19/01/2024
The Art of Writing: Take a Bold Step, Don't Take a Rain Check
What is your biggest fear and constraint about writing and publishing that research, article, or story? Over a decade ago, there were two friends who were like peas in a pod. Both were undergraduate students pursuing their university degrees in different disciplines. Ahmed had a dream of writing a book in Chemistry, while Adams' aspiration was in the field of Biology. They saw a need to write and publish books in their field that would be beneficial to upcoming students—particularly those undertaking university entrance programmes or examinations. Neither of these two friends had a computer; they didn't understand how raw files could be translated into published books. They were also in the dark about how and the financial means to get the ISBN and print the books. They practically had nothing. But there was something they had which they didn't have a clue about. They had the drive and a burning passion. Most often, what they did then was to pick and admire best-selling books, among which they had a choice of which one they would like their books to take after. They had a mental picture of what they wanted their books to look like, even though they didn't have a manuscript.
They started gathering books and relevant materials, visiting the library. At the time, online references sources for books and journals like google scholar, amazon, etc., were not as prominent as they are today. They threw their hats in the ring and started writing their manuscripts in the one-room “boys’ quarter” apartment off campus. It was very rigorous, combining their academic obligations with having to go about with some menial jobs to fend for their basic needs. Their parents only ensured their school fee was paid. Any other expenses such as transportation to and from school, house rent, feeding, etc. were the responsibilities of these two young stars. Writing a book during this turbulent and difficult time felt like biting a bullet, but it is worth a shot. The manuscript took about 3 months, and they were done.
Then they came to the typing phase. They went to the typist, and the exorbitant cost of typing made them take to their heels. Ahmed used the earnings that accrued from the wages to get a fairly used Pentium 8 desk top computer for around $18, while Adams went to a deal with the parent who employed him to take her child for private coaching. He negotiated to use his monthly pay in exchange for using his student's laptop for typing for 4 weeks. The young girl was in her senior secondary school, so she had obviously nothing to do with typing. He was allowed to take the laptop home and return it for physical check in the next teaching contact with the girl. Adam's story had a bad ending because the 240V AC generator, popularly called “I better pass my neighbour” in Nigerian parlance, destroyed the adaptor of the laptop and the laptop had to be returned after working for barely two weeks. So, Ahmed and Adams resorted to using the same desk top in a rotatory manner. Even though the work is slowed down, it is better off incurring a huge debt he won't be able to pay if the borrowed laptop gets spoiled or even stolen.
As if that was not enough, the desktop later packed up after 9 weeks of usage and was unrepairable. It was the hard disc. Every effort to retrieve the files was abortive. The trauma and pain of this corrupted hard drive would not have bitten these guys hard if they had had all their documents backed up on a flash drive. This was a hard lesson in a hard way for the future. The project had to start all over again. At this point, one of them angrily opined that the other was the bad luck working against the fortune of the project and this almost resulted in their separation.
After a year, the work was completed, and the next milestone was getting the books printed. Printing those books to sell costs an arm and a leg. Ahmed was able to raise 50% of $250, the cost of printing the book through the Ibadan-based printer (Ibadan is a city located in the south-western part of Nigeria). The agreement was that the printer would release half of the quantity of books printed after production, and after sales, he would balance up and collect the remaining copies of his books. During production, he had to shuttle between his school in north-central part of Nigeria and Ibadan for corrections, arrangement, formatting, etc. Adams, on the other hand, could not raise the agreed fifty per cent. All he had was 15% from his poor mother and one philanthropic student he had in one of his after-school lessons, where he used to teach. So, Adams' books had to wait another year before printing. Ahmed, who was able to have his own chemistry text printed, could not meet up with the balance as the sales of the book didn't give a turn over capable of paying back his debt with the no-nonsense printer. Adams used his allowances from his one-year internship to pay for the printing of his books. It hit the market and for the first 12 months the outcome of sales was nothing to write home about.
To make a long story short, these two friends overcame these obstacles, and their books, Principles of Bioscience and Basic Concepts in Chemistry, are now well-known. Each book has been sold to over 3 million readers across the thirty-six states of Nigerian and beyond. They have written many other books afterwards. Ahmed and Adams are still friends till date.
Do you know that in this current age and time, you don't have to go through the rigours Ahmed and Adams went through from the pre-writing stage—research, gathering resources for your books, typing, to the post-writing stage of proof reading, publishing, and marketing your books to a pool of subscribers? Do you know you can achieve these feats within days?
So, the question is, what is your biggest fear and constraint about writing and publishing that research, article, or story? As Jeff Bezos once said, you need to understand that "there is no bad time to innovate." Your constraints, challenges, and reasons, no matter how justifiable they appear, are not the forces preventing you from leveraging the great innovation that writing and publishing have experienced. Just key into it. Take the bold step. Stop taking a rain check.
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