by Robin, from Leicester
Robin, who draws on MacIntyre's support in Leicester, recently achieved publishing his own book. This is how he did it!
I love doing quizzes and know a lot of questions.
With Jim, we decided it would be good to put it all together in a book and he showed me that we could publish it and print it and give it to people, my family and friends.
Working out how to do it
It was quite hard to do, so we worked out the best way. It took about 4 or 5 months to get all the questions together. I sorted through what I already had. I thought up titles first and Jim put these onto his laptop. We tried to think of questions then. Some was fun to do as I watched the shows me and mum like which helped me think - for other rounds I thought of them from memory. Me and Jo typed up quizzes I had done in other times - I like to do quizzes for events like my Christmas parties. We could put these with the hard work I had already done with Jim and it looked very good.
How it worked out
My book was aimed at my family and friends. TV programmes and comedy and general knowledge questions and there is variety with some quick quizzes and some to make you think longer. The answers were at the back to the questions as well, so people can read and not see the answer straight away - no cheating!
My favourite one was Batman and Robin. My mum wrote a poem about the topic Crimewatch and it was really good. She didn’t know that I put the poem in the book. I gave her the book for her birthday and I made it as a present and thought she might be happy reading it. When she opened it she saw her poem and was really excited because it was published. I said calm down!!
I thought I am proud of myself that I have actually done something, a thing that people might benefit from. Because people like quizzes and that. We just printed it for friends and family and they said thank you.
What’s Next?
Next I am thinking about doing quiz book 2. This would be a wider range of topics. If people want it they will be able to buy it. We want to know what people want to read and what they want to know. I’ll have some of the things I like and then we ask people for other ideas, what they like. It’s one of those things we need a date to set it for – maybe Easter.
And we are thinking maybe a cooking book - we will ask people what they like to make. David is helping me think about being healthy and maybe we can share some recipes and ideas to benefit other people. And also, I am thinking about doing an exercise group. My mum used to teach aerobics and passed all the information onto me. It is important to do warm ups, exercise and cool down and listen to good music when you do.
What people said
Jo says
Robin wrote all the quizzes and all the hard work was his. His support workers helped behind the scenes but Robin was involved in every step, it reflects all of his interests. He picked the cover. Robin is one of the most caring people I’ve met and you can really tell because the book was for his mum and family and the warmth and compassion comes through on every page
Jim says:
We just started with what Robin was interested in – quizzes and activities and then we involved everyone – the person, the family, staff to develop it. It’s a way of using Robin’s interests for a purpose, it’s something to do that’s really positive. We put it together in a way that looked good and had it published. It’s so inspirational for a person to have their own name on a book as an author and there’s nothing better than having your own book delivered by Amazon!
Robin's final question
Robin would like to finish with this question for you:
Can you name this famous footballer who likes my book?
(The clue is in the photos)
