Tahir’s Comments (group member since Jun 18, 2012)

Tahir’s comments from the Q&A with Tahir Shah group.

Suggest you get a copy of Chatwin's UTZ. I love that book in the same way that I love Iron and Silk. So gentle.


TS

deleted user wrote: "This topic is a very interesting one. I wonder whether authors feel constrained and limited by their publishers. Are there too many pressures and deadlines, which make the creative process of writi..."

The system is stacked against anyone who wants to self publish... and publishers love to band about expressions like 'Vanity Publishing'... well, I'll tell you that with my situation there's nothing Vanity about it. i just wanted the best book possible to be produced and doing it myself was the best way. Believe me when I say that i would have gone with a conventional publisher if they'd have created the same book... It's cost me much more time and money of course, but we've got there... and I'm proud what we've created.


TS

Yes, I have a routine in that I plan a book very well, and work on a certain amount every day. I usually try and write 3000 or 4000 words a day, every day... then, before I know it, the book's all done. What's important is to keep writing, and it doesn't matter how much you write, AND to think of writing as a muscle... without exercise it wastes away. Blogs are brilliant for exercising the writing muscle.


TS

Robs wrote: "Hi I'm Rob, based in London, currently a student of welding. I guess I'm a traveller who appreciates good travel writing."

Thanks for your message. On Friday i was back in the metalwork-shop of the school where I was taught metalwork as a kid. I suddenly remembered how one boy, aged 16, built a full-size aeroplane in that very same metalwork-shop. He flew it one lunchtime. Crash landed. Broke his back. Plaster up to his neck. I goggled him a minute ago and he now runs his own large aviation company.

There are no limits. Only our imagination.


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Julie wrote: "Hello everyone,

I'm Julie, I live in Central Illinois amid Lincoln shrines and cornfields.

I'm an art teacher and artist, as well as a musician obsessed with Brazillian music: so much that I l..."

Thanks Julie... and I know what it's like when the Brazilian beat is inside you. i'm lucky enough to have a FABULOUS Brazilian publisher... and so i have been sucked down by the beat plenty of times.

All the best,



TS

Michael wrote: "Hi Everyone
My name is Michael and I’m an accountant by profession and I assure you that we are not all as boring as everyone thinks we are. I am based in Jacksonville, Florida and my hobby is writ..."

Hi Michael,

I'm smiling at your great message...

Thanks for taking the time to write!



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Pallavi wrote: "Hello,

Am Pallavi Katti, I live in Bangalore, India. My literary background is unlimited as I grew up in a house full of books . My mom being a writer herself kept me and my sister constantly conn..."

Thanks so much for for message... and as you may know, my wife is from India... and so we are there a lot. First went to Bangalore in 1992 where I met a man called G Vidyaraj. There's a piece about him in my book TRAVELS WITH MYSELF. Will get it online as an Ebook soon.

All the best, and I will try and Blog more soon. I know, I'm lazy as hell.



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Amy wrote: "Hello everyone,

I'm Amy Cochran. I'm a Wildlife Rehabilitator specializing in Raptors and large carnivores. Hailing from Alabama, I'm also heavily involved in Greyhound Adoption and animal welfar..."

Thanks for your message, Amy... I left my heart in Alabama. First visited there in Summer 1984 and have returned time and again. I love it. Really mean that. All the best,


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John wrote: "Greetings good people, I'm John from London, a sound technician who writes verses, or a writer of verses who works with sound ...

I came to Tahir's books via The Octagon Press, and to The Octagon ..."

Thanks so much for your message, John. Very grateful you took part. Hope you find TIMBUCTOO...


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Ryan wrote: "Hi friends. I'm from the Pacific Northwest in the US. I work as a smokejumper. We parachute into remote areas to manage emerging forest fires so we can protect water sheds and other vital forest..."

Your amazing message has given me chills down my spine... I am totally totally in awe of your work. All the best, Tahir

Purnima wrote: "Hi. I'm Purnima from Hyderabad, India. I'm a software engineer by profession. I'm co-founder and co-editor of a website dedicated to books, pustakam.net.

Thanks to a dear friend of mine, I was in..."

Thanks Purnima, how wonderful to hear from you. I was in Hyderabad writing about the glorious Falaknuma about a year ago... http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011...

And as you may know, I swallowed a live fish in the miracle cure...

Ohhhh, that really was a tricky one to get through!

All the best,



Tahir

There are so many... I'm huuuugely influenced by the great Victorian travel writers:

Samuel W. Baker
Richard Burton
Heinrich Barth

Also, enormously by Mark Saltzman (Iron and Silk, read it!), and by Wilfred Thesiger, and of course by Bruce Chatwin.

Also influenced greatly by Doris Lessing whom I have always been lucky enough to know very well. Doris is a writer who tells it like it is, and a person who's not afraid to go against the grain... It was because of her that i published TIMBUCTOO myself. She would have done it just the same.

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Paul wrote: "Self publishing used to be the home of the failed writer and narcissist but with the likes of Timothy Mo and now Tahir Shah that image has changed completely. Big publishers are becoming more like ..."

Thank you. I can tell you that i did seriously want at first to get a big mainstream publisher for TIMBUCTOO... but the more I considered what could be done with this book, the more I came to realise that such a grand book (i.e. the hard copy) could never ever be achieved by a conventional publisher.


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H.M. wrote: "Having read an advance copy of Tahir's latest novel, Timbuctoo, which was self-published, I have to say that the proofreading, copy editing, quality and style of writing were excellent."

Thanks... the easy thing to do is to remove typos from an E-version... and the proof e-Copies have now been corrected of a couple of glaring errors. Again, editors and editing are so very important and do really make the book better.


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Osho wrote: "I read a lot of self-published books, and some cry out for editing. In the absence of a formal editor, how do you approach the question of consistency, flow of ideas, and whether you've conveyed wh..."

As a published author I understand the importance of editing. I hired 3 editors to go over the structure and another 3 to proof the book. One of them proofed it twice, once after the corrections had been entered. There are still 2 glaring typos. But they'll be sucked out of the second edition. :-)


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Lauragais wrote: "Bonjour Tahir, many of your books have been translated and published in different languages. Now that you are self-publishing, can your readers expect to read your latest book Timbuctoo in differen..."

Good question... Translations are a whole other thing. i'm now taking more active control in getting my books out there, working with good publishers and translators, and in getting out of print foreign editions of my work back into print.

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Toni wrote: "self publishing looks immensly dificult to me. is it?
or is it just that i am computer illiterate."

There have been hundreds of hoops to jump through. Ask my wife, Rachana, and she'll tell you of all the sleepiness nights when I get up and work away at trying to learn where the hoops are before jumping through them. But how wonderful to have total control and to create a book that I am proud to have my name on the spine of. Hoorah!


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Robs wrote: "Friedman* predicts that authors will have to accept becoming 'transmedia' personalties, using multiple platforms to promote and publish their work - what do you think about this additional dimensio..."

Thanks for this... I think it's SOOO important for authors to engage with people, and if that means using multiple platforms, all the better. Authors must remember that it's their readers who are the special ones, not them.


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Julie wrote: "How did you decide what to price your ebook? Since you are self-publishing, there could be many reasonable justifications for making it more expensive."

As an author who's been published by big name-brand firms, I can't stand it when publishers try and justify high price tags for work they put out. I really wanted TIMBUCTOO to be accessible on Amazon, and it's great that it is, but it's tricky because they discount a lot so a printed work there has to be more expensive than I'd want. But i priced the eBook version down so as to make up for it.

TS

Aubrey wrote: "Would you do it again?"

Yes, yes, yes, I think so... there's a whole lot more stress, but the amazing new delight for me is to have today control... something an author never ever ever tastes.

TS