Authors Electric

First of all, a funny little success story which began several years ago via a venture called UTales, now sadly (or maybe not sadly) no more.  The idea was to pair picture book authors (one of my several writing identities) with illustrators. Well, I'd once dreamed up a surreal and funny little book about a small boy who would eat nothing but chips, and in these days of healthy eating and five-a-day veggies, it did seem like a goer, but it had had no takers, so I thought - why not give it a try? I teamed myself up with an illustrator called Duncan Beedie, still at the beginning of his career, so in the course of our many online discussions, I also offered him some advice (I am old and well-seasoned in this difficult profession). Fast forward to the present. Duncan and I had almost, but not quite, lost touch (when David died, he was hugely sympathetic). Suddenly, hey! He'd written and illustrated his own picture book: THE BEAR WHO STARED, and got it accepted by Templar, so ...

It seems that to get classified as a ' publisher', by Waterstone's, rather than a writer, one needs to have at least twenty books out there as ebooks. Well, hey, I've currently got ten out of print books out there as ebooks, and I will shortly be adding more, including some which mainstream publishers rejected, so I might well reach that target some time in the next few months. ...and the tenth one The Enchanted Village So might I be classified as a publisher? No, although my husband, David, might, since he's set up the whole process, and like any good and honest publisher (do they exist?) he loves my work. Unfortunately, personal relationships enter into this, and so you might well - and quite reasonably - think he might be a little prejudiced in my favour. However, eight of these books were published by companies I had no emotional relationships with, and were all very well received and reviewed (the only time I had a bad review was for THE GAME, whi...