advice on writing a book please

[apibeeman]

I have been thinking about writing a book for many years, I have started many times but given up at the daunting process of having it published.
These days there is Kindle, has anybody had experience of this.
Well anyway what I want to write about is my life story, which I think is quite unique, the family of four travelled the world going from rags to riches and back to rags and so on.
Born in 1943 in Wales to not ordinary parents, and with an 3 year older sister. My father worked for BEA and in 1946 we were in Bordeaux. We stayed in Yvrac at a Chateau. I can remember it well with all the post war poverty.
After that we returned to UK where my father decided to emigrate to East Africa. We arrived in Nairobi in 1948 after an adventurous steamship and train journey.
This was just after the Out of Africa time, I can remember meeting many of the people mentioned in the book, the place was still humming, pyjama parties and all that stuff. Lots of adventure
We stayed there three years and my father decided to join BOAC and we went to UK and then out to Thailand, this in now 1951. Amazing place, met some of the Thai royal family, fantastic people and nothing like what it is today. Plenty more adventure.
So these adventures went on and on throughout my childhood, to Rome, back to UK, I went to a total of 35 schools.
Then at the age of 16, I went looking for a job and guess what. I joined BOAC and started the adventures all over again.
That gives you an idea of the contents of the book, lots of adventure and lots of humour, different countries at different periods. Do you think its worth writing and publishing? and how to go about it? Speak to you all later.

Have you written anything else shorter? Read books of this type?

There's actually a lot of this kind of thing already out there. Even when written by celebs they don't sell very well as people mostly read fiction.

Fwiw I'm an aspiring novelist, have had several short stories published and currently guaging interest for first novel. Have 3 friends who are published writers, 2 novelists one writes historical interest so factual as yours would be. Yes you can self publish on Amazon but the books that are successful on there still have authors who've made use of having a good editor and a decent cover design.

Good luck but research thoroughly.

Your story may be interesting, but is your writing up to it? Natalie Rowe had/has a very interesting story, but reading the free samples from her book made my eyes bleed, and I certainly wouldn't buy it.

I'm a full time novelist (mostly romance, some fantasy) and absolutely I love to write. I'd urge you to go on and write the book if you want to.

Just a point of order here: Writing a book and publishing a book are really two different animals.

The writing part is bum-in-chair, working with words, and coming to grips with how to keep the reader entertained.

The publishing part is when you decide, do you want a commercial publisher or to publish yourself? If you publish yourself, do you want to reach a wide audience? If so, hiring a professional editor, cover artist, book designer, etc, isn't a bad plan. Likewise buying some advertising.

Alternatively, you could go with a traditional publisher, to whom you submit the manuscript in hopes they'll do all that stuff for you.

Regardless of the outcome you're going for, one piece of advice: write for yourself. Writing is hard, long, lonely work. You might as well be enjoying yourself while you're about it.

Good luck with the manuscript!

Another published novelist here and I agree. If you want to write the story, write it. Once it's finished you can think about publishing but until then it's just about putting words on the page! Good luck with it.

I'd be inclined to write it as a fictionalised version. People don't tend to want to read stories of 'ordinary' people's lives, unless there's something very unique about it. The Call the Midwife series did well because they were about something specific and interesting that the blurb could encapsulate.

It might be quite difficult to sell the story of a generally interesting life because there isn't a hook.

With a novel, you're much more free to explore themes, or find the thread of a story to tie it all together.

But I agree with previous posters- you just need to get on and write it. Writing isn't something that needs a lot of pre-planning. You just need to sit down and start writing it, keep writing it and finish writing it. Once you've got a first draft you can start playing around with it and getting to the heart of what you actually want it to be.

That's great information, thanks for all your interest.