I established Blue Mantle Press as an experiment in self-publishing — to see how far I could navigate the modern book-trade infrastructure and still provide a product that readers might want.
With my book, Nothing Remains Hidden, I traced this journey from manuscript to major retail availability. Through Nielsen registration, Legal Deposit compliance, and professional distribution channels, I tested whether the traditional gatekeepers were still essential — or whether determination and proper research could bridge the gap.
Let me make this clear, this wasn’t about dismissing the publishing industry, but about understanding it. Every step — from ISBN registration to bookshop distribution, from proofreading to typesetting and layout — revealed both the genuine possibilities for the independent author/publisher and the real challenges that established publishers handle with hard-won expertise.
Was it worth it? If you want the “Bottom Line”, if your urge is to write but you want your work read by a significant market, don’t begrudge your publisher their cut. You consider yourself a professional and expect to be remunerated — accept that your publisher is a professional and will employ other professionals to deliver a professional product and secure a worthwhile readership. As in every walk of life, the workman is worthy of his hire.
I live in South London. Over the years, I've worked in theatre, IT and local government, I taught scuba diving for a while and was a circus clown. Following my usual trend of making my hobbies my job, I'm now a fencing coach.
It was a fencing trip to Amsterdam that prompted me to try learning Dutch — not particularly successfully — but the attempt eventually led to — this!