The Christmas Edition. And A Special Announcement
For when you need a stocking filler for that special person! 😁
I know I’m late with this edition.
You likely hadn’t noticed. That’s very sweet of you.
I put it down to the fact that I’ve been battling a particularly potent strain of man-flu. Like the stone that felled Goliath, I too fell to these minute particles of woe, leaving me a congested coughing mess of despair.
But I’m fine now, so all good. It’ll be less melodramatic from this point on. Anything for a bit of sympathy though, right?
This will be the last edition for 2022, and I’ll get back into the swing of things come the new year. Or whenever I surface from my hygge-inspired eggnog/Baileys overload. Whichever comes sooner.
I wanted to first officially reveal what I’ve been subtly teasing for the last few weeks, now that it’s all finalised and out there in the world.
I inadvertently wrote a book.
Trust me, I’m more surprised than you are. By a long stretch.
It’s called How To Start Podcasting - and is about……..well……no prizes for guessing.
It all started at the beginning of 2019, so it’s been quite the off-again, on-again kind of deal. I’d had a mild thought about creating it as some form of online course, but didn't think too deeply about it.
Inadvertently the scratchy notes I started to compile soon became cohesive (for me) thoughts, which then became paragraphs, which in turn became longer, and more detailed.
Before I knew it, I’d ended up writing the bloody thing out in full, and confused myself somewhat, as I wrote it without really knowing what I was going to do with it, or where to put it. Bit of a rookie mistake there, I’m sure many would suggest. And they’d be right, most likely.
It was a stream of consciousness that in many ways was just a good exercise in putting words on paper, showing me that over the years, I’ve learned quite a bit of stuff, worked a lot of stuff out for myself, and became quite good at it. Surprising, really.
The file was sat on my desktop, left brutally unattended like a child in a shopping mall, for a long, long time. Until a few months ago I re-opened it to see how I’d left things. To my, quite frankly, amazement - I wasn't horrified. I was actually quietly impressed with myself.
Of course, this version of it was in pure brainfart state, and not quite as cohesive as I previously thought. It was essentially the literary embodiment of this GIF of Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty:
Much refinement was needed - but the bones were there.
So that’s what I decided to do. After I ditched the idea of turning it into a course, I decided to turn it into a book. It seemed the most sensible route.
After researching how to go about doing that via Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) platform, I found that it was, generally speaking, pretty straightforward. And not expensive to set up either.
The book was refined, made FAR more cohesive (to the point it actually made sense, shock horror), edited, added to, edited again, proofread, edited once more, proofread again, left alone for a few days while I stocked up on the willpower to continue, then proofread again. And by several other people. Until we get to the point where it’s time to actually get it published.
I found a person online who could do the official book formatting for me, as that bit was just outside of my scope of knowledge. The instructions for how to do it were worse than an IKEA chest of drawers manual, so the decision was made to farm that side of it out.
And just 2 days later, I received back the formatted version(s) (in 6x9” book size, and the Kindle file) of the book, ready for upload onto Amazon.
It suddenly felt more real. The formatted PDF looked like a proper book. Like a proper, proper book. Very surreal.
I went about designing the cover, and again, it started to feel like a tangible thing, even though it was still in screen-form for now.
The time came for upload. And it was done. Just another 2 days later, I got the notification from Amazon to say that the files had been checked, verified, and accepted onto the system - and, before I send it ‘live’, would I like to order a printed proof copy for review?
WOULD I?!
HELL YES!
Another 2 days later, it arrived. (All things with Amazon KDP always seem to take 2 days for some reason. Odd).
The only thing I had to do was tweak the cover slightly due to a minor mis-alignment, but other than that, it was good to go. Uploaded an amended cover file, and hit that magic button……PUBLISH.
From then, true to form, it declared that it’ll be live on the website, available for anyone to buy - within 2 days.
(FFS Amazon, what is it with the whole 2 days thing?!)
I’ve never known consecutive 2 day periods to feel like such torture!
So after that particularly absurdly long-winded explanation as to what I’ve been up to over the last few months, here we are. This book is now out there, available globally, in both paperback and Kindle. As well as Kindle Unlimited, if you’re a subscriber of that.
In truth, I’m very proud of it. It’s not something I ever envisaged doing, not remotely. It’s purely the culmination of a collection of fleeting thoughts that, quite frankly, got out of hand!
It was a mixture of ‘well it’s written now, what the hell am I going to do with it?’, and ‘sod it, I’ve got to do something with it’, with a dash of ‘well what’s the worst that will happen?’.
So yes. I guess, technically, I am now an author too.
(Although that still sounds far too grand a title to ever adorn myself with as it just feels too absurd for words. But I suppose…..technically speaking…….I am. Ish.)
So if you know anyone with an interest in podcasting who you think this could be useful for (it will be), or if you’re just in the market for a snazzy new fly swat (you are), then you know where to find it (you do)!
Other Stuff
Right, elongated sales pitch over!
Now, because it’s Christmas, no one wants to read overly long newsletters (*looks up at what I’ve written so far - oops*) full of businessy stuff so the rest of this will be fun and Christmas related!
I promise.
Back when Robin Williams put one of his most beloved creations on film, in Mrs Doubtfire, it was universally adored. By me especially, it’s one of my favourite films of all time. Robin Williams was simply a genius in my eyes.
Ever since the film came out in 1993, there’s been rumours of an 18/R-Rated version of the film in existence. It’s never really come to light of course because it’s a (big) kid’s film after all. But given Williams’ ability to improv without tiring in everything he did, it isn’t something that’s too hard to believe!
It’s even been rumoured in recent years that the makers may one day release a ‘grown up’ version of Mrs Doubtfire which includes all the naughty stuff they had to cut for the PG version.
If you’ve got 14mins to spare when you’re not busy, this mini documentary is worth a watch, which explains all!
I, for one, would LOVE to see the lost version of Mrs Doubtfire!
A Fantastic Ad
Another thing I recently watched is the new iteration of ‘Wednesday’ on Netflix, the series based on the Addams Family character.
Well worth a watch, if you haven’t yet.
What caught my eye though recently was this fantastic advert from IKEA - a brilliantly on-trend bit of marketing, and made me chortle in the process.
Bravo IKEA, I salute you.
Finally, some Christmas related merriment
Just a few little things I found to amuse you before your Christmas shut down….
That’s your lot folks.
Have a fantastic break. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.
See you in January…..