Azizi Launches Thriller

Malaysia's dynamic get-rich guru, Azizi Ali, has now turned his attention to writing fiction. In the New Straits Times today he tells Intan Maizura Ahmad Kamal about his first novel, Ekuinoks (which translates of course as Equinox) is a mystery thriller a la Tom Clancy and John Grisham. The novel was launched on Aug 22 at MPH MidValley in KL and is now available at all major bookstores and also from Azizi's website.

An interesting aside - Azizi says that when he started to start writing, he enrolled in a distance learning writing class, and I wonder which one. There are some very good internet based courses - something I've been meaning to write about and should get round to.

Distribution

Went to the second of MPH's Writer's Circle meetings - this time on book distribution. Ong from MPH distributors and a guy called Vincent (can't decipher my terrible left-handed scrawl here to be able to tell you which company he represents!)gave some fascinating insights into how the business works in Malaysia. Both very gung-ho about dealing with self-published writers, which is encouraging as for most Malaysian writers, this is their way ahead. They both talked about how essential it is for writers to actually get out and promote their books if they want sales. Writing the book and producing it is the easy part - marketing yourself is every bit as important. But health and wealth titles though are the books that sell ... no real local market for fiction.

Local writer Azizi Ali, a highly engaging speaker, is a self-published success story.



He currently has six titles on money management out and last year made RM700,000 from his publications. He has several more titles in preparation, is eyeing the international market. He also intends to publish other local writers. Who says local writers can't make good?