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Undertakers, who'd have 'em?

riting a Book
If you think that this is a daunting task, you would be right, if it were a novel or autobiography you were starting out on.
However, if you think that writing a book is all work, you would be wrong. It is an extremely enjoyable way of getting out and about, of meeting people and having a good laugh.

I first started writing at an early age, not for profit, but because I enjoyed writing funny sketches, jokes, lyrics and practically any topic that was suggested, I could write something about.

I mentioned earlier that writing a book could be fun and of course entertaining, but it won't pay your wages for a few months, so be prepared to live frugally for a time. I have a suggestion that worked very well for myself and there is no reason why it couldn't work for you.

I am talking about a book that anyone could write and in a fairly short space of time. It's a comedy book. I wrote a book some years ago.

Let me explain how I came to write this particular book. My father was an undertaker later on in his life, he told me of some very humourous things that they got up to. I thought he was joking as I didn't recall ever seeing an undertaker with a smile on his face. Now my father had a really dry sense of humour and I suppose a little of it rubbed off on me. I have a normal sense of humour, but some of the stories my father told me really made me sit up and listen. I didn't believe all of them or course, I thought that initially, he was pulling my leg. He wasn't!

He introduced me to some of his work colleagues one evening in the local pub and they in turn introduced me to others. I heard so many funny stories and so many not so funny stories, that I thought I would try and document them down in some form or other.

The next time we met up of course, I was armed with a small tape recorder that I used to catch all the stories. I was even invited to go to their houses so they could talk in private about some of the weird things that had happened during the course of their working life as undertakers or morticians etc.

After about 4 weeks, I was getting really involved with the storylines and decided to put an advert into a paper that came out only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays called LooT.

The advert was picked up by Granada Television and Nicky Campbell for a program called "Classified Ads" that went out on a Sunday.

I was asked along to the TV studio on Sunday morning along with all the other people who had strange adverts running in the local paper.
I had to relate one of the stories whilst on the set. I didn't finish the story of course, because I added at the end of the story that to find out what happened at the end, they would have to buy the book. The program was scheduled for release the following Sunday. I told the story of course and Nicky Campbell was fascinated and asked me at the end of the program, what happened so I told him. He was flabbergasted! You won't find out either, you'll have to buy the book!

I got many stories from people watching the program the following Sunday, as Granada kept a log of all the requests coming in to the studios in Manchester.

There is no reason why you cannot write a book on the stories you hear from Firemen, Police, Hospital workers, Ambulance crew etc. There really is money to be made, if you have the commitment to go out and meet these people.

Yes it does take a large chunk of free time out of your family life, but hey, it's worth it just to see your name on the book cover and it selling next to the likes of Bridget Jones's Diary. (No 25 on the best selling Humour list no less!) Check out the link yourself. If the link is not live, try copy paste to the browser

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/Search.asp?typeSearch=Category&strSearch=&Author=&Title=&Keyword=&CatID=46&PublisherID=&OperaLogic=&Price=&pagenb=3&nbresults=10&orderby=0&lang=EN

It should take approximately 6 weeks to do the research, asking all the questions of the people etc. After that period, it should take around three weeks to get all the documentation fixed. If you have a friend who draws good cartoons or can illustrate, even better. I had such an illustrator who did all the illustrations for my book. To see it on the e-shelves, is just fantastic. It is selling quite well. When I first hawked it round all the publishers, there was little interest, especially from a first-time writer. So what is the best vehicle to launch the book? Yes, the internet.

If you were to write a book on Firemen's funny stories, you have a captive audience first of all, about 100,000 firemen in the UK, then to the USA, where there are around 3.5 million, and then there's the general public who love funny stories about their heros, as well as life-saving scenarios as well!

Even if only 1 percent of the target audience bought your book, you have a very healthy profit and a very luxurious lifestyle. I can't do that at present, I'm now based in Holland, so it would be difficult for me to do any more interviews in the UK.

I have written many books, all of which have not been published yet, but that is about to change. I have written many thousands of articles for newspapers, magazines and newsletters for companies, which I still do now of course.

Have a look at the book on www.blackhumourbooks.com you will find out more about what I do on the about page of the website.

I have written for many magazines you have heard of and one you don't want to hear of. Authored many books and thousands of articles and newsletters. I have written to order on specific topics in a humourous vein. My website for the humerous books is www.blackhumourbooks.com

If you want to know more about starting your own internet business, or more about writing, go to www.howtocreateit.com This is going to be a mega website in the not so distant future, but go there yourself and read why. Look at the mission statement, see what I mean and promise.