Author Interview: Stuart Sorensen

Jul 11, 2012 by admin

What prompted you to write your book in the first place?

There are several reasons for this. The most mundane answer is that it simply evolved from blogging and the many comments I’d had from friends and colleagues encouraging me to publish my work. The most cynical is that I hope to make money from it and the most personal (some might say pretentious) explanation is that I’ve always believed that I ‘have something to say’ and so I eventually decided to try and say it in book form.

Give us a brief synopsis of your book?

I have written three Ebooks to date. They’re all aimed at support workers in health and social care because I feel very strongly that there are many extremely competent people out there who, because of funding concerns, have been denied the training that they need to do their work properly. So my books are designed as accessible guides to fill that gap. They’re all designed to be punchy, as jargon-free as possible and not so long that hard-working people won’t have the time to read them.

So far I’ve covered:

Coping with challenging behaviour;

Safeguarding adults;

An introduction to mental health and disorder.

Why did you decide to go down the self publishing route?

It was easy to arrange. I contacted a traditional publisher with an idea about two years ago but the proposal process in itself was arduous and, to be honest, I just couldn’t find the time to jump through all the hoops as well as running my full time training business.

What has been the best part of your publishing journey?

I’d have to say the simplicity of the process. I’ve only recently taken this step and so I can’t talk about fame or fortune (perhaps I never will) but I found it easy to do and there is something heart-warming about seeing your own work for sale. I love some of the comments I’ve had from readers too either by Email, through Twitter and Facebook or via the online review process.

What has been the worst part of your publishing journey?

I’m new to this, as I say and so maybe this is my naivety talking but there hasn’t really been a downside. I found the proof-reading stage tedious but that’s not a big deal really. I don’t think there has been a ‘worst’ part worthy of mention – at least not for me.

Would you consider writing another book?

Indeed. I’m working on one at the moment.

What would you have done differently in hindsight?

I should have done this sooner. I’m sure that there are other things that I could have done better and in another year or so I’ll probably know what they are but right now I’m not aware of my mistakes – I’m too new to this. We learn from experience and reflection and I haven’t yet had the time to reflect.

What advice would you give a budding author?

Go for it.

Do you feel different in any way now you are an author?

Not really. I’m still me and I’m not about to lose perspective and think that self-publishing has somehow given me a status or personality attribute that I didn’t always have. I’m not one to take myself too seriously.

My writing is just an extension of my work as a health and social care trainer and so it represents a change of media rather than a change in who or what I am.