Schooling’s book flies off the shelves

SINGAPORE — More than 2,000 copies of national swimmer Joseph Schooling’s book, Hello, my name is Joseph Schooling, have already been snapped up, even before it hit the shelves of selected major bookstores in Singapore on Friday evening (Oct 7).

The large number of pre-orders, which started last week and also includes orders from the United States and countries in South-east Asia, means there are only about 2,000 books, priced at S$24.90 each, available for sale from the book’s first print run of 5,000 copies.

It is not known yet whether the book’s publishers, Pen International, will be having a second print run.

May Schooling, Joseph’s mother, told TODAY that she was pleasantly surprised by the demand for the book, which she produced with veteran photojournalists Alvin Toh and Tay Kay Chin, and former Singapore Swimming Association marketing communications director Hafidz Ja’afar, who is now the Schooling family’s media and commercial representative.

“Of course I am happy with the book sales. The main aim is to reach out to as many people as possible and inspire them to follow their dreams too,” said 61-year-old May, who was also at Books Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City for the first day of sales of the book. She greeted customers who bought the book, and then autographed their copies.

“The special thing inside the book is a page which encourages the buyer to put down in writing his goal and share them on social media with the hashtag #THESCHOOLINGEFFECT,” she said.

“Joseph will be the ‘witness’ to that pledge. This page has Joseph’s signature as well.

“The dream doesn’t have to be swimming-related. So if someone wants to be a top musician or a dancer for example, that’s fine. We will select a few people and see if we can help realise their dreams by engaging our corporate partners, and helping to open doors for them.”

According to Hafidz, about seven companies have expressed their 
interest in helping out the causes.

The Schooling family has also collaborated with the Make-A-Wish Foundation Singapore, a local charity that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses, and will donate proceeds from their sales of limited edition photo prints to the foundation.

On Friday, more than 50 books were sold at Kinokuniya just two hours after it went on sale.

The 96-page book features previously unpublished images of 
Joseph’s life over the past year, and short texts written by the Olympic champion, which provide insights into his life.

All but one of the 60 photos in the book were taken by Toh, who headed TODAY’s photo department from 2000 to 2004. The photos were 
curated by Tay Kay Chin, another veteran photojournalist, who also helped to conceptualise sections of the book.

The only photo not taken by Toh is the now-famous picture of a young Schooling with his childhood idol, Michael Phelps, which was taken by the Schoolings in 2008, when the American was in Singapore with the US Olympic swimming team as part of their final preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

Schooling beat Phelps in the 100m butterfly final at the 2016 Olympics in a new Olympic record time of 50.39sec, to bag Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal. His goal now is to break Phelps’ world record of 49.82s in the 100m butterfly and also win more Olympic medals at the 2020 Tokyo edition.

“Joseph is currently having his examinations. Like he said in the book, he is ‘ultimately a student with homework and grades to worry about’,” said May. “But he is also training hard for his dreams. He still has more dreams of his own to fulfil too.”

The University of Texas student will be back here next month to officially launch his book and hold a book-signing session. He will also take part in a charity golf event on Nov 22 to raise funds for the Singapore Swimming Association.