Tallyberrry Publishing, is my own publishing house. I self published my first series Wizards' Kingdom with Athena Press. This (author funded) publisher has since 'gone under' and I retain the software and hope to reprint in the future.

    The Curious World of Shelley Vendor, was traditionally published by North Staffordshire Press under the editorial guidance of Malcolm Henson. When it came to the sequel; The Curious World of Katie Hinge, Malcolm's finances were stretched (recession and so forth) so, what was I to do? I'd had great success with Wizards' Kingdom and now that was frozen! I had a second series that I couldn't produce with my publisher, and I was at a loss.

  My wife suggested that 'we' go alone. To be honest, I was scared. I'd always had someone else doing all the printing and setting of cover design (Derek Jones the artist though, never let me down), ISBN numbers and so on. But, it was do or die. I had by now built up a relationship with Waterstones book shops in the UK. My books were selling pretty well too.

  So, in August 2011 with the help of Glenside Printing (Glyn and Mandy and their team) Tallyberry Publishing was born. We reprinted Shelley Vendor under the Tallyberry umbrella and produced for the first time The Curious World of Katie Hinge. Since then, and at this point in time; Crank Tech One: DESTRUCTION is in the middle of production in 2012. I have sequel's and new projects on the backburner, so Tallyberry will go on. I will honestly still try and get a traditional publisher and agent in the future. That has always been my goal.

E L James, author of Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Freed and Fifty Shades Darker has done what all author's would love their novel's to do. Sell in their MILLIONS.

James's trilogy has become the fastest selling books in history. She is earning on average £850, 455.00 a week. That is totally amazing!  Her books so far have reportedly sold 4 million paperback copies and her ebooks 1 million downloads by June 2012. I honestly don't know what the reason is for the explosion of sales.

  The books are a soft porn series, that have appealed mainly, to women. They seem to be buying the erotic stories, by the bucket load. 

  It is reported, that because of the secrecy of the download phenomenon, women are buying them and reading them in private, where normally they wouldn't buy the paperback version in the shops.

 The story, due to the main male character ; Mr Grey, has a thrilling sexual adventure that is tailored to females rather than males.

 Not just women I would surmise are buying them though. I haven't read them myself, but I am totally amazed by the interest in the material. Especially, as there are probably plenty of this type of sexual content on the market.

  But, I take my hat off to Miss James. It does give us smaller author's hope that some day it could happen to us.

Meet The Authors

I'm going to the Caerleon Lit Fest on July 7^th 2012, to attend an author talk by legendary Horror and Dark Fantasy writer Tim Lebbon. Tim is New York Times bestselling writer, and he's from South Wales. He has won 4 British fantasy awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Scribe Award and has been a finalist for International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy Awards.

  As a writer, I'm always ready to learn about how other author's do their thing. It will be really cool as well to maybe have a chat with him afterwards. Also on the bill is Catherine Fisher, she's the first ever Young People's Laureate for Wales, a Fellow of the Welsh Academy and probably Wales' best known children's writer. An international bestseller, her Oracle Trinity was translated into twenty languages.

Festivals are a great way to see your favourite stars, and get a signed book too. If you ever get a chance to meet the author you've been following, grab it with both hands. I've met various writers in my career such as R J Ellory, Ali Sparkes, Darren Shan and Catrin Collier to name but a few.

I'm doing a talk and signing at the Swansea Writers Circle on 4th July. This will be a bit different for me, as one of the audience will be the one and only; Catrin Collier. When I first contacted Alan Bryant of the group, I didn't realise that Catrin was one of the members.

   Catrin is the author of many, many books like; Winners and Losers, Broken Rainbows, Hearts of Gold, Tiger Bay Blues, to name but a few. She is a really nice person too. I've met her on a couple of occasions. I'm looking forward to the event. The venue is at the County Hall Swansea.

It's Taken A While, But I'm Down To The Last Four Chapter's To Be Edited Of My New Novel Crank Tech One: DESTRUCTION. The Cover Picture By Derek Jones, The Fabulous Artist Who Has Done All My Covers Up To Now, Is In The Final Stages Too. My Good Friend Glyn Davies Of Glenside Printing Is Going To Produce The Book. It's A Step In A Different Direction For Me (My First Sci-Fi Works). I'll Keep You Updated.