What Am I Writing Now?
As an author, you write all the time - it is what writers do. And I write books about Japan, so you can prepare when you can come here.
Jumping castles in Japan look like samurai castles, not Cinderellas residence.
Just a few words about my writing:
I try to write as enjoyably as possible, but of course everything has to be factually correct. And it is based, as far as possible, on my
own and my family experience. We travel a lot in Japan now, since there still are restrictions on how and where you can travel due to Covid-19. But not inside Japan.
I try to write as enjoyably as possible, but of course everything has to be factually correct. And it is based, as far as possible, on my
own and my family experience. We travel a lot in Japan now, since there still are restrictions on how and where you can travel due to Covid-19. But not inside Japan.
WHAT AM I WRITING NOW?
2023-04-18
I am oscillating between two books at present. One is the book about workationing in Japan, that I have talked about before. But as I am helping out as an expert in various Facebook groups that I am a member of, I see this incredible lack of knowledge even about the most basic things. Like the weather. The question is if people are snart enough to but a book about it. Even if it answers all their questions.
I am oscillating between two books at present. One is the book about workationing in Japan, that I have talked about before. But as I am helping out as an expert in various Facebook groups that I am a member of, I see this incredible lack of knowledge even about the most basic things. Like the weather. The question is if people are snart enough to but a book about it. Even if it answers all their questions.
2023-03-23
Of course, you write a whole chapter, and then rethink what you were doing, so you throw it away. And then you rethink again, and then you need that chapter…
The reason was that I realized that my perception of workation (which I have done several times) is different from that of other people (who probably have not). But I need to align and explain. So then I need that chapter.
Of course, you write a whole chapter, and then rethink what you were doing, so you throw it away. And then you rethink again, and then you need that chapter…
The reason was that I realized that my perception of workation (which I have done several times) is different from that of other people (who probably have not). But I need to align and explain. So then I need that chapter.
2023-02-12
I made a cover. The writing is progressing well, I have gone from general blathering to understanding my subject. For anyone with journalistic experience, you know that I have passed a border where I enter the area where I have something to say that will benefit people. But there is a lot of work left until I have something anyone would want to read. But I found with my other two books that this helps me focus my writing.
I made a cover. The writing is progressing well, I have gone from general blathering to understanding my subject. For anyone with journalistic experience, you know that I have passed a border where I enter the area where I have something to say that will benefit people. But there is a lot of work left until I have something anyone would want to read. But I found with my other two books that this helps me focus my writing.
Here is my cover draft, at least for the current iteration. Let me know what you think.
2023-01-28
I decided do change direction again. That is easy to do when you are in the beginning of the writing journey. So I decided to address people who are coming to Japan and stay for a while while working.
You can do that on a regular tourist visa as long as you are in Japan temporarily, and does not get a job in Japan. Japan does not have a visa for digital nomads, but there is a working holiday visa. It does not apply for what I am planning however.
Many years ago I wrote a similar book when I lived for a short while in Thailand, taking care of our kids as they were newborn. As I was on parental leave, technically I was not working. And since I have not updated that book (and not been back to Thailand either) for ten years, it is no longer available.
But now that the kids have grown up a bit, me and my wife have been able to work (since we both work remotely), and with the Corona pandemic restrictions gone, we could go on “workation”, as it is known in Japan. And I want to help others to take that chance, too.
I decided do change direction again. That is easy to do when you are in the beginning of the writing journey. So I decided to address people who are coming to Japan and stay for a while while working.
You can do that on a regular tourist visa as long as you are in Japan temporarily, and does not get a job in Japan. Japan does not have a visa for digital nomads, but there is a working holiday visa. It does not apply for what I am planning however.
Many years ago I wrote a similar book when I lived for a short while in Thailand, taking care of our kids as they were newborn. As I was on parental leave, technically I was not working. And since I have not updated that book (and not been back to Thailand either) for ten years, it is no longer available.
But now that the kids have grown up a bit, me and my wife have been able to work (since we both work remotely), and with the Corona pandemic restrictions gone, we could go on “workation”, as it is known in Japan. And I want to help others to take that chance, too.
2023-01-27
I realize I did not tell you how I published my book. But I chose - just like before - to go direct with Amazon for the ebook and paperback, and Draft2Digital for the other ebook stores.
I realize I did not tell you how I published my book. But I chose - just like before - to go direct with Amazon for the ebook and paperback, and Draft2Digital for the other ebook stores.
2022-12-31
I am finally done with the editing of my next book, Driving In Japan. It is much better now - duplications removed, threads of thought straightened out, misspellings corrected. Just need to review the formatting and then I will publish it.
i have to decide how to do that, too. I still like Draft2Digital for their convenience, but they charge 10% and I have to manage Amazon myself. And their print program can not manage Japanese, which both Amazon and Lulu can. So I will check what other alternatives there may be.
I am finally done with the editing of my next book, Driving In Japan. It is much better now - duplications removed, threads of thought straightened out, misspellings corrected. Just need to review the formatting and then I will publish it.
i have to decide how to do that, too. I still like Draft2Digital for their convenience, but they charge 10% and I have to manage Amazon myself. And their print program can not manage Japanese, which both Amazon and Lulu can. So I will check what other alternatives there may be.
2022-12-18
My day job is keeping me busy towards the year end, and I had to take care of the kids since my wives job decided to relocate to a smaller office (now that a lot of the staff are working from home, they want to save money as much as anyone). So she has been busy organizing that. Which meant I had to take care of the kids.
But today I got in some editing time while the kids were doing their homework. Three hours took me through a third of “Driving In Japan”, and it improved a lot. It has not quite been a month since I finished the first edit, but the book has soaked enough that I do not recognize it anymore.
I used to be a magazine editor (in chief, no less) and I did a lot of editing - in a magazine, it is important to have many voices singing the same tune, like a choir. In a book, there is only one voice, more like a solo album. Although in a book the singer has written all the songs and is playing all the instruments.
That does not mean that as a writer, you can not do with some extra help at the mixer table. It used to be that this was what publishing houses did, but with self-publishing you are supposed to take all responsibility yourself. Including editing. Which I am doing now, but it sure takes time. Very small chance to be done by Christmas.
My day job is keeping me busy towards the year end, and I had to take care of the kids since my wives job decided to relocate to a smaller office (now that a lot of the staff are working from home, they want to save money as much as anyone). So she has been busy organizing that. Which meant I had to take care of the kids.
But today I got in some editing time while the kids were doing their homework. Three hours took me through a third of “Driving In Japan”, and it improved a lot. It has not quite been a month since I finished the first edit, but the book has soaked enough that I do not recognize it anymore.
I used to be a magazine editor (in chief, no less) and I did a lot of editing - in a magazine, it is important to have many voices singing the same tune, like a choir. In a book, there is only one voice, more like a solo album. Although in a book the singer has written all the songs and is playing all the instruments.
That does not mean that as a writer, you can not do with some extra help at the mixer table. It used to be that this was what publishing houses did, but with self-publishing you are supposed to take all responsibility yourself. Including editing. Which I am doing now, but it sure takes time. Very small chance to be done by Christmas.
2022-12-11
I decided to change the next book I am working on, following several interactions on Facebook (where I am in more than 100 groups giving travel advice for visitors to Japan when I can). Instead of a generic first time visitors guide, I will write a guide for senior visitors, After all, at 62, I am qualified. And they need it. Plus it is a nice juxtaposition towards my previous book.
You may wonder how come I can have 9-year old triplets (that I wrote about in Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo) when I am 62, but I simply got started late at fatherhood. Some life experience has actually turned out to be very helpful.
I also tried to be realistic in how much I can write and edit. My job means that I am busy during weekdays (unless I take a vacation), but there is often some free time during weekends. Yesterday me and my daughters went to Harajuku (if you are looking for cool design, check out a store called Erostika. At least if you like B-movie design). And on the train, I was able to write more than 1000 words.
If you do not have any experience as a writer, that may not mean much to you. But for me, it is about 1.5% of a book. Which of course tells you that I need about 70 days like that to write a book, as a normal book is 70000 words long (give or take).
Every weekend has two days, so I can write a book in 35 weekends. Actually, I am trying to write four times more on a regular basis, which means I can write a book in about 17 weekends. That turns out to 3 books a year. Let us see if I can keep it up.
I decided to change the next book I am working on, following several interactions on Facebook (where I am in more than 100 groups giving travel advice for visitors to Japan when I can). Instead of a generic first time visitors guide, I will write a guide for senior visitors, After all, at 62, I am qualified. And they need it. Plus it is a nice juxtaposition towards my previous book.
You may wonder how come I can have 9-year old triplets (that I wrote about in Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo) when I am 62, but I simply got started late at fatherhood. Some life experience has actually turned out to be very helpful.
I also tried to be realistic in how much I can write and edit. My job means that I am busy during weekdays (unless I take a vacation), but there is often some free time during weekends. Yesterday me and my daughters went to Harajuku (if you are looking for cool design, check out a store called Erostika. At least if you like B-movie design). And on the train, I was able to write more than 1000 words.
If you do not have any experience as a writer, that may not mean much to you. But for me, it is about 1.5% of a book. Which of course tells you that I need about 70 days like that to write a book, as a normal book is 70000 words long (give or take).
Every weekend has two days, so I can write a book in 35 weekends. Actually, I am trying to write four times more on a regular basis, which means I can write a book in about 17 weekends. That turns out to 3 books a year. Let us see if I can keep it up.
2022-11-25
First edit of Driving Japan done! My next book about how to drive in Japan.
First edit is when you discover that you have two chapters about pedestrians, and merge them. And similar changes. Removing stupid wording, correcting errors, that kind of things.
Now I need to do a second edit, but then the book will be ready. At least for pre-order. Maybe after Christmas?
First edit of Driving Japan done! My next book about how to drive in Japan.
First edit is when you discover that you have two chapters about pedestrians, and merge them. And similar changes. Removing stupid wording, correcting errors, that kind of things.
Now I need to do a second edit, but then the book will be ready. At least for pre-order. Maybe after Christmas?
2022-11-13
I decided to change the content of First Time Tokyo, my book to help people who are scared of culture chock when coming to Japan for the first time. Now it is much easier to write, but it is still a long way off. I still have a lot of editing to do for Driving In Japan, but I am starting to feel Christmas may not be so realistic. Perhaps I will just put it on preorder. That is an idea - I put it on preorder, and then if you let me know you ordered the book, I send a printable gift certificate. And give you a coupon for my next book after that for your trouble. How does that sound?
I decided to change the content of First Time Tokyo, my book to help people who are scared of culture chock when coming to Japan for the first time. Now it is much easier to write, but it is still a long way off. I still have a lot of editing to do for Driving In Japan, but I am starting to feel Christmas may not be so realistic. Perhaps I will just put it on preorder. That is an idea - I put it on preorder, and then if you let me know you ordered the book, I send a printable gift certificate. And give you a coupon for my next book after that for your trouble. How does that sound?
2022-10-22
Still struggling with 1000 words per day, which is what I want to do to get up to speed on writing. But I do not have time to edit on I write, because I am working with one of the most active Facebook groups (Japan Travel Planning) to market Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo. I do not want to pay to provide other people with information, it is not that much fun. So I need to get some sales going to pay the bills.
About those other books: As you can read on the “Current And Forthcoming Books” page, I am working on several different books in parallel. If I was writing software it would be bad practice, but if you are writing, it both makes you more creative and more effective, since one piece of work can inspire others. Like what happened with “First Time Japan”, my book for those who have never been to Japan before. I noticed I was writing so much about restaurants, food, and eating that I figured I would break it out into another book, “Eating Tokyo” that turns out to be much more fun to write. But still not able to get down 1000 words per day, and the editing of “Driving In Japan” is not at all going like I would like, although I still have the ambition to have it out by Christmas.
Still struggling with 1000 words per day, which is what I want to do to get up to speed on writing. But I do not have time to edit on I write, because I am working with one of the most active Facebook groups (Japan Travel Planning) to market Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo. I do not want to pay to provide other people with information, it is not that much fun. So I need to get some sales going to pay the bills.
About those other books: As you can read on the “Current And Forthcoming Books” page, I am working on several different books in parallel. If I was writing software it would be bad practice, but if you are writing, it both makes you more creative and more effective, since one piece of work can inspire others. Like what happened with “First Time Japan”, my book for those who have never been to Japan before. I noticed I was writing so much about restaurants, food, and eating that I figured I would break it out into another book, “Eating Tokyo” that turns out to be much more fun to write. But still not able to get down 1000 words per day, and the editing of “Driving In Japan” is not at all going like I would like, although I still have the ambition to have it out by Christmas.
2022-10-13
I try to write about 1000 words per day. It takes me 1 to 1.5 hours. If I can have uninterrupted work time, which is quite uncommon when you have a full-time job and a family. And then there is the book marketing. All advice tells you to create a mailing list so you can capture reader interest, but even though there are people who have bought the book on preorder, it does not seem to mean they will sign up for my email list. I am active in a number of Facebook groups but that does not seem to help. Maybe I should try webinars, but that is expensive and takes time. Why does writing have to be so much extra work?
I try to write about 1000 words per day. It takes me 1 to 1.5 hours. If I can have uninterrupted work time, which is quite uncommon when you have a full-time job and a family. And then there is the book marketing. All advice tells you to create a mailing list so you can capture reader interest, but even though there are people who have bought the book on preorder, it does not seem to mean they will sign up for my email list. I am active in a number of Facebook groups but that does not seem to help. Maybe I should try webinars, but that is expensive and takes time. Why does writing have to be so much extra work?
2022-10-04
As a writer nowadays, you not only have to write, you have to market your book as well. So I became a group expert in two Facebook groups: Japan Travel Planning and Japan Travel Planning With Kids. Mostly I plan to answer questions because these are very active groups, and you learn something from looking at what people want to know. But I am also thinking about doing some kind of event.
All this steals time from writing - I have not done one word today, and I found that my next book needed lots of editing. Hoping to get it done this weekend, it is another long weekend.
As a writer nowadays, you not only have to write, you have to market your book as well. So I became a group expert in two Facebook groups: Japan Travel Planning and Japan Travel Planning With Kids. Mostly I plan to answer questions because these are very active groups, and you learn something from looking at what people want to know. But I am also thinking about doing some kind of event.
All this steals time from writing - I have not done one word today, and I found that my next book needed lots of editing. Hoping to get it done this weekend, it is another long weekend.
2022-09-25
And just like that, using another typhoon weekend, my book is available in paperback too. I did the editing while I was listening to the rain and thunderstorm outside my office. Perfect to do the most boring thing I know, which is typography.
As I started as a journalist when newspapers were composed by pressing types onto a sheet of molten lead, I know this process better than most. And I still hate typesetting, because it does not add anything to the reading experience. Ebooks are proof of that, the user can choose their own typography and if anything the reader is happier with that.
But I also know, thanks to my experience, what a printed book is expected to look like. And once I had figured out that my biggest formatting problem came from a machine-inserted comment, it was pretty quick to get it together. Since it was already approved as an ebook (on preorder until October 31), I expect Amazon only had an AI inspect it (maybe it helped that I resubmitted four times, fixing various issues).
So now, here we are. Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo in paperback Get it before the ebook.
And just like that, using another typhoon weekend, my book is available in paperback too. I did the editing while I was listening to the rain and thunderstorm outside my office. Perfect to do the most boring thing I know, which is typography.
As I started as a journalist when newspapers were composed by pressing types onto a sheet of molten lead, I know this process better than most. And I still hate typesetting, because it does not add anything to the reading experience. Ebooks are proof of that, the user can choose their own typography and if anything the reader is happier with that.
But I also know, thanks to my experience, what a printed book is expected to look like. And once I had figured out that my biggest formatting problem came from a machine-inserted comment, it was pretty quick to get it together. Since it was already approved as an ebook (on preorder until October 31), I expect Amazon only had an AI inspect it (maybe it helped that I resubmitted four times, fixing various issues).
So now, here we are. Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo in paperback Get it before the ebook.
2022-08-23:
I am editing my next book, Driving In Japan, and it is getting closer and closer to something that will be useful for anyone who plans to rent a car and drive around Japan. If you are not used to publishing terminology, that means I am going through it and making sure that it has everything it needs, and is as pleasant to read as possible.
The current plan is to have it on the market by Christmas, but this is a tentative plan.
I am editing my next book, Driving In Japan, and it is getting closer and closer to something that will be useful for anyone who plans to rent a car and drive around Japan. If you are not used to publishing terminology, that means I am going through it and making sure that it has everything it needs, and is as pleasant to read as possible.
The current plan is to have it on the market by Christmas, but this is a tentative plan.
2022-09-21
I finally pulled myself together and got my first ebook (this year) into the ebook stores.
You can read more about “Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo” on my dedicated book page, but the big news this week is that I finally managed to get the ebook into Amazon. It is still on
pre-order until end of October, because I am trying to get the print edition ready at the same time, but compared to ebook publishing, print publishing is like writing with a goosefeather quill.
do not worry, I have compiled “Driving in Japan” from Scrivener, and will start editing it in Word. I wish I could figure out how to generate chapter headers from Scrivener, it would make things easier. But in Word I can create the print book at the same time.
I finally pulled myself together and got my first ebook (this year) into the ebook stores.
You can read more about “Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo” on my dedicated book page, but the big news this week is that I finally managed to get the ebook into Amazon. It is still on
pre-order until end of October, because I am trying to get the print edition ready at the same time, but compared to ebook publishing, print publishing is like writing with a goosefeather quill.
do not worry, I have compiled “Driving in Japan” from Scrivener, and will start editing it in Word. I wish I could figure out how to generate chapter headers from Scrivener, it would make things easier. But in Word I can create the print book at the same time.
