Musings from a Writer’s Life
Confession: I’m a Westwallah!
During six years in India I grew accustomed to hearing the word ‘wallah’, whether it be a chai wallah, rickshaw wallah, or one of dozens of other trades, specialties or locations that wallah denotes. It was one of those Indian words that had seamlessly slipped into English and everyone understood it.
When I embarked on writing and publishing some years ago and was searching for a suitable name for my business, Wordswallah immediately came to mind. I was delighted when my graphic designer created a logo that not only captured the word beautifully but linked it stylistically to its Indian origins.
Becoming My Own Publisher
After having had six books published in four countries, I decided to try self-publishing my latest book, MORE THAN HALFWAY TO SOMEWHERE. This decision was driven by comments from a previous publisher and a writer friend who both deemed my collection of travel stories ‘not commercially viable’. But I also had a desire to experiment with this way of reaching readers, in which I would have control over the entire process, from writing and editing to designing, printing and distributing my book. Or so I thought.
It’s OK to Judge a Book by Its Cover
How often have you been told “Never judge a book by its cover”? While there is wisdom in that saying, it tends to mask the vital role that actual book covers play in capturing readers’ interest. My experience with covers of a number of books bears this out. But getting to the final choice has often been a circuitous, rushed and last-minute undertaking, as the following examples show.
Titles and Subtitles: Critical Choices
When I published my India memoir, THE BOATMAN, in 2014, I received an email from a reader in Australia who enjoyed the book but felt deceived by my choice of title. He was a very talented artist, who had spent many years painting exquisite pictures of the lithesome...
How I Almost Didn’t Become a Writer
In the summer of 1987 I took a break from my NGO in Brussels to spend a week with an Australian friend in Exeter, England. A few months before, I had made contact with a young gay Gujarati guy who had grown up in East Africa and now lived in the UK, but had never been...
A Writer by Default Rather Than Design
When I was ten years old my father gave me a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. It soon became my close friend and constant companion. I would look up a word, then get sidetracked by others, revealing words and worlds I never knew existed. I didn’t know it then...