It is Never too Late to Publish an Inspiring Book
My mum Gisa Habitz published her first book at the age of 79 and the second one with 80 - here is how to become a first time author when passion and purpose are aligned.
I remember when my dad Hermann Habitz was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a shocking moment for the family. Running his plastics production company in Germany for 42 years, he wanted to enjoy his retirement after selling the business - a life full of travelling and attending theatre performances.
But nature had something else in plan for him.
From caring to helping others
Little did he know about the implications of working with micro particles without the appropriate protection we would have in the post-covid world where face masks play a role at the workplace.
While we don’t know for sure it might have supported developing his disease which showed the first symptoms only well into his retirement.
After the diagnosis my mum Gisa Habitz looked after my dad as a carer for ten years, obviously with medical help from professionals.
It was during these challenging years that I met him for the last time in June 2019 enjoying walks and discussions together.
One week before he passed away in June 2021, my dad just received his third collection book of his opera reviews which I compiled for him in the form of a non-published book every couple of years.
My mum encouraged him towards more exercise for his body and his brain. Together they went back to performing house music when she accompanied him on the piano while he was singing songs he remembered well (hint: his baritone voice nearly got him a role in the opera choir in Bremen).
My mum didn’t stop researching more about this disease as she asked herself what she could have done differently. She met families with a similar situation, also the father of one of my closest high school friends faced the very same situation back then.
Two years after my dad passed away, my mum found a group of coaches and service professionals to learn public speaking. With an awareness mission about Parkinson’s prevention she wanted to share her experience with others.
Some of the participants mentioned that her story was powerful enough to talk about in a TV program (she did!) and to write a book, too.
Writing a whole book was surely not on her radar. How to make that happen?
Discovering the power of a chapter book
During my uni days my mum has been the editor of a regional magazine for hunting, one of her hobbies. Back then she compiled the submission of their contributors and occasionally wrote her own stories. Like my dad and me, she also enjoyed writing reviews of opera performances for an opera magazine in Vienna.
But writing a book is a completely different skillset.
With the proximity of 18,000 km between Sydney 🇦🇺 and Hannover 🇩🇪 during regular calls I coached my mum on book writing and encouraged her to participate in a chapter book to get started by putting her thoughts together.
The group of coaches and consultants from that public speaking group decided to create such an anthology where everyone shared their story across 20 pages each. The translated title “From Vision to the Heart Project” covered multiple transformational stories:
While it was not a business driven anthology (still not available as an ebook or even on Amazon), she enjoyed the journey and found the inspiration to write her own book.
Thanks to that chapter book she was invited to speak at local events about her favourite topic, Parkinson’s prevention. Having completed further studies in the health industry helped shape her caring mindset towards an outcome for others.
The tricky thing: her main driver is helping people with her message - not to create the book as a profit engine with various levels of monetisation.
Transformational aspect of book writing
As regular business books are more tailored towards converting into an outcome such as a high ticket program or service, we had to find another approach.
The biggest challenge was bringing the personal experience onto paper - which is written in Italics throughout the book. It felt for her like going through the whole experience again - surely painful but necessary.
Writing can have a therapeutic character!
Once the personal story was completed in chronological order, she wrote the research related topics adding her own experience and from others. Then we agreed on an interwoven mix across the topics nutrition, brainpower, and exercise.
Last Steps Towards a Real Book
What was required to put it all together? She found the best possible editor with her former school mate and former director of a museum, Dr. Wolfram Eckloff, who was very close to the target group - family and friends of those diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
He changed the tone of voice to be a fully rounded book balancing the personal stories and the recommending parts in union. And his wife Dorothea acted as corrector.
Once the text was finished the last task was on me to package it all into the form of a book. We decided to choose the German print on demand publisher BoD which I have known since their first presentation at the Frankfurt book fair 1998 - long before KDP became a thing.
What a pleasure to moderate the German launch event via Zoom out of Australia in February with guest speakers from the mentioned chapter book.
With the Parkinson’s awareness month April approaching, one last element was missing: an international version in English.
Well, that was my task and the birthday gift for my mum’s 80th this week.
Becoming an International Book
Who said we can’t translate into a foreign language? Living more than eight years in Australia and working internationally for many years prior to that, I translated her book in January and February.
Not trusting my words enough for a written book I asked native English speaker Belle van den Hout from Sydney as the correcting editor towards proper language. Good that she works in the health industry so she cared about the nuances nicely.
And now the magic happened: the English version appeared on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions right on World Parkinson’s Day on Friday 11 April - with the first delivery arriving in Sydney just one day later!
If you want to find out more about Parkinson’s prevention, please find the book on Amazon and check your country’s Parkinson’s society (here are links for the US, UK and Australia).
Didn’t I say my mum wrote a second book which came out on her 80th birthday this week? More about that in a future article.
The moral of the story: it is never too late to publish in inspiring book 📖
Congratulations to your mum. A wonderful achievement and never too late.
Great 💕📚💕