As a writer, the choice between indie or self-publishing and traditional publishing is one of the most significant decisions you can make. Both paths offer unique opportunities and challenges, and understanding them is crucial for any author. I began my journey in traditional small publishing when my book Cry of the Flying Rhino won an …
Big News: First Draft of My Next Psychological Thriller Completed! 🎉
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve finished the first draft of my next psychological thriller! I began this project in 2022 and initially wrote 37,000 words. However, in January 2023, I had to abandon it. My commitment to Penguin Random House Southeast Asia for The American Boyfriend took priority, involving a year-long promotional, marketing, and …
How to Write a Brilliant Blurb for Fiction: 5 FANTASTIC WAYS
The Business of Blurb Once I found this task a chore akin to cleaning or ironing. Now I enjoy it and even do it on other people’s books. It’s the pretty and mysterious sister of the synopsis. The synopsis is a dry technical report of the book’s beats with all the spoilers but the blurb …
INSIDER SECRETS: 3 top writing tips that will change how and what you write
1. Write what you don’t know. Writing what you know is one of the worst pieces of writing advice. It must have come from the “old days” i.e. pre-internet where there was not enough information available to anyone so it would be dangerous and idiotic to stray past your own library. But today, how do …
How long does it take to write a novel?
I get asked this question a lot. If it takes only half a day to write a 1,000 word blog, then should it not take just 40 days to write a book? The answer is that it’s almost right. I started planning Overboard in 2018, just after Heart of Glass was launched in June. I …
3 Things I Learned on my Publishing Journey (making me a far superior writer now)
Note that I don’t call them mistakes. I call them “things learned”. I don’t see them as mistakes because they are just experiences that made me a better writer today, by miles. 1/ I tried to write as a white male person. It’s unbelievable but true. I just thought I’d better aim to be like …
Are there any Benefits of having a Penpal in this Digital Age?
Recently I tweeted a memory I had of my penpal when I was 12 and I was astonished when today it’s so far had 80 likes. I know it’s not viral, humour me. I had two penpals. The one from the Philippines is in the tweet: To this day I cannot bring myself to open …
My Morning Writing Routine
I wake up around 06:12 if I am good and 06:44 if I am lazy. I don’t need an alarm, it’s the same every day no matter what time I went to bed. I hit start on the espresso machine, make a skinny flat white. In my pyjamas I write before work, either working on …
Finding Time to Write When You Think You Have No Time? Here’s How.
CAVEAT: Firstly, it is not time that has to be made. There are only 24 hours, you can’t make any more. Secondly, it is words that have to be made, not time. Thirdly, it is ideas that make the words, not time. And now I will systematically break down the entire week to show you …
Can You Write a Book while having Full-time Job and Children? Do the quiz and find out!
1/ Can you sit down for 20-40 minutes? This can be either days, nights, weekends, holidays, whenever. At any point can you sit down and not keep getting up? You know that writing is sitting down, right? First start with 10 minutes and then work your way up to 20 then 30 and finally 40 …