KUALA LUMPUR: Ahmad Mohd Isa has never thought that his travelogue novels on his experience cycling from Malaysia to Makkah would sell 35,000 copies with sales reaching RM2.5 million.
Ahmad, 35, started selling his duology novels, “Ustazah Basikal - Nekad ke Makkah” and “Ustazah Basikal - Yakin Kerana Dia” in early 2020, three years after he and his wife, Noradilah Mohd Sapie, 36, ended their extraordinary journey.
In 2016, the couple embarked on a 14,000-kilometre cycling expedition to the Holy Land from Kuala Lumpur across 14 countries and arrived in Saudi Arabia the following year to perform the umrah pilgrimage.
Sharing the story with Bernama recently, Ahmad said it all started with he and his wife’s desire to take both their parents to Makkah to perform umrah in December 2019.
According to him, the total cost of performing the umrah for six people at that time was RM42,000, but he only had money to pay for the RM3,000 booking fees.
“I only have five months to settle the remaining umrah cost, so I must make enough money by any means necessary, otherwise the deposit won’t be returned.
“After much discussion, my wife suggested that we ‘sell’ our cycling expedition experience to Makkah in a book form,” said the former architect.
Ahmad admitted that he was first hesitant about the idea and doubtful that there would be a market for his book, not to mention the fact that he had never written a book before.
The second of five siblings said he then decided to give it a try by writing about their cycling trip to Makkah on Facebook, with the first story being when they made a pit stop in Pakistan.
“I have since blogged frequently about our trip on my Facebook page for three months. I got up as early as 3 am to write before posting it on Facebook.
“The number of my followers has also grown from 1,000 to 5,000. I then asked them if anyone was interested in buying the book that compiles our journey and their response was encouraging,” he said.
Ahmad said he was able to make sales of RM29,500 on his first 500 manuscripts, which was enough for him, his wife, and his in-laws to go to Makkah as his parents were unable to join them due to unforeseen circumstances.
After returning from the umrah, the Gombak native said, he continued to write about their travel experience and succeeded in publishing his second travelogue novel.
“Perhaps it was our ‘rezeki’, in 2021, the Movement Control Order was implemented forcing people to stay at home and as a result, our book sales hit RM1.8 million for that year alone,” said Ahmad who markets his novels without using third parties.
Asked on how he was able to write well despite having no background in creative writing, Ahmad said he learnt a lot about it after participating in a course on copywriting which was eventually evolved into narrative writing, in addition to writing consistently on Facebook.
“I also refer to a lot of best-selling books to find ideas on page layout, fonts and paragraph format,” said Ahmad, who plans to produce five-volume collections of short stories and comics that are more affordable and suitable for all walks of life.
Meanwhile, National Book Council of Malaysia (MBKM) director Mohd Khair Ngadiron described Ahmad’s success as an incredible feat, especially for someone who had never written a book before.
“It also shows that there are still many people who love reading books and are willing to spend money on them, disproving the perception that printed books have no place in society.
“Copywriting is able to keep readers engrossed in your material,” he said.
Mohd Khair expressed hope that Ahmad can submit his application to the MBKM secretariat for consideration as one of the top 50 books in Malaysia to be marketed abroad. - Bernama
