The art of becoming a writer – it’s only human!
Dieter Luske discovered that you don’t need the nod from a major publisher to become a published writer.
I have always enjoyed writing, even at school when I neglected my homework and instead wrote glowing reviews of my favourite bands. At the tender age of 13, I received my first typewriter for Christmas.
One reason my wife and I ended up in Australia was our clever plan to travel around the country, take thousands of pictures and write a book about it. We didn’t manage to get it published, but we used the text and photos to sell articles for years.
After coming from Germany to settle in Australia, creating a family and changing careers, writing became limited to letters. However, once the internet flourished, I carried on writing about holistic health and mind matters, drawing on my experiences as a naturopath and counsellor.
But I still felt the desire to write a novel. Apparently, everyone has one book inside them, but few can actually bring one to life. Could I?
Remember Covid? I reinvented myself once again. It was the perfect time to become a writer. A memoir that had been in my head was ready to be revealed. I published it in December 2022. It’s called It Happened in the Seventies.
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The writing part was easy. I enjoyed it and I had stacks of journal entries and letters to help me. What followed was significantly more daunting. I learned that it is very difficult to get a book published by a mainstream publisher. The whole notion felt unattainable. Fortunately, my personal motto is: By attempting the impossible, one is meaningfully occupied.
I searched the internet and found publishers keen to take on my book and handle everything for me, including editing, formatting, obtaining an ISBN, designing the cover and bringing it to market.
How kind of them. I felt rescued. Then the quote to do all that arrived, and I turned it down. I couldn’t imagine parting with more than $10,000 for the sake of vanity. Now what?
Take on this impossible task and publish it yourself, my brain said. I answered, yes, thank you, brain. I can do that – piece of cake.
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I found a good editor and I have worked with her ever since
There was one cost I was willing to pay – editing. I found a good editor and I have worked with her ever since. Tick. Book formatting – more money, but nothing outrageous, as I purchased formatting software and proceeded. Tick. Book cover design – did I mention my wife is an artist? Tick.
An ISBN. I wanted my own and bought 10, which makes it cheaper. Tick. Having my own ISBN meant I had become a publisher – LU-Books. Tick. Next, all I needed was distribution. Amazon is the largest online bookseller in the world. It takes a bit of reading to learn to add an account, tax forms and upload the book, but I got it figured out. Tick.
To be thorough, I also uploaded my book onto Ingram, which is where bookshops purchase their stock. My advice is to exercise caution. One of the options you’ll need to consider is whether to allow returns for unsold books. Can you fathom the potential cost involved?
I followed It Happened in the Seventies one year later with Chaos in Brainland, a nonfiction book about mental health.
That brings us to my latest book, Certified Human, a futuristic crime fiction. What’s it about? Well, it was written before Trump and Elon Musk stirred up politics but, with a bit of synchronicity, the question, Do billionaires have too much power? is woven into the narrative.
Set in Australia in 2033, we follow Blake Newcome, an investigative journalist who experiences a shocking awakening. What he perceives through sight and sound no longer matches reality. Society has been quietly infiltrated by machines that imitate human appearance and behaviour. We were already being deceived by AI, robots and now by androids. Blake Newcome springs into action, assembling a dream team of mates to unravel the mystery behind the unfolding events and, more crucially, uncover who is orchestrating them. He encounters the Zookeeper, a cunning mastermind with a sinister agenda who is pulling people into a false utopia – a psychopath vying for world domination.
Certified Human will hopefully ignite your imagination and provoke deep thoughts about the future of humanity. But here’s the kicker: this dystopian reality isn’t just a flight of fancy. It’s happening right now!
And, yes, the book has just been published! What a joyful occasion. If you want to make me even happier, please pop over to Amazon, order a copy and write a lovely review for an extra dose of joy. You’re welcome.
Dieter Luske enjoys writing and creating with his wife, Giselle, in their art studio in the Gold Coast Hinterland. He has written five books and published hundreds of articles on holistic living; dieterluske.com