As a kid I was obsessed with sport. As a teenager, it was music and photography.
Becoming a “writer” never crossed my mind.
But my mother taught English, and the house was filled with books.
Compared to today’s kids, I read a lot. Essay-writing came quite easily.
After graduating I went to art school for three years, but found it self-indulgent. I wanted to attend a “proper” university, so I moved to a bigger city to study politics and history.
A ton of essays and a final-year thesis refined the skill of logical argument, but it was still long-winded prose.
My ambition was to be the top adviser to the prime minister of Australia. I was off to a good start when a job came up at the Premier’s Department in Sydney, New South Wales.
Under pressure, I produced succinct, well-researched, 1-page briefing notes for the eyes of the Premier and the Cabinet.
No long words, no acronyms, “just cut to the issue”. The format: Issue, Background, Comments, Recommendation.
Doing that hundreds of times made my writing logical and lean.
I had an itch to study international relations and political economy, and wangled a place for a master’s degree at the London School of Economics.
But I was at a career crossroads.
I couldn’t see myself going up the greasy pole of Australian government and politics for the next 20 years. I yearned for something more creative.
Meanwhile, I had developed an obsession for self-help and motivational books. In the 90s, this was the trending area of publishing, and I devoured Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Normal Vincent Peale. Stephen R Covey, and many otheres. Their punchy style won no literary prizes, but it was powerful and won over the reader.
The thought occurred: why don’t I try to write a guide to the classic writings in personal growth?
The next five years involved a mountain of reading and note-taking while working 3-4 days a week to bring in money. To outsiders, the enterprise seemed highly speculative and risky. I was throwing away a good career.
But I didn’t see it like that. Rather, the thought: “No-one has written the book I wished exist, I’m sure there’s a market for it.” I can become the expert in this topic and make it my life’s work.
Plus, I just loved writing.
Putting together my first book, 50 Self-Help Classics, I was in a state of “flow”; time flew and there was nothing in the world I’d rather be doing.
Finding a publisher was easier than I thought, which was a good lesson: it’s much easier to identify a profitable niche in non-fiction compared to the hyper-competitive world of fiction.
Twenty years later that first book in a second edition and has gone into 15 languages.
Little did I know that it would be the foundation of a “50 Classics” series covering the greatest books in spirituality, psychology, philosophy, politics, economics, and business. With sales of 500k in English and 1 million copies across 100+ rights sales and 27 languages.
After the first book I became writing machine, with new titles every 18 months or 2 years. Harsh deadlines, but the work was endlessly fascinating.
The success of that series led to an invite to be involved in another: the Capstone Classics, which involves the republication in hardback of older classic books.
I'm still writing, but also thinking about how to reach people who are less keen on books, and who get their information and knowledge from their phone. That's why I've helped create Memo'd, an online learning platform and app where people share what that they know, free from the noise and politics of other platforms.
That's my writer's journey in a nutshell.
By the way, I also help people achieve their goals to become more influential online, and to learn the skills of online writing (hint: it's very different to writing books or articles). Please reach out to me if you think I may be able to help.
Thank you.
Tom
Becoming a “writer” never crossed my mind.
But my mother taught English, and the house was filled with books.
Compared to today’s kids, I read a lot. Essay-writing came quite easily.
After graduating I went to art school for three years, but found it self-indulgent. I wanted to attend a “proper” university, so I moved to a bigger city to study politics and history.
A ton of essays and a final-year thesis refined the skill of logical argument, but it was still long-winded prose.
My ambition was to be the top adviser to the prime minister of Australia. I was off to a good start when a job came up at the Premier’s Department in Sydney, New South Wales.
Under pressure, I produced succinct, well-researched, 1-page briefing notes for the eyes of the Premier and the Cabinet.
No long words, no acronyms, “just cut to the issue”. The format: Issue, Background, Comments, Recommendation.
Doing that hundreds of times made my writing logical and lean.
I had an itch to study international relations and political economy, and wangled a place for a master’s degree at the London School of Economics.
But I was at a career crossroads.
I couldn’t see myself going up the greasy pole of Australian government and politics for the next 20 years. I yearned for something more creative.
Meanwhile, I had developed an obsession for self-help and motivational books. In the 90s, this was the trending area of publishing, and I devoured Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Normal Vincent Peale. Stephen R Covey, and many otheres. Their punchy style won no literary prizes, but it was powerful and won over the reader.
The thought occurred: why don’t I try to write a guide to the classic writings in personal growth?
The next five years involved a mountain of reading and note-taking while working 3-4 days a week to bring in money. To outsiders, the enterprise seemed highly speculative and risky. I was throwing away a good career.
But I didn’t see it like that. Rather, the thought: “No-one has written the book I wished exist, I’m sure there’s a market for it.” I can become the expert in this topic and make it my life’s work.
Plus, I just loved writing.
Putting together my first book, 50 Self-Help Classics, I was in a state of “flow”; time flew and there was nothing in the world I’d rather be doing.
Finding a publisher was easier than I thought, which was a good lesson: it’s much easier to identify a profitable niche in non-fiction compared to the hyper-competitive world of fiction.
Twenty years later that first book in a second edition and has gone into 15 languages.
Little did I know that it would be the foundation of a “50 Classics” series covering the greatest books in spirituality, psychology, philosophy, politics, economics, and business. With sales of 500k in English and 1 million copies across 100+ rights sales and 27 languages.
After the first book I became writing machine, with new titles every 18 months or 2 years. Harsh deadlines, but the work was endlessly fascinating.
The success of that series led to an invite to be involved in another: the Capstone Classics, which involves the republication in hardback of older classic books.
I'm still writing, but also thinking about how to reach people who are less keen on books, and who get their information and knowledge from their phone. That's why I've helped create Memo'd, an online learning platform and app where people share what that they know, free from the noise and politics of other platforms.
That's my writer's journey in a nutshell.
By the way, I also help people achieve their goals to become more influential online, and to learn the skills of online writing (hint: it's very different to writing books or articles). Please reach out to me if you think I may be able to help.
Thank you.
Tom
