Author Interview with Digital Nomad Daniel from Princes Off The Grid

Author Interview with Travel Writer Daniel Prince

This week we’re joined by digital nomad Dan and Clair from Princes Off The Grid who, along with their four children, are long term travelers.

This family carved out a new nomadic lifestyle for themselves, learning tools, tricks, and hacks along the way, and Dan shares this knowledge in a self-published book called “Choose Life”, which is living proof that anyone can forge a better, fuller life if you’re just willing to take the risk.

Find out how the Princes navigated their way through the writing and self-publishing process while juggling the challenges and adventures of their alternative parenting lifestyle. ~ Jay

Author Interview: Daniel Prince

How would you describe the type of books/genre you write?

My book ‘Choose Life’ is a non-fiction piece. It chronicles the Tools, tricks and hacks of long-term family travellers, worldschoolers and digital nomads. It is aimed at young families who are looking for a different way to live their lives.   Here is the back cover blurb to give you a clearer picture.

So many of us are stuck on the hamster wheel of life, much like King Sisyphus who was eternally tormented forced to roll a boulder to the top of a mountain, only to watch it roll back down again!

This book is living and working proof that by thinking just a little differently and taking what you perceive to be a risk, you can forge a better, fuller life for yourself and your family.

Step inside the life of Daniel Prince and his family, long-term family travellers, worldschoolers and digital nomads. Learn about the sharing economy and how you can leverage it to your advantage. Gain insight into the many blueprints for a better path that are out there waiting to be discovered.

This book is the perfect launchpad from which to start your journey. It’s almost impossible to put down. More importantly, it’s backed up by the proof of the author and his family’s epic journey and life transformation since quitting the rat race!

Author Daniel Prince goes to great lengths to share valuable knowledge, tips, emotions, coping mechanisms and much more. He holds nothing back in his quest to share his message with other young families. There is a way to do this! This is how one family made it possible, and how you can do it too!

What motivated you to start writing?

After leaving the rat race and the 9-5 (6-6) lifestyle behind to go travelling with my wife and 4 children people kept asking how we had done it, what was the secret, how could they do it too? I had created a blog about our journey for friends and family to keep tabs on where we were.

Soon the blog started getting attention from other people who were finding us organically. Then newspapers, podcasters and magazines started finding us too. It was clear there was a niche here and that people were interested in alternative living and travel. Perhaps it was the 100th person urging me on, or a trusted friend who finally pushed me over the edge of procrastination and fear to actually start writing the book.

Tell us the journey you went on to get your books published (e.g. direct on your website, self-published, assisted-publishing, traditional publisher)

   I didn’t even try to court mainstream publishers, or agents, I didn’t see the point. I knew the book would stand on merit only to a very niche group of people and knew that pitching to the mainstream would be very difficult.

Plus the message in my book is about creating your own destiny and journey in life, rather than bowing to the great machine, so self publishing really knits well with that message!

A few months before starting my book I had been interviewed by a lady called Ashley Dymmock De Tello for a book she was writing about Worldschoolers. She was also just starting her business as a location independent editor and was the perfect fit to oversee my project. I worked closely with her to get the book onto Amazon and she really did all of the heavy lifting, allowing me to concentrate on the content.

What publishing elements do you most enjoy and most like to avoid, and why? (e.g. design, marketing, formatting etc.)

I really enjoyed everything in the end. Although Ashley did all of the formatting and uploading onto Kindle for me, so I can’t really speak for that. But I did the cover design via 99designs.com and also did most of my own marketing and promotion.

With the hindsight of being a published author, anything you would have done differently?

Not yet, it’s too early for me to really look at that. Also self publishing is moving at such a rate now, the goal posts are always changing. In 6 months time it might be even easier to get work published and promoted. I don’t like to look back and regret decisions, they were made at that time with the best of knowledge at hand. It’s always best to look forward and imagine what might be around the corner rather than dwell on past decisions.

What tips or advice would you give an aspiring indie author who is looking to self-publish?

I read this advice from Seth Godin when I was wallowing in the middle of my book, wondering if it was worth carrying on.   It kicked me in the butt.   I hope it does for you too!

Did you publish? They (whoever ‘they’ is) made it easy for you to raise your hand. They made it easy for you to put your words online, your song in the cloud, your building designs, business plans and videos out in the world.

They made it easy for you to be generous, to connect, and to lead.

Did you? Maybe today’s the day.

What marketing or promotional tools or techniques do you use to reach your readers?

I am so new to this that I am still really finding my way. The only paid advertising I did was to get my book on the freebooksy.com email list, which they sent out on the last day of my free promotion on Kindle. It paid off as I got an extra 1300 downloads that day. But that is all so far, I have not yet tried any PPC ads on Facebook or Amazon.   I tried my hardest to spread the word via my own network and sent 1000’s of emails. I hit Facebook and Twitter too. I asked for shares on FB from my friends and followers, likes are great, but nowhere near as powerful, and if you ask nicely people will share! I did a Facebook Live post which got almost 1000 views and lots of shares too.

 I also tried to get retweets from huge influencers such as Tim Ferriss, but no luck as yet!  Lots of groundwork as laid and it all paid off. My book went straight to the #1 spot in both categories I entered it for on Amazon and stayed there for the whole 5 day promotion. When it went into the paid categories it hit number 2 and was number 1 new hot release and number 1 most wished for, so something was working, and I hadn’t spent any money advertising on Amazon!

What impact do you want your books to have on your readers?

This is from the book itself!

You have an invaluable tool at your disposal to achieve a similar experience for your family. If we did it with four young kids in tow, you can do it too. Don’t for one second doubt that. If the only result from you reading this book is that a seed is planted in your mind that helps you see that there is another way to live your life, I would have already succeeded in my goal.

However, what excites me the most is the thought that some of you might actually take action and leave what you know behind to find another way. If you do, I am convinced that the action you take will affect you, your loved ones and your children (or future children) in the most incredibly positive way.

Nothing is more important than gifting our children the opportunity to view life in an unbiased and experiential manner. Opening brilliant young minds that can carry hope and fresh ideas into the next 100 years is paramount to our world and human existence! By choosing to read and act on the ideas in this book, you can not only change your own life but also pave the path for the generations that will follow you.

Author Bio

I am a husband and father of four young children who quit his career and what is commonly conceived to be ‘life’ to travel the world with my young family.

My family’s story comes with a personal message for you about how life doesn’t have to be what it has randomly shaped out to be. As you read on, I will tell you how we — a family of six — shaped our lives, bent the rules and hacked ourselves into a different way of living. We decided that we wanted to travel the world and so we did, all via the sharing economy.