I’m pleased that my first novel, Tony Blair: The Wilderness Years (Createspace, 2005) has passed the requirements at Underground Book Reviews, and is available for review.

During the submission process, I was asked why I self-published. It’s a long story. In the nineties, before my MA, I wrote poetry, and by 2003, my full length collection of published poems had been rejected many times. I’d started writing prose. I loved the freedom of prose. I knew how unlikely it was that I’d ever have a poetry collection published, and I became excited at the prospect of having artistic control that self-publishing prose provided. After all, the publishing world had rejected not just my poems, but me. So I raced into self-publishing with Booksurge, now Createspace, without a second thought.

The editing process cost me a fortune with each iteration. Since then, I’ve used Cornerstones for later work, and I’ve learnt it’s best to take it easy, which is why I haven’t published anything in 11 years, despite working on two novels, and being half way to starting two more. I regret getting involved with an editor too early in the self-publishing process, but I think the outcome is a wild, satirical novel that reflected difficult times, and I am prepared to face up to that. Publish and be damned.