Ebooks, Regrets and Not Enough Time!

Hi folks. I thought I’d just do a quick blog today as time is precious and reflect on my ebooks. For those who don’t know, In 2011-2012 I started work on getting some of my writing published – self-published as ebooks. They began with a book I’d started years earlier called ‘Dhaka to Dakar’ about my journey from Bangladesh to Senegal mostly (but by no means completely) overland over three separate trips. It was split into three books as it was, well, long.

Look it was my first foray into writing a book – it’s one of those things people say they want to do, and well, I did it. I did it not quite knowing who the target audience was and really I did it for me. I got on a roll though. I was living in Japan and had a bit of free time at home and at times (when exams were on and I had no classes) at work, so I decided to write more. I began the ‘Short Journeys’ series.

I wanted to combine personal experiences with a few reviews and thoughts on the places I’d been. As a result I ended up with books about Ethiopia, Vietnam, Laos, India, Japan and more. I never made a huge bagfull of sales, I never expected to, but whilst I publicised them, I made a few sales, up to around $15 ish worth a month. (that worked out to be around 30 – 40 sales on Amazon).

They are still there, but I haven’t publicised them for probably a year. I still get the odd sale – maybe half a dozen on Amazon, a few a month on Lulu. It was my intention when I got back from my trip around 11 months ago from Thailand and Myanmar to start writing again with a Short Journeys for Myanmar, but I just never had the time to start. Keeping the blog going, my filming, work and life just didn’t allow for that extra activity. I also had plans in the works for a Short Journeys on Jordan and the UK.

Will I ever get around to it? Well, right now I’m not seeing the chance. But I think about it once every two months! If you would like to see what I’ve written, the ebooks are really cheap, I think most if not all of them are less than $2. Lulu pay me, when my sales reach $5 I think it is, direct to my paypal which is nice. Amazon pay into my bank account in Japan as there is no way to get paid in Australia (except for Australian sales) except via cheque and you have to earn like $100 before they’ll do that.