From Horsforth to the Realms Beyond: One local author’s journey to publication

The turning point for me came during lockdown, when a friend — Mike Mawson — published his book The Open Sky. I was impressed. Inspired, even. But I kept telling myself the same thing many aspiring writers do: “I don’t have the time.”

Then I realised I did. It just didn’t look the way I thought it should.

Every week, I’d take my daughters to extracurricular activities — music, swimming, the usual — and spend hours waiting around, usually scrolling on my phone. So instead, I started writing.

Not on a laptop. On my phone. With two fingers. Tapping away in a Google Doc.

That’s how Realms Beyond was born — in waiting rooms, car parks, and quiet moments between pickups. When I eventually transferred the draft to Word, I discovered over 2,000 spelling and grammar mistakes, plus the occasional autocorrect disaster. It took me three months to clean it all up.

But I had something real — a finished manuscript. And I was ready to share it.

Like many new authors, I dreamt of my book sitting on a shelf in a bookstore, so I started by submitting to traditional publishers and literary agents. I sent the manuscript to a dozen publishers. Each required wildly different submission formats: some wanted three chapters, others exactly 10,000 words, a one-page synopsis, or a three-sentence elevator pitch. Each one needed a personalised cover letter.

Fewer than half replied.

The responses I got felt impersonal. Some were word-for-word identical to templates I later found on Pinterest. The waiting times stretched to six months. Agents were no better — different rules, long delays, and often, silence.

Feeling discouraged, I started looking into the industry numbers. Publishers and agents receive hundreds to thousands of submissions per year — and accept fewer than 1%. Some authors wait years for a breakthrough.

Even Harry Potter was rejected 12 times. Imagine if Bloomsbury hadn’t taken that chance. How many incredible stories are lost this way?

That’s when I realised: just because no one had picked up my book didn’t mean it wasn’t worth reading.

So, I took another path: self-publishing.

Self-publishing gives you control — but it comes with a steep learning curve. You don’t just upload your book and wait for it to sell. You become the publisher, the editor, the marketing team, and the IT department.

Here’s what I had to set up just to get Realms Beyond out there.

• ISBNs — Each format (paperback, eBook, hardback) needs its own, which can cost up to £200 for ten.
• Distribution accounts — KDP for Amazon, IngramSpark for bookshops and libraries.
• Nielsen Title Editor — Required to register the book in the UK book trade.
• Author website — Not just for visibility, but also to qualify for a Goodreads Author profile.
• Google Analytics — To monitor website traffic and understand what’s working.
• Metadata — Titles, keywords, and descriptions, all optimised to help people find your book.

And none of this touches the creative side: formatting the manuscript to industry standards, getting a professional editor, and designing a cover that meets strict technical specifications.

Oh — and AI-generated art can’t be used for commercial book covers due to licensing issues, so that shortcut’s off the table too.

Even on a shoestring budget, the expenses add up:

• Cover design: £450+
• Professional editing: £500+
• Editing software: £120/year
• Website hosting: £85 setup, then £15/year
• ISBNs: up to £200 for a block of ten

And then there’s pricing. If you sell via Amazon’s KDP, they take 40% of the sale price, and printing costs are deducted from your 60%. Price too low, and you could make a loss, price too high, and no one buys it.

With IngramSpark, it’s tougher: retailers expect a 55% wholesale discount, meaning I might earn 5p per book sold in a bookshop.

Even after all this, getting your book seen is another mountain to climb. Paid ads are costly — 50p per click adds up fast. Social media helps, but only if you already have a big following.

Most bookshops are reluctant to stock self-published titles unless there’s a local connection or proven demand. That’s why I was thrilled when Truman Books in Farsley agreed to carry Realms Beyond on a trial basis—an independent bookstore promoting independent and local authors. Seeing your book on a shelf in your local community is something special.

I’m not doing this for the money. I’m doing it because I love the story — and I want to share it.

Realms Beyond is just the beginning. Three more books are already in the works, set for release every six months:

• Realms Corrupted
• Realms Forsaken
• Realms Unravelled

Every one of them was written the same way: in small moments, around real life.

I’m not here to complain — I’m here to open the curtain.

It’s never been easier to publish a book, but it’s never been harder to get noticed. The process is long, messy, and full of unexpected obstacles. But I believe in storytelling. I believe in persistence. And I believe that some stories are worth the uphill climb.

We live in a world where AI can spit out full books in seconds, but real storytelling — the kind that connects — still comes from people. From lived experience, emotional truth, and a bit of chaos. That’s what readers respond to. That’s what lasts.

If you’re a reader: thank you. Every book you pick up means more than you know.

If you’re a writer: don’t wait for perfect conditions. Don’t wait for someone else’s permission. Just start.

You never know where it might lead.