The Wee Blue Book

The Wee Blue Book is a publication created to advance the "Yes" argument in the Scottish independence referendum of 2014. It was written by Stuart Campbell of the pro-independence website Wings Over Scotland.

The 72-page book was published as a digital edition on 11 August 2014, and 300,000 copies^[1] were subsequently printed, using money collected in an Indiegogo online fundraising campaign,^[2] and distributed across Scotland from the first week of September.^[3][4] Within a month, the digital edition had been downloaded 550,000 times.^[5] It was also released as an audiobook^[6] and narrated video,^[7] translated into Gaelic^[8] and turned into a standalone website.^[9]

The book also commented on the constitutional status of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.^[10] The book was described by Spanish news website ABC.es as "Salmond's secret weapon",^[11] referring to Alex Salmond. At the end of 2014, some commentators named The Wee Blue Book among their favourite books of the year: author Chris Dolan described it as "iconic" in the Herald,^[12] and in The Scotsman journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch made it her top pick for its "portability and sheer audacity".^[13]

Subsequent political campaigns have imitated the Wee Blue Book. The MEP group of the Scottish National Party published a similar document - The Wee Bleu Book^[14] - for the EU referendum campaign, and the movement for independence for the US state of California (which also appropriated some graphics from Yes Scotland) produced The Calexit Blue Book. ^[15]

The book was followed in 2016 by The Wee Black Book,^[16] a record of events since the independence referendum. The Wee Black Book was distributed as a free download and in a print edition on a paid-for basis, the latter of which sold over 38,000 copies in the two months after its release.^[17]

References

1. Gray, Michael (15 September 2015). "Corbyn will fail for same reason Yes did not win". The National. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
2. "Let's Hit The Streets: Story". Indiegogo. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
3. "Time to get busy". wingsoverscotland.com. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
4. Gross, Jenny; Douglas, Jason (2 September 2014). "Knock, Knock for Scottish Independence Ahead of Vote". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
5. Bryant, Ben (11 September 2014). "Cybernat Campbell: The Blogger Trying to Break Up Britain". Vice News. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
6. "The Scottish Independence Podcast - The Wee Blue Audio Book (made with Spreaker) by Scot Independence Podcast | Free Listening on SoundCloud". Soundcloud.com. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
7. Scotland's Referendum 2014 - The Wee Blue Book Narrated. YouTube. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
8. "An Leabhar Beag Gorm" (PDF). worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
9. Rev Stuart Campbell (2014-09-18). "Reasons to vote Yes in the Scottish Referendum". The Wee Blue Book. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
10. Johnson, Peter (17 September 2014). "Carmichael sets record straight on independence comments". The Shetland Times. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
11. Bergareche, Borja (2014-09-17). "El arma secreta de Salmond: el librito azul de la independencia y "lo que no cuentan los medios"" [Salmond's secret weapon: the blue book of independence and "we do not have the means"] (in Spanish). ABC. Retrieved 2016-01-13.
12. "Books Of The Year 2014: Herald Choices". The Herald. 29 November 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
13. "Leading Scots reveal their favourite books of 2014". The Scotsman. 2014-12-07. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
14. "Wee Bleu Book - Scotland in Europe". Scotlandineurope.eu. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
15. "Yes California Independence Campaign". Yescalifornia.org. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
16. "The Wee Black Book". Wings Over Scotland. 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2016-11-30.