Writing a Successful Book on Your Mobile Phone

Writing a Successful Book on Your Mobile Phone

Having been a professional footballer for 17 years and enjoyed the highs of playing in the Premier League, as well as the lows of relegation, goalkeeper Richard Lee moved on to Brentford, which should have marked the start of an exciting new chapter in his life. However life doesn’t always pan out the way it’s intended.

After his debut, he was dropped from the team and found himself behind three other goalkeepers and out of his manager’s plans. This was to become the biggest challenge of his career and at one point, he thought about quitting the game altogether to concentrate on his business ventures. Fortunately for Brentford fans, he chose to fight for his place and in the process, began writing a book on, of all things, his mobile phone.

This article looks at how Richard used his Blackberry Bold phone to write 50,000 words and publish Graduation, his book that covers the highs and lows of the 2010/2011 season.

Graduation started life as a diary for Richard Lee’s blog, however before he knew it, 10,000 words had been written and less than one third of a season had been covered. It was at this point that he knew he was on to something unique, which could form the basis of a book.

The story itself comprises of Lee joining Brentford, where he loses his place early on and finds himself way down the pecking order. This is pretty standard stuff for most professional footballers, however what happens next sets Richard aside from most professional footballers. In his words, he “clawed my way back and in doing do experienced the drama of several penalty shootouts, hypnotherapy, injury, awards and much more!”

Being qualified in NLP and reading through hundreds of books on the mind as well as attending more seminars than he can remember, Richard linked in much of the knowledge he’d learned to help create something enjoyable to read and something that each reader can take away and use, whatever their circumstances may be. This was particularly important to Richard; this isn’t simply a footballer’s book for football fans. It’s a life story that will appeal to a broad demographic.

Mobiles phones are more than just phones nowadays, with access to the Internet and e-mail alongside numerous apps to make our lives easier to manage. It was using the email capability of his new Blackberry Bold that enabled Richard to write his book. The punch button QWERTY keyboard is one of the advantages this phone has and the reason why he favours it:

“For me it’s essential that I have a keypad, I am now at a point where I don’t need to look at the screen. Similar to those who touch-type on a keyboard, I can write long emails and texts incredibly quickly, perhaps even faster than I could on a keyboard itself. That coupled with BBM, the ease at which I can use social media and stay in touch with the world, made it a no-brainer for me in choosing this phone.”

Having won back the number one jersey at Brentford, Richard’s book also won the number one spot on Amazon.co.uk, for the best-selling book on football as well as in skills and coaching. With positive reviews and critical acclaim, does he plan to write another book, and will he write it on his mobile phone?

“Yes and yes! I wrote a lot of Graduation while sunbathing on holiday, which made the whole process of writing it an immense amount of fun! As soon as inspiration comes to write a sentence or a paragraph or two I will begin to type it into my notes on my phone. Once finished, I simply email the notes to myself ready to be sent to my publisher Bennion Kearny. It was such a simple process, it’s one I would happily do again.”

If you don’t have a deal with a publishing company, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing is a fast and fuss-free way of getting your book to market. With Amazon typically taking 30% of each book you sell through its Kindle store, this may be your best way of getting your work sold.