About the Author: Francis Tapon '92

FrancisStaring

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Current Home
Africa

Place of Birth
San Francisco, CA

Education
B.A. Amherst College, Religion
M.B.A. Harvard University

Why did you choose to come to Amherst?
I couldn't get into my community college.

Favorite (most memorable or most influential) class at Amherst:
Astronomy 11, it taught me how insignificant I am.

Favorite (most memorable or most influential) professor:
Austin Sarat, I enjoyed his lively teaching style.

Research Interests?
Eastern Europe and Africa

Awards and Prizes
The Journal of Eurasian Studies "Book of the Year"

Favorite Book
Bill Bryson, The History of Nearly Everything

Favorite Author
Bill Bryson

Tips for aspiring writers
1. Start blogging
2. Self-publish via Amazon's CreateSpace of Lightning Source
3. Don't quit your day job

Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author
Dutton published two of my brother's novels, so I learned just how little major publishers will pay unknown authors and how little marketing they will do for them. While I was thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, I thought about what I would do with my time if I had a billion dollars. Answer: I'd be a travel writer. Despite having a bit less than $1 billion, I embarked on that career in 2006. Although ebooks were a long way away, I knew that in the future many authors would bypass book publishers, so why not being on the vanguard?