I have not stopped reading.
I have not stopped writing.
I have not remained away from this blog. I had watched it
regularly.
I have not stopped blogging.
I have read new books during the period of absence from this
blog. I consider reading and writing complementary to each other. I have
written a post on my Author Platform on this aspect.
When I read a book, I always write on it in my diaries. It
is another thing that after migrating to the Kindle reader, I have been writing
in the note section of the Kindle. However, that cannot be called writing. I
write private notes on whatsoever I read. It is a rule, but sometimes, I do not
maintain my practice. However, I have observed that making small notes on
Kindle is also a way of writing. The act of writing annotations is one part of
writing and growth of understanding. Many self-improvement writers have
suggested the methods of creating tags while reading. It is a practice which is
followed by highly placed executives, lawyers, journalists, judges, scientists
and others. In short, I am still writing. I have not posted any article for
long on this blog. But I read and write during this period. I have already
revealed in the previous paragraph that I have written on my other blog, which
is titled "Author Page of Sumir Sharma". No doubt, I have started a new
blog, and it is one of the reasons that I have remained away from this blog.
I want to reiterate one thing. I have remained sincere to my
basic norm and ethic. I read, and I wrote. I would like to emphasis one aspect
on this norm of reading and writing as one thing having two inseparable sites.
There was a paradigm shift during this period. Let me share it here.
I have reviewed many books on self-improvement on this blog.
Among many readers, there is a doubt about the efficacy and utility of such
titles. It is a different issue. I would instead like to move to the point
which I desire to make here. While living the course of synchronizing reading
and writing, I have already emerged as a self-publishing author. A
self-publishing author has to perform multiple tasks on his own even if he or
she takes up the help of the supporting expertise of others. Borrowing a
message of an editor, who herself is a self-publishing authoress, I found that
such authors have to perform a work of a CEO of a company. They have to attend
to the work of production, which is their first role, then, they do the
publishing, then the marketing and the finance involved in all these activities
and finally no doubt, the actual profit made out of all that.
On being emerging as a self-publishing author, the content
of my reading also underwent a shift. I collected and read books on writing
methods, writing skills, marketing of the books and related issue. During the
course of such a reading activity, I would like to mention the titles of Derek Doepker who wrote “Why Authors Fail – 17 Mistakes Self-published Authors
Make That Sabotage Their Success And How to Fix Them”; “Writing A Book A Week”,
by Alex Foster, “How I Sold 80,000 Books, Book Marketing for Authors” by Alinka
Rutkowska and many other related books and supporting self-improvements. I have
not written any review on them. However, the reading of those books had left
deep scratches on my brain, which influenced my vision of raising myself as a
self-publishing author. There were many suggestions, a bundle of information,
tonnes of data and different facts. I was able to appreciate many things
written in those books.
I believe I am not
capable or grown enough to value some of the suggestions. Some of the advice, I
think are not practicable for me in India where I live. However, a quantum of
impact was there. I developed an understanding that as a writer, I must connect
to readers through different media apart from the contents of my book. The
aspiration of writing a perfect novel which entraps the attention of the whole
world is an idea which is a delusion. If one can write a book, that thing is in
itself an excellent thing to do. If the book is read even by a half a dozen
readers who are not known to you, then you are a success. On Amazon and through
Kindle, your book is at least open by the members of Kindle Unlimited. Even if,
that happens, then as a writer, you are a success.
From the churning of words done by other authors on
marketing, I picked the suggestion of connecting to readers apart from your
book. There are numerous methods which are being suggested. Blogging is one of
that. One of the tips is to develop an Author Page or Author Platform. If it is
the message in the suggestion, and if I have understood it rightly, then It was
what I did in-between. I created two
blogs instead. They are as follows.
The blog Author Page is a general blog. Herein, the author
talks to the reader about the topics relating to writing, writing skills, the
methods of writing and related issue.
The Platform of Golden Kit is for a specific book of the author.
In the blog, the author discusses the content of the book and issues related to
the activity.
During these developments, I have derived some conclusions.
They may interest many.
I have learned that the Self-Improvement books are not an
inferior form of literature as some readers and discussions on this genre
suggest. The style of Self-Improvement books in the genre of Non-fictional
literature is a substantial cerebral activity. It relates to your present-day
life. It provides solutions to the issues and problems which are real.
The second observation is that blogging is not a redundant
thing. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube are the present-day buzz word. They have
created a lot of commotion and blogging is sidelined in the din which has been
raised. The activity has an intrinsic strength which would ensure its
continuity. It is a meaningful activity which has its value. Too many
people have ridden the waves of the cyber sea and raising a noise of their
underdeveloped brains. Thumping the keypad with thumbs are far less productive
than using all the fingers on the keyboard. The input methods may change, but
the discourse which can be given through blogging is far ahead than the rest of
the mediums. Even on Youtube, an over voice is needed. A stream of visuals may
not be liked for long.
As far as the writers and readers are concerned, blogging
can be an excellent platform to interact.
All such thoughts, readings, writings and activities are the
reason behind my absence from this blog. I am here, and I will continue to post
on this blog.
