So far

Well, I have always written. When I finished my first novel at the age of 21 (previously I'd considered myself a poet and essayist...) I thought, 'that's it - I will be recognised. The wonder of my work will shine all around.'  But it didn't happen like this. As I kept sending it off, and in those days it was a slow process, copying, mailing synopses, writing letters, the rejections kept coming back. I was in fact very surprised, and I suppose that turned into a sense of defeat. So I gave up with that novel - which was remarkably funny, I just rediscovered it in a box. I then took to writing my second novel. And after months and months of sweating and crying and typing, I sent it off to publishers. Rejections. Lots of them. This was quite perplexing. I couldn't work it out. It must have been a mistake. But lots of publishers and agents were making the same mistake - one after another.

So, then I thought I'd write another novel. This disappeared when I was burgled and my word processor was stolen. Probably just as well to avoid the heartbreak of further rejection.

Then I thought I'd write a novel for kids. In fact a publisher even wanted to see the full manuscript and I got very excited, but then they returned it with a short form letter saying it wasn't for them.

So I then thought I'd write some vampire books and I wrote 3 novels in the mid 1990s. A small publisher really liked one of them and was going to publish it, but then they got taken over and the bigger publisher didn't want it.

I then self published a ghostly guidebook (I was doing lots of ghost tours at that time) and that was a lot of work but fun - finding the printer, getting the barcode (this was 1998 and it wasn't so simple to do those things). On delivery I arranged national distributors but mainly went round local bookstores trying to get them to take it. They mostly did. It sold out of the print run of 2000 and got a lot of favourable reviews and press response. But I didn't manage to follow up.

Then I wrote another novel and I actually got a "master class" through the local arts board and submitted the first three chapters to a well respected published writer. He ripped it apart and kindly asked me why I didn't just stick to my day job.

So, I didn't write anything much for over 10 years. A couple of short stories. Nothing much.

And then I got involved with Kindle Direct...