The Book

In the blogger sphere there is a fair bit of focus on stats. Stats of how many people view a blog, how they got to the blog; how long they stayed on the blog; what search terms brought them to the blog; all of these and more discussed and dissected. A good blogger should try and increase their readership and engagement. A dedicated blogger attends actual blogging conferences with actual people. An excellent blogger is able to ‘monetise’ their blog so that it earns actual money.

It seems I am not a good blogger as I don’t give two hoots about stats and whether anyone reads my posts. I’m not dedicated enough to attend a conference. And I’m certainly never going to monetise my blog because I really couldn’t be bothered. In fact, I’ve had a ‘no sponsored content’ stance since I first started this blog, despite offers of chocolate (I’d rather chips), free tickets to events, and – once – a week’s use of a luxury car. There are also a fair amount of spam emails that I somehow receive, which are deleted quick smart.

Despite this rather unconventional approach to blogging it seems people do actually read my blog. I get the occasional email from people considering relocating to Singapore, so folks are interested in my ramblings it seems.

At the beginning of last year I received a most curious email from a publisher. A reputable publisher. They were asking whether I’d consider writing the newest edition of their Singapore guide for expats. I had always harboured dreams of being a writer and so knew that getting a book published was a long and hard journey. Friends who are published authors slaved away for years before they had a manuscript accepted by a publishing house, and yet here was an email offering me the chance to write a book.

After staring at the email for a week or so, I had no choice but to delete it. Obviously, it was spam. Fairly legitimate looking spam, but spam nonetheless.

A while later (a month? Six weeks?) another email dropped into my inbox from the same editor as the previous email but from a private address. He wondered if I got his previous email? So, it wasn’t spam! Oops.

But I was far too busy to write a book. I’d just enrolled in a second university degree so declined his offer with many thanks.

Until a few friends verbally slapped me around the head and pointed out that publishers do not make these offers very often and I would be a fool to say no.

And then I wrote a book.

Despite not following any of the so-called blogging “rules” somehow my writing and this blog ended up on the radar of a publishing company and I was handed an amazing opportunity.

So, thank you to every one who has ever read this blog.

And thank you to the amazing team at Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) for choosing me for this project!

(I only received my copies of the book yesterday so it isn’t available in book shops yet , but it is listed on Amazon if you want to pre-order it here.)