‘How the book I wrote as a youngster became a bestseller’ – Myne Whitman

Bookshelf: Can you share with us your growing up years and how you delved into writing?Myne Whitman: I grew up in Enugu with both my parents and four siblings. I read a lot and had a lot of fun playing whenever I could as a child. Weekends and holidays were my favourite times; I climbed […]

Bookshelf: Can you share with us your growing up years and how you delved into writing?
Myne Whitman: I grew up in Enugu with both my parents and four siblings. I read a lot and had a lot of fun playing whenever I could as a child. Weekends and holidays were my favourite times; I climbed trees, played football, and all the other games we children came up with.
I attended Ekulu primary school, Queens School Enugu, and Loretto Special Science School before moving to Nnamdi Azikiwe University for my first degree in Biological Sciences. After several years working in various fields with the last as a business development officer in a bank, I went for a Master’s degree in Public Health Research.
I was quite young when I started writing. Early in secondary school, I wrote children adventure stories. I missed having all the time to play so I wrote down my imaginations of other little girls having the fun I wished I had. By the time I was 20, I had written a couple of novellas.
After my Master’s degree, I had interned and then worked for about a year in the health department of the Scottish Government. My team worked on updating the Scottish public health bill. After I got married, I moved from the UK to join my husband in the United States and that was when I decided to focus on my writing once again. I took one of the novellas I had written when younger, rewrote it, and self-published it. That novel was titled ‘A Heart to Mend,’ which went on to steal a lot of people’s hearts. And because I was able to push the book via promotions and marketing, it became a No1 bestseller on Amazon within a couple of months of being released as an eBook.
The rest as they say is history. After ‘A Heart to Mend’ went viral in 2009, I set up my publishing website, naijastories.com in 2010. My second book, ‘A Love Rekindled’ was published in 2011 and the first anthology from Naijastories was published in 2012. This February, we reprinted the first anthology as four volumes and launched them as well as the four volumes of the second Naijastories anthology as a paperback imprint under NS Publishing Ltd.
Bookshelf: What were your major challenges and how did you overcome them?
Whitman: The biggest challenge was getting publicity for my first book and I was able to overcome this with the help of fellow bloggers and those who loved the book and spread the reviews.
Bookshelf: How many books have you authored and what attracted you to the romance genre?
Whitman: I have had two of my books published. I wrote my first romance after I got into university. It was a sort of decompression after this new level of study. I returned to writing in 2009 after I got married and had the opportunity to write again. Of all the books I read, romance novels stood out as making the biggest impression on my personality and outlook on life. Along with other life experiences, the books made me realize that most times, the closest bonds and relationships we’re able to form are what determine our life outcomes. And thus what formed my decision to write romance novels too.
Bookshelf: Can you tell us about your dreams and visions along the line and how you strive to achieve them?
Whitman: My biggest dream is to assure every aspiring Nigerian writer, starting with myself, of bestseller status – the dream of selling tens of thousands of books, and if possible, millions.
Bookshelf: What hurdles have you overcome in your quest?
Whitman: Let’s say it’s still a work in progress.
Bookshelf: New writers seem to be having a voice in Naijastories.com, a forum you created and which is probably a leading internet platform for such writers. What makes the forum unique?
Whitman: The mission of Naijastories is to use community networking to encourage and support aspiring writers to improve their writing and feel more confident sharing stories from a Nigerian perspective. We also aim to encourage reading amongst the general public by making such engaging stories available on Naijastories.com, on other available partnering channels, and in anthologies. With our mix of content and activities, Naijastories is especially versatile, attracting a diverse crop of readers, writers, and those with general interest in Nigerian literary affairs. We’re committed to telling fresh Nigerian stories and we also promote authors and book publishers by sharing publishing news, events and literary opportunities.
Bookshelf: Can you tell us what inspired you to start the forum, how it started, how it works, the challenges, victories, and its current state?
Whitman: Naijastories.com came as an idea from my experience sharing excerpts from my first novel on my blog, and later coordinating an online interactive story. I found out about other writing sites like Authonomy, joined some of them and then realized that Nigerian aspiring writers could benefit from such a platform as a way to improve and network. Today Naijastories.com is the leading community for Nigerian writers and book lovers, combining elements of a writing critique website and a social networking site. It has now become the first imprint of the newly established NS Publishing Ltd.
Bookshelf: What does it take to get published?
Whitman: To be published, one needs to keep writing, finish the story in their head, and then polish it till it shines bright.
Bookshelf: Do you believe in writing for money?
Whitman: Definitely! (Laughs) But you should also write because you love the idea of writing, and telling good stories that people will enjoy.
Bookshelf: You seem to have mastered the business of online writing. Can you give some insight to our readers on how it is done?
Myne Whitman: The easiest way to do this is to start a blog. It is free to blog by going to www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. When you register with your email, you get your own website that you can now post your thoughts and opinions on. If you can spare the time to blog at least once a week or more, you’ve become a blogger. To make this a business is to be able to earn money from your blog or writing. Again, both sites I mentioned above give their bloggers the opportunity to add advertising to their blogs and make money.
Bookshelf: What would you say to those wanting to write, but unable to get down to it, and those already writing, but unable to get published even though they possess the skills?
Myne Whitman: I will encourage them to keep writing. They can also join www.naijastories.com if they haven’t already and try to contribute as well as benefit from being in a community of writers.