It’s a deal!

Since last week I’ve been in talks with an e-publisher and here comes the announcement:

 A Kettle of Fish will be published by Thornberry Press later this year!!!!

 Let’s just sit and look at that for a few minutes. One small sentence, but actually a very big step for me. My book is about to be out there. Is this my breakthrough moment? Actually I think it is.

No, Thornberry isn’t Bloomsbury or Orion, but they have big ambitions, an ethos that I’m totally comfortable with, and (surprise!) a contract I can understand. They may only have bought rights to the e-book, but I am still making the jump from unpublished to debut novelist and I am actually quite stunned by how big a change this is. I’ve been thinking back (while not picking myself up off the floor) to a couple of months ago when a shrewd Tweep asked how I might envisage my ‘breakthrough,’ making me think that in some ways mine had already taken place. Finishing a novel, being short-listed in a national competition, getting short-stories published, establishing an online platform as a writer: all these were things I never really expected to achieve, but in the end I did. I am already ‘out there’, I have just been looking for the next step.

And thanks to Thornberry, here it is. I’m now in a position to exploit the full potential of e-publishing whatever that turns out to be. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to belittle in any way shape or form the traditional call from an agent and/or auction of paperback rights. But small can also be beautiful (or ‘nimble and dynamic’ as Helen Hart said on Saturday) and the conventional way (as frequently reported on this very blog!)  is no longer the only option.  So I am ready to take whatever breakthrough is on offer. And did I say I still have rights to other formats? Who knows, there might even be another one round the corner!

So a huge thanks to Thornberry and the friends who led me there. I shall leave you all to wonder at me as you have never never seen me before (author photo – what larks!)

Further thoughts and various website updates will appear in due course. I am off to contemplate how best to celebrate.

I may be some time.