Hong Kong single mother forks out HK$10,000 to publish romance novel inspired by her painful marriage
Gigi Lau urges Hongkongers to rediscover the joy of reading, as she pursues writing dream by cultivating an online following
Not everyone would be willing to fork out HK$10,000 of their hard-earned money to publish a book, but a turn of life events five years ago, which saw Hongkonger Gigi Lau, back in the city of her birth, luggage in tow at the airport and five months pregnant, spurred her to put her experience into prose.
The 35-year-old office clerk and aspiring author first posted drafts of her story online in 2015. A year later, she dug into her own pockets to print From The Bottom Of My Heart, a romance novel about a couple broken up by fate but with the belief they would reunite one day.
Lau has sold 100 copies of her debut title to date, and is aiming to complete three other books while working as a single mother to raise her five-year-old daughter. She has recouped only 5 per cent of her investment in the paperback, but counts this as a necessary loss to further her dream.
Known as Miss Independent to her online readers, she says: “Many Hong Kong authors are putting their works online, as a way to test the waters before deciding to go through with publication.”
She was also inspired by viral novel Lost on a Red Minibus to Tai Po by internet user Mr Pizza, she says. The work was later made into the Cantonese film The Midnight After.
“I didn’t have much of a choice back then. A lot of factors went into the separation,” Lau says. “There was a lot of misunderstanding with his family, and most importantly, it was the death of his father just a few days after our wedding that triggered it.
