Introducing The Left Handed Writer - a dutch poet, author and musician inspiring others in his own unique ways. We've known him for some time now and are not only blown away by his words but his dedication and persistence to become a successful indie author. On January 25, 2021 he self published his first children's book titled "Lucy and The Stone of Life" and set off on a virtual book tour on Instagram! We couldn't be more proud of him and we're honoured to have him apart of our community. The next time you're on Instagram, we highly recommend you check him out! Here's our interview with him.
When did you begin your writing journey?
I was 16 when I first discovered a poetry book of Charles Bukowski in a movie. I remember being so into the quotes that were named in the film that after watching it I ordered the book. This one was called ‘’you get so alone at times that it just makes sense’’
Like a nice fantasy book I read the whole thing in a day. I still like to buy new friends this particular book, because I feel the book tells a lot about me. What literature I like and certain views. I know they understand me on a deeper level after reading the book. From that moment I started to write little scribbles. Micro poems (not that I knew what those were). I didn’t buy another poetry book since 2 years actually. Most of what I read was on Instagram
Why did you decide to start sharing your words on Instagram?
When I was nearly 20 I started writing a blog. I enjoyed writing articles, longer pieces. The blog had not a specific theme, it was kind of all over the place. I heard Instagram was a nice place to share your art and I figured it would be a good extra platform to get more readers for my blog. I only posted blog related stuff for the first year, not really writing too much poetry. This changed after the first year, when I made my logo and came up with a name.
You published a children’s book called “Lucy and The Stone of Life”. What made you decide to publish a children’s book and not a poetry book?
Yeah haha that’s funny actually, because if you look at it from a marketing standpoint it makes zero sense. All my followers like me for my poetry. So it wasn’t really to put it on the market. However I had written Lucy and the stone of life 3 years ago as a short story. For a short story spring contest. I was writing a thriller book at the time (that I did not finish completely) and wanted a little break. I wrote the story in 2 days, but my story got disqualified for having 80 words too many. They gave me the feedback that it had a lot of potential of being a children’s book. I didn’t touch the story until a year ago when I was going through my folders in Word and fell in love again with the story. It was pandemic time anyway and I thought it was a good moment to finish it and see it through. I am still planning on releasing a poetry book, but my love for children’s book and fantasy is very big. So for my first book, having published something that is close to my heart makes me very happy.
Which platform did you use to self publish your book? Would you recommend it to other poets?
I used Amazon for my book. It is by far the most convenient and easiest platform to self publish. The royalty rates are very good too if one were to compare it to a official publisher. However you need to do most of the marketing yourself. Once things get rolling on Amazon, you get some reviews , people become aware of your book, things can go well for you. They do everything from shipping, printing to customer service. All these things are very time consuming if you were to do them on your own. That for me was a pretty compelling argument to do it via Amazon. Because my story is live I was able to get my book on Barnes and Nobles and Chapters indigo too. You can find my book on goodreads. I am currently working on a translation to make it available in The Netherlands.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to poets navigating the self publishing journey?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, do your research. Find out who your target audience is, think of fun ways to promote your book or let people become aware that you’re writing one. Look at other starting writers and how they’ve done it. Reach out to bloggers to write about your upcoming book. Remember to have some fun. Sure it’s a lot of work to get it all sorted, but it is very rewarding to see your story out there thriving. The more time and effort you put into it the more chances of success you’ll be able to have.
Do you have plans to publish a poetry book in the future?
I do! Soon actually, I am compiling one at the moment. Figuring out the theme, cover, what styles of writing I want to put into the book, the layout the length ( how many pages), etc. But I don’t want to rush it. It’s my first one and I want it to be good.
Where can others find you and your book?
In my bio you’ll find most of the links all the different countries of the websites of Amazon where my book is available.
Also a link to my own website where you have the possibility to buy my book ‘’signed’’ I’ll send it to you wherever you are in the world. On the website you can also find some more information about my background and who I am as a person.
My Instagram handle is @the_left_handed_writer
