Monday, December 29, 2008

The Call Center Survival Guide: This Isn't the Book You're Looking For

Early last year I wrote a little self help book somewhere between Limbo and Starfree Port just to see if I could do it. Well, obviously I could.

It's sat on my shelf for months missing the last chapter (which contains sections entitled; "Quitting Suddenly" and "Getting Fired"), and yesterday I finally dusted it off, edited the entire thing and released it on MobiPocket with a temporary cover.

Now, I realize that there are a few hundred people waiting for the next part of Spinward Fringe, but the unfinished task of completing this dry, over descriptive book has been nagging me like crazy all year.

The result of my labors is a self help book that is really only written to help Call Center employees. More specifically, Call Center employees who expect to run into trouble socially or professionally and need a little advice on how to prevent such problems and need tips on how to deal with them when they happen.

To be honest, if you don't work in a call center, or you do and your career is in good shape, you don't need this book at all. I know, if I had a publisher they'd slap me silly, duct tape my mouth shut and toss me in a closet for saying that, but I'd rather be honest so no one mistakes this for a comedy and buys it for a laugh only to discover it's actually a self help book.

Somehow writing this reminded me of an instructional film made in the 40's or 50's, which actually made it a bit of fun. I'll also write a comedy screen play based on this book someday when I have a week or two to spare just for kicks.

Now that this is all finished (with the exception of a cover, which Marcus Froment will be illustrating this week), I'm going back to work on Spinward Fringe Fronline. Time to go back to what I really enjoy: writing fiction!

RL

Coming soon: 2008 in review!

No comments: