and mountaineers, but may only have a limited and highly specialist appeal.

Inevitably this means that some of our guides take a long time to sell. We carefully look at them to be sure that they are still relevant and provide important and useful information, even if the details of accommodation and facilities (and sometimes even the route) may have changed.

If the guide still serves a useful purpose, we continue to keep it available. If it does not, then we withdraw it from sale.