Author in the making
February 2012
You’ve no doubt had someone say to you, ‘you should write a book.’ Several people said that to me over the last ten years. Flattered, well yes! The only problem was what to write about? I hated English classes at school – hated school generally to be honest. I’d probably forgotten more than I ever knew about grammar, tense and punctuation. I could do verbs, nouns and adjectives I thought, but a participle? That only provided an degree of mirth; my dad’s name being Percy Tipple. I rarely read anything other than car maintenance manuals, or electronics magazines or articles connected with work.
So what happened? Why do I want to write now? For starters, I’ve read lots of books over the last twenty years and enjoyed them. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. I knew which authors left me cold and those who worked for me, eager to read their latest. Visit http://www.edwintipple.com/contactlinks.html to see my favourite authors.
When I retired three years ago, we spent a lot of time in Thailand, especially over the winters. I began to write short articles about living here mainly for the benefit of those back home: perhaps to reassure them that we were alright living in Asia. Those early scrawlings were loaded with errors; all the things I’d forgotten about. But I enjoyed doing them.
In January I self-published them – without the errors – as a short e-book on Smashwords and Amazon, under the title of My Thai Eye, a wry look at things Thai. And they’re selling, not in vast numbers – I didn’t expect they would – but selling. I did this for a number of reasons;
- It would raise some money for Thai flood relief: I have chosen a book library Plan for Kids a childrens’ charity. Seemed fitting as so many were destroyed,
- It would help to get my name ‘out there’,
- I would gain experience at placing my own work in e-book stores and to learn how it all worked.
But My Thai Eye is done with now, apart from the marketing, such as this - which I think I’ll enjoy – and checking from time to time to see how sales are going – which I might not. As part of my marketing, I designed & built my own website – and the cover for My Thai Eye - so gradually I’m learning quite a lot about more about publishing. I haven’t done this alone and want to thank all of the Clouders at The Writers’ Workshop - the best on-line community for new writers – and their editors who nicely but firmly pointed me in the right direction. Plus David Gaughran – you should visit his site Let’s Get Digital if you want to e-pub, where he passes on his experiences.
So, what now? What to write about next? Two years ago I had no idea. Then one balmy evening, I had that eureka moment. I knew what my first novel would be about. And I’ll tell you all about it over the coming months.
Edwin Tipple edwintipple.com
February 2555 in Thailand
2012 elsewhere
