The write stuff
Local authors are finding more outlets for their creative work and some can even test out story ideas online.
Becoming a good writer takes a lot of time and effort, like cutting and polishing a rough gemstone into a refined diamond.
But Chatrarat Kaewmorakot, a writer or romance paperbacks, says being a writer in today's world is not as difficult as in the past, as there are many channels for those who really want to present their work.
She said it took here about five years to establish herself as a writer and some of her romance novels have been bought to produce movies and soap operas.
"I think the market is more open and developed and at the same time there are many publishing houses engaging in this business. This creates a lot of channels and opportunities for new writers as well," she said.
Ms Chatrarat, whose pen name is Rom Kaew, recalled that she started out by posting short novels on websites such as pantip.com and jamsai.com to see whether her work would receive a response. The feedback was positive and she obtained some comments to improve her future work as well.
After she posted her story on the internet, she also proposed the same story to a publishing house, whose editor had already read her story online. "It was my luck and this made it easy to get my story published as the editor wanted this kind of story too."
She got an answer within eight days and her first book was published and put on the shelves within one month.
As an author, she receives 10% of the cover price per print-run. The publishing house and Ms Chatrarat have a five-year copyright contract. The publisher will print second, third or fourth editions based on demand and she will get the same revenue share of 10%.
Before she turned to novels, Ms Chatrarat wrote short stories and sent them to a number of magazines including Sakul Thai and Kwan Ruen for a few years. Magazines have been a traditional channel used by many famous writers to prove their ability and build audiences.
Arunwadee Arunmas, another writer, said she also started out by sending poems and short stories to Sakul Thai and Matichon Sud Subda when she was in a high school in Lop Buri.
After that, she was contacted by a magazine about printing a book compiling her published articles, and she then branched out into novels. Today she is the published author of 12 books and also earns 10% of the cover price.
"I think a writer earns more when compared to those in the past but most of them including me have another job as well," said Ms Arunwadee, who works with the War Veterans Organisation of Thailand.
"I don't know when I can develop myself until I only need to write books for living like many famous writers."
Both writers agree that anyone wishing to be a writer has to read a lot, be curious to know many things and have good powers of observation and imagination.
Ms Chatrarat and Ms Arunwadee also say many new writers are emerging but they are not afraid to compete with them. At the same time, many local publishers like to publish Thai editions of famous foreign novels or books.
"I think readers are more demanding and they prefer many kinds of books. It's up to writers to develop themselves to keep up with the changing trend and readers' demands," said Ms Chatrarat.
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