booksMatt Krause is a 42-year-old American man who met a Turkish woman on an airplane to Hong Kong, fell in love, and moved to Istanbul. His website is http://www.mattkrause.comand now http://www.heathenpilgrim.com too, and my Facebook page is http://facebook.com/mattkrause1969.
When I first heard about Matt’s book, the title intrigued me. His answer, as to why he picked it, will make any expat (like me) smile:
“I thought life was going to be wide open and free-to-be-redefined after I moved to another country. Turns out that’s not true at all. I was the same person in Turkey that I was in the US. It took a while for me to realize how cool that is. It means you can go anywhere in the world and not lose yourself. It also means you can redefine yourself at home just as well as elsewhere.”
JP
Tell me about your book. What is it about? Can you describe it in just a few sentences?
MK
The book is called A Tight Wide-open Space. It is about my time in Turkey, mostly about my first couple years there. The book is a memoir, sure, but Istanbul and moving to another country are a whole lot more interesting than I am, so the book is mostly about Istanbul and moving to another country.
JP
Why did you write it?
MK
I wrote that book because I wanted to get those stories down on paper. I figured in forty years I could be an 80-year-old man telling forty-year-old stories, or I could put the stories down on paper and then move on and go make new stories. The latter sounded like a better use of the next forty years of my life, so I chose the latter.
JP
What qualifies you to write this book?
MK
Another book I wrote, Soapbox, starts out with an essay about an old friend of mine from high school, someone who passed away in an accident 10 years ago. His sister, whom I hadn’t seen or spoken to in 25 years, wrote to me a couple months ago to say thanks for helping her find another piece of her brother. Last week a man wrote to me saying that his brother is dying of cancer, and another essay in Soapbox helped him find strength. A couple months ago a woman wrote to me about how a single phrase I use in A Tight Wide-open Space reassures her that everything’s going to be okay in her own life. Last month one man liked ATWOS so much he bought 25 copies to give to friends as Christmas gifts. The other day I was telling someone about the Heathen Pilgrim project, and he immediately started remembering road trips he took through California 35 years ago, and his eyes lit up with youthful excitement. I haven’t even begun the Heathen Pilgrim walk, and I’m already inspiring people.
When people stop telling me my writing adds something to their lives, I will know I’m not qualified anymore. In the meantime, I will write, because I can help people that way.
JP
Why do you think your book needed to be written? What will it do for other people? How will it help? Did you have any competition?
My book needed to be written because I needed to write it. There was no bigger purpose. I just had to get it out of the way so I could move on and do other things with my life.
What will it do for other people? Everyone seems to get something different out of it. Some people like the descriptions of a foreign city, because those descriptions add color and flavor to their days. Other people like the chapter about my father-in-law, because it makes them feel closer to their own relatives. Some people like the parts about my business activities in Turkey, because they inspire them to be more entrepreneurial. Everyone picks up on something different. One person says Chapter X is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but Chapter Y is boring. The next person says Chapter Y rocks, and Chapter X is the boring one. That’s one thing about books I hadn’t realized, at least not up so close — that how people respond to a book says more about them than it does about the book.
I have lots of competition: TV, movies, music, Facebook, kids that need to be fed, bills that need to be paid. Not to mention authors who are already famous and proven. The ways people spend their time are infinite, and they are all my book’s competition.
JP
Who do you think will read your book? What made you think that there was a market for it? If your book has been out for a while, what proof do you have that you were right?
Different people read this book for different reasons. Some people read this book because they lived in Turkey decades ago and just like to hear someone talk about it. Other people read this book because they dream about moving to another country, and want to read about someone else who did it. Other people read this book because they don’t think girls can be picked up on airplanes, and they wonder how it’s done (hint: clumsy works just fine).
I didn’t care whether there was a market for this book or not. I wrote it for a different reason. Turns out there is a market for it though, since I’ve sold a few.
JP
JP
It does not matter how good a book is, or how good your writing is if no one knows about it. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to promote your book? Are you a speaker or trainer? Do you have a blog? A website? A newsletter? Do you use Facebook, Twitter or other social media tools? What about press releases and sending out review copies and free articles? Have you had any other ideas? Which methods do you think work best and can you give me any examples?
MK
Promoting a book takes more time than actually writing it. As I was writing this book I read a lot about how other people marketed their books, and I thought, “Wow, that sounds like a lot of work!” I figured if I was going to put that much work into promoting my book, I may as well piggyback it on something else I wanted to do anyway. So I dusted off an old dream I’ve had for the past 20 years, to travel from Cork, Ireland, to Ho Chi Minh City, and broke it down into something more doable (1500 miles walking across Turkey and Syria). I’m calling that project Heathen Pilgrim, and a couple books are going to come out of that. ATWOS will ride that project’s promotional coattails.
That aside, I’m also promoting the book through the normal channels — blog, guest posts on other peoples’ blogs, interviews, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But for every one person who does everything you’re supposed to do and becomes rich and famous, there are a hundred people who do everything you’re supposed to do and get nothing in return. So do the things the experts tell you to do, but don’t worry about it too much, because you still only have about a 0.00001% chance of success.
JP
How did you publish your book? Did you find an agent, a publisher or did you publish it yourself? Please describe your process and tell us how you found the experience. Is there anything you would definitely do again or never do again?
MK
I published it myself, using Createspace (print-on-demand for production, Amazon for distribution). Finding an agent and a publisher is good but time-consuming. As with anything time-consuming, ask yourself if there is a higher-value use of your time. If the answer is yes, do that other thing instead. If the answer is no, find an agent and a publisher. In my case, I could meet my modest sales and distribution expectations on my own, and I had other projects I wanted to get started on. But for other people or in other circumstances, finding an agent and a publisher is the way to go.
JP
What was your biggest challenge regarding the writing of your book? How have you overcome that?
MK
My biggest challenge was eating healthy food and exercising. I ate way too much pepperoni pizza for my own good, and I went from running three times a week to running just about never. Writing a book isn’t free, the resources have to be pulled from one account or another. I chose to draw down the diet and exercise accounts while I was writing ATWOS. There’s no way to avoid paying a price. You just decide which accounts you want to pay it from.
JP
Now you have written this book, what has writing it done for you, your family, your self-esteem or your business?
MK
In addition to allowing me to retire to a Caribbean island where I drive a speedboat filled with bikini-clad models, writing this book has allowed me to, well, say I’ve written a book. That’s actually a pretty cool thing to be able to do though. It gives you some street cred when you start talking about a hare-brained idea. I guess people figure anyone who is crazy enough to write a book is crazy enough to do just about anything.
JP
If you were to give advice to someone else who is thinking about writing a book, what would be your number one tip?
MK
My number one tip would be don’t write one book, write a bunch of them. If you only shoot for one book, that book is going to be your only chance to write a good one, and you’re going to put so much pressure on yourself that you never stop tweaking it, you never finish it. If you plan on writing five books instead, book #1 isn’t your one and only chance to get it right, it’s what stands in the way of book #2.
Here are a couple bonus tips:
Tip #2 is to read 30 books for every one that you write. Whatever problem you’re trying to solve, someone has probably already solved it. See how they did it.
Tip #3 is to get that first book written and out there, because it’s a lot easier to see your mistakes after you’ve made them. If you haven’t made mistakes yet, you have nothing but shadows to box.
JP
And finally, how can people buy your book, in what formats, and what does it cost? Please include any links if you have them.
MK
A Tight Wide-open Space and Soapbox are both available on Amazon.com, in paperback or Kindle. ATWOS costs between US$5 and US$12, and Soapbox costs about half as much. The links…
ATWOS:
www.amzn.com/1460910435
Soapbox:
www.amzn.com/1463791275
The Amazon.co.uk links for the Kindle…
ATWOS:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tight-Wide-open-Space-Finding-ebook/dp/B0055KHEJU/
Soapbox:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soapbox-Miscellaneous-musings-ebook/dp/B005G9ATGK/
