James Lindsay Grade Six School Teacher to Author

Many of you may have dreamed about writing and publishing your own book, the real question you should ask yourself is “What has prevented you from taking that dream and making it a reality?”

I was visiting Dymocks at Garden City Westfield Shopping Centre this afternoon when I noticed that there was a writer sitting outside signing copies of their new book.

The manager of Dymocks told me that he was a self-published author with an attractive front book cover and enthusiastic disposition.

Mount Gravatt Store along with a few others had agreed to stock his book on their shelves and that he was thrilled to have sold 30 copies of the 1000 printed.

My Business Heroes podcast series is all about average people doing exceptional things, pushing through their fears and doubts to create a successful outcome.

I had to meet this person and share his story with you.

Hopefully, if you have been putting off writing a book or some other goal, James Lindsay can inspire you!

Listen to our interview ( It’s live and candid ) or you can read on!

James Lindsay and his new book Plato Wyngard

Who is James Lindsay?

James Lindsay a Year Six Primary Teacher and a father of two boys and has been writing screen plays in his head since he was ten years old.

Rather than just day dream, James is a man of action and has just self-published his first book called “Plato Wyngard – And The Valley of the Immortals“.

James did not choose to become a author straight away, he was originally a script writer with varied success and some failures.

Instead of focusing on his screen play failures, he decided to use his love of writing to publish a novel instead.

James has co-written this book with his brother Marc Lindsay, who has written two other books in a series called Perigord.

Writing a book hasn’t been a simple process like switching a switch.

James found that writing a screen play to a book were to very different mediums.

A screen play is very visual, where a book is more text heavy. Getting into the right mindset took time and effort on his behalf to get it right.

James also had to push through his doubts to believe he could portray his book’s characters personalities and story effectively.

James also had to write in a manner that drew the reader’s imagination into his book’s world, with the desire to not put it down.

He wanted the book to be a holiday fun read with a Indiana Jones adventure type journey.

James biggest fear was what would the readers reviews say…… will people love his book or hate it?

So far, James is relieved to note that all the reviews have been kind.

James admitted that his current position as a school teacher definitely helped him to write his book with an awareness of grammar and structure.

He also wanted his students to be proud of his finished product, that they could see how professional the book was written and not just words slapped on the pages.

Understanding and teaching the narrative format also was an advantage that will help him appeal to and engage his readers.

How did James get Dymocks support?

The cover of the book certainly helped, particularly since covers sell.

James tried the publisher and agent route here in Australia to be told his book’s story gendre is not something that gets published very often (unless you are Matthew Reilly) which I’m not .

Rather than just give up, James decided to self-publish his book to show all the big agents and publishers who turned him away that he does have a good product.

He is hopeful, that if they read his first book and they give it a go they will like it.

To ensure the success of their book, both James and his brother Mark invested in a good quality cover and got the formatting right.

I love that James stated that he approached Dymocks himself, and was delighted to have all six stores agree to stock his book on their shelves for sale.

Dymocks have been really happy to support him.

James and his brother have printed 1000 copies and need to sell a certain number to just break even.

He is not interested in becoming a millionaire, he just wants to delight a 1000 readers.

How can people help you?

James book “Plato Wyngard – And The Valley of the Immortals” is available at all local Brisbane Dymock Stores.

You can purchase the book via Amazon for a great school holiday read.

If you need some more convincing, you can pop over to Good Reads to check out some of the reviews.

You can see an awesome image for Pinterest by clicking here to share with your family and friends.

If you would like share, review and tweet his book, he would be very much in your debt.

Please use the hashtag #PlatoWyngard

@JamesLindsay76 rocking it today! #newbook #releaseday #platowyngard pic.twitter.com/4ZXSXgrqGt

— M.J.Stevens – Author (@MelanieJStevens) September 17, 2016

Amanda Hoffmann

Amanda Hoffmann is a registered Tax Practitioner / BAS Agent No.18613005, Associate of Finance, Xero, Myob & Quickbooks Proadvisor / Trainer and a Consultant for the Australian Taxation Office.

She says she is more than just a bookkeeper with experience in real estate investing, social media, podcasting, blogging and recently recording monthly youtube episodes

Amanda loves to teach smart, easy online cloud solutions and fix messy bookkeeping. Follow her on social media and say “Hi”