You probably have dreamt of being an author. There’s just something magical about having your words of wisdom, life experiences, and lessons for others encoded in a book, with your name on top of it.
But somehow, you’re stuck. No matter how many times you’ve tried starting (and restarting that manuscript), things are stuck. You can’t seem to move along.
Me too.
In 2020, after realising that I could finish my job in 3 rather than the contracted 8 hours, I had more time on my hands.
I started writing, a dream I had since the age of 8.
Working with a local calligrapher, I self-published my first ‘book’. It was a short collection of 22 quotes, which I then printed. As I look back, it was probably nothing more than a vanity project.
There was an official ISBN number, it was printed, but it sold to … crickets.
For months, I heard nothing. I had to resort to giving it away.
At this time, I had completed another manuscript and started sending it off to local publishers like Write Editions, Armour Publishing, and Ethos Press. None of them considered the manuscript for publishing.
So I made the decision to self-publish my second book, this time a book for newly qualified social workers, on my own.
It also flopped, not selling more than 10 copies when it was launched in July 2021.
By chance, in December 2022, a mentor asked if I wanted to join Kok Hwa’s workshops on how to write a book.
How I met Kok Hwa
As the publisher at Candid Creations, I thought he would have something to teach me. I quickly agreed to go, not knowing where it would lead to.
Perhaps the most important thing he taught was that writing had a process. For the 2 books I had written, there was no process. It was more like a stream of consciousness, whereby I wrote everything that came to mind. There was no idea about what the big idea was, or what would sell, or what my envisioned reader would even want to read.
I just wrote.
And thought that writing would be good enough.
Clearly, it wasn’t.
So… you want to write a book?
You’ve probably heard of Kok Hwa’s Candid Creation through the grapevine. When you’ve researched on how to write books, you’ve seen Candid’s name appear over and over again.
You’ve probably even set up a call with Kok Hwa. But when he quotes you the $10,000 price for 500 printed books, you wonder if it’s really worth the cost.
Having worked with Kok Hwa between January 2022 to March 2023, I’m here to report back on my experience, and whether you should choose him.
TLDR? Yes, choose him!
Perhaps the biggest challenge in authors that don’t write for living, is the issue of story development.
In the movie industry, when stories get stuck, they call this ‘developmental hell’. Until the script is fully formed, and the main message is clear, the story stays stuck.
Candid helps you structure a better story
For example, during the making of Up, Pixar’s cofounder Ed Catmull, wrote about how the story had major rewrites, even as the shots were being made on animation.
In much the same way, you’ve probably experienced the time when you’re working through a phase in your work, and nothing seems to move no matter how much you try.
That’s going to be the same for your book. You’ll come to a point when you wonder what’s the ‘big idea’ in the book, and what will make it different from everyone else’s book.
In my book with Kok Hwa, Vault, had its structure deeply reworked. I initially wanted it to cover my story through bouts of unemployment, and how I managed to overcome that. But Kok Hwa recommended that I not do that, because of how young I was.
At 27, it was not the most ideal to use my own story, especially when it wasn’t one of phenomenal success.
He recommended that I interview career luminaries, and also structured the book along the more familiarly known employee lifecycle.
This gave it street cred, and imputed authority through the interviews that career luminaries were willing to give to me.
Candid ensures you ship your book
But the other understated importance of Kok Hwa’s work is keeping you on track.
That’s where the project management, against challenging timelines, helps.
When Kok Hwa suggested that we would do a whole book within 6 months, I was skeptical. How was that possible?
But Kok Hwa kept following up to ensure that I was submitting the script on time. This also helped other authors who were in the same batch as me. One author, had a fulltime business to run and was regularly traveling for work.
He had been consistently pushing back on the datelines, but Kok Hwa kept him in check.
If you’re busy, you can find this accountability a way to make sure you ‘ship’.
In software, this idea of ‘shipping’ is about making the software ‘live’, even though it’s not fully error, or bug free.
At one point, I was deeply stuck in self doubt, especially after someone I respected deeply shared some negative feedback towards the book.
At this point, I had finished the book and was sharing it around for endorsements.
He was not keen on endorsing the book and I thought I had to move the book back into development, rather than going ahead to print.
Kok Hwa had a chat with me together with the editor and explained how no book was perfect.
I soon learnt that no book was finished once published. Instead, one had to give it legs, continually raising its profile within the wider community.
Kok Hwa does marketing for you
Kok Hwa later helped me by sharing my book with radio broadcasters to secure some interviews for me.
He also ensured that it was distributed through major bookstores. Whilst my book sold all of 35 copies in the major bookstores, it was still quite an experience to see your book on a bookshelf in a major retailer.
Publish with a good guide
Many people wonder if it’s really worth all that money to publish with a hybrid publisher like Kok Hwa.
I think it is.
Especially if it’s your first time. Think about it.
Sure, you might save $4000. Publishing it on your own might just cost you $6000 for the printing. But you will spend hours figuring out if your script is good enough, whether it’s passable, and whether people will even buy it.
Kok Hwa and his team have seen hundreds of books birthed to life, and can tell what’s good or not. And you can be sure that it’s not ‘vanity’ publishing. They also have standards.
I remember passing on my second book to him to review for publishing, and he sadly told me that it was not what they were looking for.
The price of good guidance, and less frustration, is priceless.
Of course, if you wish to consider other publishers, you can also talk to us. We will do the publishing process for you too.