Guest AuthorPapa CJ
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Apologies and Thank You

By | Papa CJ | Comedian • Executive Coach • Author • Oxford MBA • HBR Writer • papacj.com • WIT of the Week newsletter on LinkedIn, papacj.substack.com & papacj.medium.com • I uplift others & help them be the best version of themselves

Let me start by apologising for the avalanche of book promotion related posts that you have been subject to across all my social media off late. Naked is my debut book and I could not help myself.

I have been a little nervous about how this book will be received for two reasons. Firstly, I’m not a big reader, so from a quality point of view I have no basis for comparison. I also have no formal knowledge of the different elements or factors that need to be considered when writing a book. Therefore given my background in stand-up comedy, I have written it as if my reader is sitting in my audience and I am talking to them. So if you’ve met me or heard me before, the odds are that you’ll hear my voice in your head when you read the book.

This medium is also new to me. While in stand-up comedy one generally tends to remove every extra word to get to the punchline as soon as possible, a book allows you the freedom to add in elements of detail that I believe make for a better storytelling experience. Since my book is built on the foundation of a show, I have tried my best to ensure that the final product retains both the punchiness of stand-up comedy along with rich anecdotes from life.

The second reason for my trepidation is a bigger one. This is not a work of fiction or a business book. It is an autobiographical manuscript. Which is an even more daunting venture for a first time author. Because not only will readers be judging the quality of my work, they will be judging the quality of my life! Add to that I have tried to be as honest and vulnerable as I can. Don’t get me wrong, as an artist I do have experience with being publicly vulnerable. With the stage show Naked, I opened myself up in ways that I never thought I’d have the courage to do before. Yet while doing that, my audience was still in the room in front of me. Where I could see them. And if need be adapt my performance, albeit in a tiny way, to effect some degree of control on how they processed what I presented them. With a book, I don’t have that luxury.

Since the release on Mon 16 Dec however my apprehensions are slowly beginning to settle a little. Initial reader response has been quite positive and that has been very heartening for me to hear. I have also had lots of people supporting me in different ways. Some promoting the book online, some offering to do events around it and some buying multiple copies of the book to gift to others. I feel blessed to have people in my life who have voluntarily stepped up to do these things for me. My confidence was particularly boosted when a friend who bought 20 copies bought another 30 copies after reading the book. I can’t stress how grateful I am for these wonderful friends and their support. Thank you.

I’ll try and tone down the amount of promo stuff I post online going forward however I can’t promise I’ll be very successful in the near term. If you do happen to flip through the pages I’ve written, I do hope they bring you some joy. I’m a debut author so I hope you’ll look upon my first attempt with a little compassion in your heart, for it’s not just my book you’ll be holding in your hands, it’s my life.

Republished with permission and originally published at Papa C J’s Linkedin 

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