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August 30, 2013 By 2QT Publishing Leave a Comment

An interview with 2QT Author John Leaver

Sum up your book in a few sentences -What is it about?

Eccentric_Yorkshireman_JALeaver_coverBasically my book is about my life from a baby to a pensioner encompassing my achievements, exploits and some quite daft things I’ve done over the years, with a not very subtle dash of  my opinions on life. All written with my wry Yorkshire humour that hopefully will at least raise a smile in the reader.

Who are the intended audience?

Who will read this? Well autobiographies can be a limited audience so I’ve tried to make the cover eye-catching, and humorous so even if it’s stuffed on a shelf in the autobiography section it might inspire a passing non autobiography reader to pick it up and read. I may even get a few converts from the fiction addict.

What inspired you to start writing? What inspired the story for your book?

My inspiration to write this book comes from my relating various little episodes in my life to people who haven’t been involved and their reaction of disbelief and amusement at the stories. The general consensus was that I should write a book. So I have!

How did you go about writing the story – and what about a preferred style of writing?

My preferred style of writing? Wow!! I’m not sure, I tell it as it is? Its as I speak it?

I have certainly learned a lot about how its done as I’ve gone on. The “style ” changed as I got going, with many a  rewrite to make it readable (and a massive professional proof  read at the end).

I read a lot from Terry Pratchett  to Ian Rankin and from Asimov to science magazines, so I probably picked up a bit of their style, if any maybe Pratchett.

What made you look to 2QT publishing?

I had sent my book off to various appropriate publishers, six in all, and received six rejections in reply (J K Rowling got nineteen). So I had read about self publishing and I thought I would give it a go. There’s quite a few on the internet but all had cautionary blogs and were well out of my price range anyway. I then happened to pick up a book published by 2QT, looked them up on the internet, and the rest is history. They gave me complete control of my own work with professional advice and expertise, friendly, helpful and approachable. And one of the important ones for me affordable.

Any advice for anyone contemplating writing/publishing a book?

Advice for anyone contemplating writing? Get stuck in there! There’s a book in us all. If I can do it, anyone can. I can recommend self publishing for the reasons I explained, but if you want to try for a publishing house there are plenty of books i.e. “The Writers Handbook”, “Writer’s Market UK “. But bottom line is “get writing, writers write!”.

What are you planning on/hoping to do next?

What am I planning next? Well I get a lot of satisfaction in renovating, repairing and making things, and as I have got older physical things become difficult to impossible, but the buzz I have got from writing more than compensates for this. I’m hooked! I’m rewriting my musical as a book, and I’ve even started a science fiction story. As for autobiographies there could be more – I’m not dead yet.

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