Always Ask. You never know....
We have very helpful people in our group
This evening I attended the Writers in Athens weekly meetup. There were six of us. The farmers' demonstration at Syntagma which was extending till evening did discourage some people from attending. However we still had a good time as always discussing writing and much more.
This photo is a previous meeting of writers in Athens.
During yesterday’s meeting, at some point, I told those present about this documentation that I started last Tuesday. They were happy for me about my commitment to writing.
I then let them know that this is something that I was thinking of releasing to the general public and Jonas thought that it sounded inspiring and therefore I should do it.
There are two ways I was considering doing this.
Just do what I have committed to do on a daily basis and writing about it without exposing it. At the end of the year or at any time in the course of this year, once I think I have gathered enough words to make a book, I publish it and sell it to the public.
Instead of releasing it at the end of writing it, to share it with the public as I am writing it.
Once I told them about these two options and asked for their opinion, they went with the second option. That I should make it kind of a newsletter where people can subscribe and I could make parts for free and some parts to require a paid subscription.
According to Jonas, doing that in itself can bring me into contact with event organisers who could end up giving me gigs in the process. Jonas is always a motivator.
He suggested I do this on Velvetrope platform which he is experimenting with and Olivia suggested Substack. On Sunday, Sandy too, my Facebook friend, had asked me whether I am using Substack and I had not mentioned to anybody that within these few days I had been considering such. Could this be a sign?
Sharing it on my own website had been an option as well but I leaned more on the idea of sharing it on a platform where people could already be looking for such content and hence easier to get subscribers. Today being the seventh day of this exercise, I have concluded I will create a profile on Substack. After this entry, it will all be on Substack. I have no clue where it will end up but will someday refer back here.
As we were about to leave Public Cafe where we held our meetup tonight(Athens Plaza was closed because of the farmers demonstration), I popped the speaking referral question. Olivia said she will share with me a link where people work with Google to give seminars. I will find out what that is all about.
Turning to Jonas who has so much experience in writing and speaking, I asked him for leads and he informed me that he can connect me with people in North America who could fly me in and pay me to speak. I said yes.
“Oh! I didn’t know you were looking for such an opportunity.” He said
“Yes I do!” I repeated.
Tedx is something he is pursuing and could let me in on his journey.