Having spent part of 2009 writing the first few chapters of my first novel, I had to put the work aside in 2010 and 2011 as I found myself deeply engaged in activities related to the publication of the Chinese editions of my non-fiction title "Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong". In early 2012 I picked up the writing where I left off and finished the first draft in the summer. The remainder of the year was spent in re-writing and polishing the work.
Throughout 2013 I patiently tried to approach, one after another, a select few U.K. publishers who are still receptive towards unsolicited manuscripts from unknown fiction writers, at about three- to four-month intervals. For reasons I cannot fully explain, I had opted not to try U.S. publishers at all. I guess I should count myself as lucky to have received two polite rejection letters from two well-known U.K. publishers, one of who indicated that although my novel is well written and is generally up to publication standard, it is not deemed a viable proposition financially in these particularly difficult times for fiction.
Then the Kindle Self-Publishing website caught my eyes late last year. I decided to give it a go.
Now the Kindle edition of "Fated and Fateless" is available for sale on all branches of Amazon.