‘Whistling in the Ocean Wind as We Send Our Words Out …’ by Ms Paige Turner
A bunch of my former Creative Ink students invited me to come and speak to them about RF Kuang’s novel ‘Yellow Face’. I have read the book and I have listened to Rebecca, the author speaking about it. She says that by the time a novel comes out, two years on, she’s pretty much forgotten it all: she’s moved on. Fair enough. But she did say she felt the novel was about friendship. Um. We, as a group, felt not. Rebecca Kuang knows her publishing stuff. She knows that if a big publishing house puts an army of marketeers and IT specialists behind an author, then we’re hopefully into big bucks. Kuang is undoubtedly writing about the perils of publishing and misappropriation: a minority author writing about a majority author plagiarising a minority writer. Phew. This book is not really about friendship, Rebecca.
I mentioned to the group that I have one former writing student who has that army of publishing marketeers behind her and her book, with life size ads on Oxford Street Tube station and a surefire show on Instagram. Good luck to her. I have another writing student who is self-published and posting beautifully on social media every day. I wonder who you think sells more books. Having just had the subscriber button on my blog collapse so that even former subscribers do not receive my lovely words (I’m still working on it) and have also just discovered that Amazon have removed the carefully chosen audio samples of my books and replaced them with the opening few minutes which must include the credits, I am feeling somewhat powerless. Self-publishing is a joy if you want to do it for friends and family and not all those buy, so be prepared to give away. But if you want to make money then keep hitting the big boy publishers and I wish you luck with that.
Reading ‘Yellow Face’ might give you some insight. RF Kuang got her first publishing deal on her 20th birthday. I suspect she knows little about self-publishing but she knows all about the infamy of success.
Here’s links to my chosen samples which now only exist on the Amazon Audible UK website and you also have to punch in the titles. You can buy and hear the opening on Amazon UK.
But without a subscriber button I might be whistling in the ocean wind.
Adult Learning Workshops
Saturday 12th October at Highcrest – ‘Humour – Writing Which Raises a Smile’.
Saturday 9th November at Beaconsfield – ‘Writing for Children’.
2025
Saturday 29th March at Highcrest – ‘Poetry with a Pen and a Passsion’.
Saturday 26th April at Gerrards Cross – ‘Get That Book Out of You’.
Monday 2nd June at Beaconsfield – ‘Life Writing – a Memoir for Your Grandchild, Posterity or Publication’.
Contact: studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
If you are booking, please contact Jan and let her know.