It's a project I began in October 2012. My goal with the novel is the share with the world the Lagos I grew up in and the hidden beauty it has. The beautiful dandelions and lotus that are often overlooked. To take the reader on a journey through Lagos with the aid of a 13 year old guide, Akin Smith.
The novel was inspired by Vikas Swarup's award winning novel, Q & A.
Last year I sent an excerpt from the book to Farafina, the publisher of Chimamanda Adichie's books. I got no response. Which is the usual thing for me. I always have to dig my way to anywhere I'm going. So I joined an online writing club and shared the same excerpt with the global literary community. I got amazing feedback. Established authors from the international community cheering me on and almost re-writing the excerpt for me while giving me suggestions and corrections. They made me feel like a fellow writer. There was a particular veteran, over 50 years old and with published works, who took my work really seriously and gave me the best feedback I got.
Then I realized why Farafina didn't reply. It was badly written. I wouldn't take the piece seriously if I wasn't the author. So now I'm taking the whole project offline. I will be rewriting the novel from scratch and completing it offline. Then I'll self publish it on Amazon Kindle. Already published one book on Amazon as a test last year.
I'm done rethinking my post-quitting-my-job strategy. Surprisingly, I'm sticking with my original plan. I'm putting my fulfilment way ahead of profit/money. I'm sticking with building a lifestyle business, going solo, growing slow and creating as much value/content as I can each day. I'm cutting down more on my non-directly creative activities: networking events and some marketing activities. I have already taken the biggest bet: quitting my job. I'm willing to take on smaller bets, even the counter-intuitive ones.
My slightly revised strategy:
- Take a self-study French course daily.
- Learn HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL. Already doing this intensively. Even dipping into my survival savings to buy the best books available, and IDE software too.
- Complete my novel. And start another.
- Attend only extremely important events. No classification basis, judgment based on feeling.
- Figure out a way to reach my target Excel-based services market from my room.
And as for my novel, I'll make sure every one of you (my esteemed blog subscribers) get a free copy of the final version.
Hmm. I checked out your novel/book on amazon. You are Nigerian, the book is a peep into your life in Nigeria and you have the photo of a caucasian female on the front page - very disappointing!
ReplyDeleteLol. It's a test book. In fact, it's just a collection of my favourite poems. I simply used one of the free sample cover pages on Kindle.
ReplyDeleteIf you think yourself that it was badly written, well I suppose it's been hard from you to admit writting novels is not your way. But we all have to be aware of our limits.
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