Tim I. Gurung's Blog

I was not only a proud but also a true believer in self-publishing and have been championing the Indie authors since my 1st day as an author. I have become an Indie author by choice, did learn the trade somehow, and despite all the odds, I did actually pretty well on my own.

Needless to say, the sailing wasn't as smooth as I would have liked at the beginning and I had to go through pretty rough stages during my early years as an author. Just to name a few, I was berated by a fellow author with a one-star rating without even touching my book, another one humiliated me by saying my only motive of offering a review was to pirate his book after obtaining a free copy, and the third one insulted my intelligence by calling me a student who was pretending to be a professor in the international literary world. In addition, snubbing by so-called elitists was a norm, resentment was nothing new, and many fellow authors have written me off on many occasions.

However, I didn't pay much attention to them at all, did my utmost best on what was in my hands, and persevered. And I have come a very long way since then and I should be really proud of myself as an Indie author.

That was, of course, before that unfortunate event of last two weeks and everything has changed in a great deal since then.

What happened was this - I was accused of using paid ads in order to push up my sales rank by a gadfly through his regular blog post, haters and zealots zeroed in with vengeance and my Amazon page was littered with nasty reviews and comments. Before long, my book was killed off and I was declared guilty without a trial.

The subsequent events were pretty nasty and ornery, I was declared a scammer, and hanged and left out to dry on my own. The remarks were pretty mean and scathing, many so-called friends have distanced themselves from me, and some fellow authors have unfriended and blocked me on Twitter.

Unsurprisingly, just a few of my fellow authors did openly support and defended me, and I will always remain grateful to them in life.

I intentionally didn't comment on the accusation for some reasons. First of all, I don't comment on negative views for two reasons: one, it will only make the situation worse as fuel to the fire, and two, I have a self-disciplined policy of using social media - if I have nothing nice to say, I rather say nothing at all. Secondly, I genuinely thought that people have already made up their mind, nobody was in the mood for listening and my explanation would have no use at all. Thirdly, I thought that it would just go away in a few days' time, people would forget about it, and we could just move on.

But it took a turn for worse, my whole Amazon account was put under review and I had to write a statement why and how am I going to avoid that in the future before my account was reopened again. It was undoubtedly one of the horrible and gravest periods of my career as an author, it has dented a scar on my soul and it will probably remain there for the rest of my life.

I don't see any points of explanation, the damages have already been done and I have no intention whatsoever of seeking out for a redemption for myself as well. But I still want to say some words to you all and here is the reason why.

Yes, I have bought many ads, who doesn't? If you are a new and Indie author, we all know that without ads we are going nowhere, and each and every author buys ads for exposure. We also know the fact that most of the paid ads don't work for many reasons and we must keep on trying. I was no different.

After many ads have failed, I took a master class from a popular author and learned many new things from him. I spent the next six months reworking on my books, not to mention the thousands of dollars I spent on them, and when I had a new book launch, I did almost everything that I could possibly do and made the bestselling list in one category for the very first time in my writing career. In order to keep up the buzz, I had bought almost 20 more ads (Big or small) for the next few weeks and had no tap on when they were running.

All I wanted was to make the top 100 list and when it went to the top of the pile, I was totally shocked, and as the saying goes, the rest is the history.

The 1st mistake I made was buying the ads without knowing how exactly they work and my 2nd mistake was to share my success on the social media. All the ads that I bought were the most common ones and used and recommended by fellow authors. What's more, it's almost impossible for us, authors, to know precisely how they work and the service providers won't tell even if we had inquired beforehand. On the second one, if I were not to share it with my fellow authors, why would I work for so hard at the first place? Making the bestseller list is a dream of every author and what's the point of achieving it if we cannot share it with the world?

I just have two grievances with this sorry episode, first to the fellow authors who have started it, and second to those fellow authors who have reacted upon this call. You might be doing the right thing, at least from your own point of view, but you should have at least wrote to me a short email before shooting it from the hip like a cowboy, and I would have done my utmost best to clear your doubts if there were any. You could have still proceeded with your plan if my explanation was not good enough. Besides, who gave you the right of declaring yourself the judge and do you know how dangerous it can be when one exercises power without responsibility? To those who have called names and left a nasty, one-word review on my Amazon page, I have nothing nice to say. It was one of the lowly, childish and irresponsible acts only losers like you can do and you called yourself a writer and acted like a high school teenager? Well, I am utterly gutted and ashamed of myself for being in the same group as you. I have always thought writers as a group of intelligent, compassionate and honorable, the lowly act from you have utterly shocked me, and it was nothing less than a disgrace for us all.

For God’s sake, I was a proud indie author, I was supposed to be on your side and did tearing apart the flesh and blood of your own type make any sense to you? I still want to ask you all is this – Did I murder anyone from your family? Did I steal anything from your home? Or did I do anything wrong to you personally?

One person left a 1* review because I didn’t mention about African atrocity and my answer to this person is I am not writing a history here my friend. Another author labeled my book as a children book, well, if you think the Israeli-Palestinian issue like a child-play, then, I have nothing more to say. More importantly, if you read a book with a pre-determined set of mind, of course, you will find problems with that book. If you ask me to read a book by any famous authors out there and find my dislikes, I can easily do that to any given books out there and so can you.

I do admit that my books are not for everyone out there, if you don’t have the slightest interest on global and social issues, you won’t like my books and I will be the first one to tell you that. My books make you think and I know many of you out there don’t want to do that. My earlier books were also criticized for being too long and difficult reading and that was the reason why my new books are written in the simplest way possible so they can be read by all. And they are way shorter than my previous books too.

By doing so, you have not only ruined my bestselling book but also destroyed the future of a dozen of poor children back in Nepal and gave a bad name to my project for which I have been devoting my life. I am a self-made man, took writing only after I turned fifty and I have been writing only for my charity. The charity helps provide financial support to the poor children back in Nepal and we have been supporting 27 children since 2015. And I have a dream of expanding the project throughout the nation, so, one day every one can go to school.

No wonder people look down at us as indie authors, it’s this sort of disgraceful act that justifies the treatment, and we have no others but ourselves to blame for our downfall. If indie authors keep on fighting each other, you will never get the respect from outside world and the sooner you understand it the better for indie authors.

The unfortunate incident has certainly caused great pain and indignity to me but I am not among the one who will run away from challenges and I will continue my journey until my goal is achieved.

Please just keep in mind that I will never stop writing, I don’t have to pull other writers’ leg to move forward, and you weren’t and you will never be my competitor.

Yet, one thing is pretty certain. My trust, respect, and support for the indie authors have changed once and for all and it will never be the same again. Thanks to you, I have become a rather skeptic person now on almost everything including this indie thing, restraining myself from social media, and I have already stopped all the promotions.

I even hate the word ‘Bestseller’ now and it will probably be a very long time before I can make myself ready to embrace it again. Until then, I wish you all the best and God bless you all.

I just wish that you had spent time on improving your own writing, that way you could have at least improved as a writer, and never had to belittle fellow writers to make yourself feel better.

Please read and share it with your friends and fellow authors so it won’t repeat again. It’s such a sorry and pathetic event that no soul deserves to go through that pain again.

Writers without a heart and compassion will never understand it. They don’t have to, because, without it, they can never become a good writer anyway.

Last but not least, I am not going to pull my book off the market. I want to keep it live on Amazon as a reminder to myself, so, I will never be able to forget about the unfortunate event for the rest of my life.

And ha, I am definitely going to look for a new agent as well.


TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www.timigurung.com

Have you ever wanted to read a book by international author TIM I GURUNG for FREE? Here is a chance! All you have to do is join his official review group and start reading right away!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/17466...

Want a free book? International author TIM I GURUNG is giving away his bestselling book - AFTERLIFE - for certain period of time, no string attached, just click the below link to receive this FREE book today. Thank you!

http://www.timigurung.com

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I have been attending a coaching course from a master who has achieved six figures in yearly book sales and working on a total overhaul of my books for the last few months. As I haven’t tested them yet, I don’t know for sure whether they will work or not. But one thing is pretty sure, at least now I know what I wasn’t doing right from the beginning and making all the necessary changes as I write.

Being a writer myself, I can understand the craving for seeing your book on print is always very strong and we tend to hurry things up without giving much attention on preparation. Without proper preparation, your book is going nowhere and it’s where most writers do fail.

If you want to have any chance of succeeding as a writer, this is the list of must do things before you actually start uploading your book in Amazon.

1. Cover – It has to be nice, professionally done and eye catching. If the cover of your book is not done properly, you will fail on the first huddle and your dream of being a successful writer will die even before it has started.
2. Title – It must grab readers’ attention.
3. Description – It has to be epic, enticing, and the best writing of your career.
4. Keywords – The keywords have to be properly selected, find the right ones, and tweak them until it works for your book.
5. Category – You must select the right category that suits your book best.
6. Writing – The writing has to be good, properly edited and proofread
7. Formatting – The book must be properly formatted by professional.
8. Price – The price has to be right for both print and ebook, if it is too high, nobody will buy.

Of course, it’s easy to list them out. The hardest part is how to perfect them on practices. It has to be done either by our own or pay someone to it for you. This is where help is needed for most of us and if you are not sure, let the experts do the job for you. It’s like the main foundation of a structure and without one, it’s going nowhere. If it’s not properly done, no matter what you do later on, it won’t have much effect on your books.

Still, there is one very important point for all to remember though. You must complete the whole list without leaving one out. It’s not a multiple choice, it’s rather like a box-set and leaving one will stop the whole circle. And all eight of them must be prepared well before the final launch of your book. Only then, whatever you do for the marketing of your book, will start working and your dream of becoming a writer will come true. Having said that however, please always keep in mind that it’s just the beginning and there are still plenty of works to do before you start dreaming.

If you were making those mistakes like many writers, please stop right there and start rebuilding your base before you do anything else.

Last but not least, I never write as an expert, I always write from my own experiences and the only reason I do is to help other fellow writers by sharing my experiences and nothing more. I have paid for it so you don’t have to. Thank you so much and keep on writing.

TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www.timigurung.com

“Without sounding arrogant, my books were compared to great books like DAVID COPPERFIELD, LIFE OF PI AND THE ALCHEMIST by readers. Although it was flattering, my humble wish is to be known as TIM I GURUNG and nothing more.” – TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE

https://www.amazon.com/Tim-GURUNG/e/B...

As I only write for my charity and it's that time of the year again, I want to wish everyone Merry Christmas and A Happy New year by providing all of my eight books for free. You can download them from here and have a nice day!

https://www.amazon.com/Tim-GURUNG/e/B...

I have 5 books ready but I will only publish 2 books in a year and you can help select them for me. The first two books that get the most votes will be published first starting in 2017. Please let me know your choices and I will make your wishes come true!

Here is the list of books with brief description:

A. MY FORGOTTEN PATH HOME – A story of a thirty years old woman, who had finally returned Nepal in search of her origin after she was orphaned by Nepal’s 2015 earthquake at age four and had spent her entire adult life in a foreign nation, and her struggles and triumphant will touch your heart.
B. A FATHER’S LOVE CANNNOT BE SERVED ON A PLATTER – It is a story of a father who has to raise three young daughters by his own when he lost his wife in a freak accident and his struggles can teach you few things about the importance of parenting, if not family values.
C. THE BROKEN PEOPLE FROM GOD’S LAND – A story of an unfortunate family and a village itself whose lands, animals and water were taken away from them by a rather intelligent, cunning and powerful enemy and forced them to live in a caged life.
D. THE NAMASTE CLUB – It chronicles the unlikely friendship of four Nepalese-men, a Gurung, a Thapa, a Sharma, and a Biswakarma in Hong Kong, and how they survived in one of the least caring and money oriented places in the world by their own.
E. DIGNITY – It is a story of twin brothers with completely different mindset, a sort of never-ending clash between good and evil, and how that infighting has brought unnecessary troubles to the family with heartbreaking consequences.

Thank you so much!
TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www.timigurung.com

How to write a novel in just 30 days!


Before anything else, please do note that I never write as an expert, I always write from my own experiences and this piece is no different.

If you are reading this piece, it means only one thing. You are either a writer or have interest on writing which mean you can write. However, we all know that writing is not always easy, we must not only have skill, talent and passion but also commitment to write, and discipline in writing is, needless to say, very important.

If I say writing is still the easiest part, many writers out there would definitely agree. Experienced and skillful writers can churn out books in a very short period of time and I can attest that too from my own experiences. I did in fact write five books in this year alone and I could have easily written more if I wanted to.

Still, writing a novel in just 30 days is still a monumental task, but not impossible. Many have done it through National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo in short, the annual novel writing month in November, and here are some tips on how you can do it as well.

Preplanning is paramount. The prose or storyline must be thought out well before the actual writing starts, at least in general, and all the small details of the story can be added on later on one at a time.

As you already know the main storyline by now, you must think out of those other small details well in advance and know precisely how to put them into words. If you do both thinking and writing at the same time, it will consume too much time and you won’t be able to write more. The best way to think it over is right before the bedtime, go through each word and sentence of the next day’s writing once more again, and the writing will become very easy and flowing the other day.

Commitment is very important. We writers have our own different choices of writing time, some prefer the morning, and the others afternoon, evening or even nighttime. It doesn’t matter which time of the day you do write, just write and write on a daily basis. If you care to ask, I write on the office hours and only write on weekdays.

A modern day novel is at least 50-60k words long, by that calculation you need to write at least 2k words in a daily basis, and must be prepared to commit your time from the start to the end. And we all know that it is not that of a big deal for most of us.

All we need is a little bit of discipline, spend less time on social media, and avoid distraction of other kinds if possible.

And avoid using big and complicated words, write in simple words and short sentences, and write in a daily basis without excuses. The hardest part is said to be making the final decision, once the decision is made, all you need is to stick to the plan to the end. And with right discipline, commitment and perseverance, it can be achieved pretty easily.

If this is still not encouraging enough for you, think about the joy, excitement and sense of achievement that it can bring along after the job is successfully completed. The experience is just phenomenal and beyond words. Are you ready to give a try? Accept the challenge with open arms and make yourself a very happy writer today!


TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www/timigurung.com

“AFTERLIFE” is an allegorical exploration into hereafter - Life, they say, is a journey from the beginning to the end but is the end, really finality or is there something else, something better beyond? No one really knows though many have tried to guess. Tim I. Gurung, a former Gurkha soldier, businessman, husband and father, has tried to explain what may be there in his “Afterlife.” Clearly written, using everyday language that is often lyrical, Gurung presents a vision strongly influenced by Buddha’s teachings (the afterlife is a series of stages).

As we travel onward, we become better and better, working toward higher stages of being. Gurung’s premise is fascinating. The protagonist is one Enos Bronte, who finds himself ascending to some destination. At first blind to the beings around him, Enos becomes more aware of his surroundings. Bronte finds himself rising and falling, sometimes falling off cliffs with thousands of others. His journey, which includes a point where he saves himself by falling onto and up a tree, is an allegorical look at the hereafter.

Gurung has a savvy imagination. When he has Enos riffing with the Lord, it is a real hoot. It is a piece of writing that illustrates just how good Gurung is at his craft. His writing is simply complex. It seems so simply written when you first look at it that you don’t see the deeper meanings the author has conveyed. They are there, though, waiting for you to find them. They also help to make this interesting work highly enjoyable. It is an interesting read.” – AFTERLIFE BY INTERNATIONAL AUTHOR TIM I GURUNG

https://www.amazon.com/Afterlife-TIM-...

Although I have been using Linkedin for many years, it has almost been two years since I have premium account and I am already having a second thought about it. The premium account certainly has many advantages than the basic one and I will be the first one to admit that I have definitely underused them. But I am not talking about the service plans here, I better leave that job to the service provider, and come straight to the point for which I am writing this piece today. What I am talking here is about the actual content, standard and the way I felt about Linkedin in recent days and nothing more.

Before anything else, please let me remind you here again that I never write as an expert, I always write things based on my own experience and my views here are presented as a user. If you were looking for an article full of statics, analysis and tricks, you will be duly disappointed.

I have seen people complaining about the content and standard of Linkedin, they say Linkedin is becoming like FB, and I do agree. It was supposed to be a platform for professionals and businesses. But most of its contents strike similarity with FB and most of those posts displayed in its thread lines are rather personal or family oriented. I have seen people using the same post on FB, Linkedin and other social media platforms regardless and that somehow blurred the line. Pictures of scantly clothed model or revealing women occupied more spaces than relevant posting and business-related posts are getting lesser by days.

Yet, the most disturbing practices of them all are the political ones and people have been abusing it as a platform for expressing their political agendas, belief and rants. Some of the posts are quite frightening as well and they are mostly full of epithet, insult and mudslinging. Linkedin was meant to be for professionals but it seemed like it has been hijacked by political cronies and loonies and they are allover again.

The other nuisance of Linkedin nowadays is the pettiness among its users and they tend to post almost anything from fortunetelling, sightseeing to trolling. Fake, pretenders, scammer and schemer are almost everywhere preying around for easy targets, so are whistleblowers and the game of cat and mouse plays on.

The content, standard and professionalism of Linkedin have drastically gone down in recent years and I have been noticing it for sometime. But two of recent experiences have cleared my doubts. In one event, when I posted about palm-reading, (Yes, I am among the transgressors) I hit more than five hundreds LIKES and had more than one hundred profile views. In the next event, when I posted for a job asking for book cover maker, only one guy showed interest. Needless to say, I was genuinely surprised. Despite the contrast between the two events, it clearly showed the current status of Linkedin and it disturbed me.

If I cannot find the professionals I was looking for in Linkedin, what is the point of having a premium account here then? The main reason why I am still in Linkedin is to find professional or business people so I can fulfill my job as a professional. I asked this question to myself immediately and you should do the same as well. I already have FB and Twitter for my families, friends and followers.

The other thing that concerned me about Linkedin is this - one of my good friends told me that she stopped receiving notifications about my posts for a long time. Whenever we post something new, all of our connections were to get noticed. This has always been my understanding about notifications from the very beginning but that seemed to be not the case here. Please correct me if I am wrong here. But that is the main reason why we have connections at the first place, right? They shouldn’t be selective on sending notifications.

Maybe it is about time I should review my premium account on Linkedin. If I cannot get what I want from it, e.g. professional and business related help, why should I waste my hard earned money? I am genuinely contemplating of a change.

I have almost seven thousands connection and still LIKE each and every one of them when they have work anniversary. I used to wish them all HAPPY BIRTHDAY before as well but I have stopped now as I felt that was too personal. I have always tried to be a nice guy and whenever my connections have done something for me, I have always reciprocated. Yet, I only have just a few of them with whom I do have a good connection and I hardly hear from the rest.

For many, the connections are nothing more than just a number and perhaps we just want to be friend with each other only to make our profile page look good.


TIM I GURUNG/AUTHOR AT ISSLCARE – http://www.timigurung.com