NOTHING IS AS AUTHENTIC AS DESPAIR
THAT EXTRA PUSH OVER THE CLIFF
Sticking with the direction and not looking back. Last week when I was looking for photos to accompany and break the text for the newsletter I was looking in my media file and realised just how many magazine clippings I had of book reviews, articles and columns I’d written. It dawned on me I was much higher profile then than now. I knew this but it was a realisation nonetheless. By the way, thanks for the replies with your own pet hates of misused words. I’ve got loads more now.At my very first show, attempting my very first sale, displaying my very first book, my sales pitch was literally ‘please buy my book’ to the very first person on the planet to pick up a copy and look at the cover. Obviously that only demonstrates desperation, albeit genuine, and I was both.  I was soon advised that this whole author thing was smoke and mirrors, you portray success and it manifests itself in that way. Particularly in a celebrity obsessed culture from reality TV to the previously unapproachable A-list movie stars and even presidents feeding their hungry and fanatical followers with daily tweets. This one-sided interaction increases their stature, heightens their popularity, keeps them in the public eye between projects and probably boosts their egos too. No doubt the followers get something out of it as well though, not sure if it’s inspiration but it must have some kind of reward, maybe entertainment.  Book by book I built a readership who engaged with my writing ‘please can I pre-order’ that’s what you want to hear although all promotion ultimately boils down to ‘please purchase my product’ even if it’s a high profile red-carpet movie premiere that needs a significant return from the box-office to pay for the making.  So my name slowly became more known in certain niche overland circles, I often wondered if I was on the edge of glory or the peak of my success …turned out it was the latter.  However, from my new heights I got perspective and slowly this new scene I found myself in lost some of its appeal, its authenticity; a sequence of events created a disillusionment which is quite well documented in Not Working. I will always travel, ride and always write about it but I felt I didn’t need to, didn’t want to stay strictly with the subject matter of my first 3 books.Before I continue with this story I just want to add. I’ve been learning the science that is Amazon Ads, it’s a complex platform and to make it work effectively there is no sure solution or equation, you have to hone your target audience to your specific book. This requires a lot of research and in doing so I came across travel authors I’d not heard of. Before I would pay to associate my book with their product I read a synopsis and a few reviews of these books.  One of my guilty pleasures, and I’ve said this before is to read one start reviews, as they often reveal more about the writer of the review than the product in question. 2 and 3-star reviews give a more accurate description of the dislikes the reviewer has with the product. I’ve had my fair share of all, you can’t please everyone. Even the Bible only gets 4.5 out of 5 in reviews on Amazon.  However, within the travel genre I found a lot of recurring comments in the reviews, that the ‘adventure writer’ was macho, portrayed himself as the hero, that the writer was clearly playing the audience, ultimately the books lacked authenticity  And this was my epiphany. The two books about relocating my life to eastern Europe was me writing about my first-hand experiences, in some ways it could and was seen as brave and adventurous but it wasn’t motorcycling adventure, it was though a lifelong motorcyclist moving to the next stage of his life. A stage with a smaller audience, after all, I did move to a sparsely populated country with a declining population. This deserted and distant location even for a traveller had its hurdles .Concord was once described as an engineer’s dream and an accountant’s nightmare Similarly Bulgaria’s climate and roads was a biker’s paradises as well as being the perfect retreat for a writer, but made public speaking and attending bike shows in the UK less logistically lucrative. Also other instances occurred along the way, and then after a 5-year residency I left the ARR RAW podcast. My popularity decreased but my credibility remained intact.  The Rambling On trilogy again are tales of a biker, a biker’s thoughts, as that’s who I am, not this time on a motorbike but setting the stage for what was to come. This is a story I felt was encouraging, a time when my back was against the wall, and how I made the first steps to change that. This, I think, is the right time to take you down the path that led to me leaving my all consuming job to earn a living at doing what I loved. So some adventure bike readers dropped away. In the immortal words of Spinal Tap, I wouldn’t say my popularity is waning, no no no, my audience is just becoming more selective.  What I have is faithful readers, who buy my books for their honesty and authenticity, I don’t portray or pertain to be anyone but who I am. The books are always brutally honest for better or worse and that veracity slaps you in the face (not literally). And I think I’m happy with this, no publisher or agent packages me into a saleable commodity. I stand by my beliefs; my role models were and are of a similar ilk. Motörhead never played stadiums, but as Lemmy said ‘we don’t have a huge fan base but those we do have would kill for us’ and I have more respect for Gilmour and his humble but heartfelt solo career than Waters and his stadium and arena filling ego boosting but uninspired offerings.  When it’s real you can feel it, it’s beyond packaging, marketing and even popularity, it’s genuine. I liken it to those times when, whatever you are doing, be it gardening, painting, riding, or playing an instrument, you lose yourself in the moment, at one with your task, unaware of anything else around you, absolute focus. It’s a place we rarely find ourselves in but once there it’s such a rewarding feeling.  When I looked back at how hard I worked to get to the level I was, I feel some regret, in fact, to be honest, at times of reduced royalty cheques it reaches levels of near despair, because I let it all go, I turned my back on it. (No smoke and mirrors here eh?) But what I got in return was a clear road ahead, no obligations, no distractions, no detours. I could see clearly what I wanted to write next and it was done without an agenda, a specific audience in mind, a certain readership to please. Going back to Spinal Tap this isn’t exactly my ‘free form jazz odyssey’ period but it is to some degree self-indulgent, it is unapologetically true to self, and personally I find the most compelling audiobooks and reading are from an author who is being true to self, the prose has an integrity that caries the journey and turns the page.  So when I despair at the decision to take this direction, both in location and career I have to stop, and not bask in the shadow of yesterday’s triumph.  But realise that there is nowhere else I’d rather be going, the unobstructed future ahead is not bound by a past, anchored to a style, but unrestricted into what awaits which is the embodiment of freedom. It’s a good feeling, it’s exhilerating, it’s a little daunting but the best journeys like the best travel books have you moving forward engrossed, to see what will happen next. It’s the nature of true travel, the unexpected, anything else is contrite and contrived. Pre-discovered, expectations, over hyped, underwhelmed, sold out and samey. Predictable happy ending and prose written to please.  And I think you know by now from these mailouts to the trilogy I don’t write to please, the only praise I’m after is pride of my product something I’m proud to stand behind not contractual oblation. It’s worth bearing in mind that every saleable commodity, however it’s dressed up, whatever life enhancements it promises, the hype, the reviews, the sneak previews, from car manufacture TV commercial to beauty products from waterproof roofing materials to celebrity social media posts, everyone is asking you with disguised desperation ‘please buy my product’ and that is an undeniable truth. I’m heading back to the UK this week for the first time in a year for the launch of ‘A Life of Chai’ a friend’s 60th and and to stand outside the Royal Albert Hall all week with a sign that says ‘ONE TICKET NEEDED’ to try and get in to one of the David Gilmour sold out shows.I’m not sure which I’m most excited about.  PRE-ORDER for a signed copy LAST WEEK TO GET THE REDUCED KINDLE PRE-ORDER PRICE FOR MY SUBSCRIBERS ALL THREE BOOKS FOR THE PRICE OF TWO AND FREE WORLDWIDE POSTAGE on all and any books in the trilogy during pre-order.* *limited number available All 3 for £31.98 |
