“Mystified By Publishing? Let Xlibris Solve the Case!” An Article by Ruth Hamilton

An article by Ruth Hamilton, author of Susie Solves the Case, Diana and her Crocodiles, and Henry and the Hot-Air Balloon, all books published by Xlibris.

 

Ever since I was a tiny girl I had a dream. I was going to be a writer and illustrator like Beatrix Potter.

I spent hours drawing pictures of mice wearing dainty clothes and leading civilized lives in their perfect community of tastefully decorated hollow oak trees.

It was all so clear when I was eight! I would tell myself bedtime stories full of confidence that one day the world would enjoy these stories as much as I relished making them up.

 

All through my teenage years the vision remained vivid. I was going to introduce my very properly attired mice to the world. When I entered my twenties I began arranging for their debut. I felt sure that their graduation into the grown up realm of ‘Really-Truly-Published’ would be a breeze. After all, these were no mere rodents, these creatures were going someplace special!

 

So I booked them a two dollar stamp flight to London and awaited the start of their scintillating career with expectant glee.

 

Imagine my maternal horror when they were imprisoned for six weeks in a slush pile before being deported with an official little note about being ‘untested’!

 

My mice and I began to despair. Every other publisher we looking into had plastered their portals closed with the dreaded words ‘no unsolicited manuscripts.’

 

Immigration from the land of Down-Under-My-Bed to the thrilling clime of ‘Available-in-Bookstores’ seemed to be slipping away forever.

 

Until one day I chanced upon a travel agency of dreams. Within a day of contacting Xlibris I had a charming phone call. ‘Yes, we can publish your book,’ they said. ‘No pressure, no hurries, no worries,’ they added.

 

So I loaded up my wee darlings again and sent them whizzing through cyberspace. And quite suddenly I had a book. A REAL book. A book available all across the world. A book as good as anything other publisher could have made.

 

I called it Susie Solves the Case.

 

It was so much fun I decided to do it again. With something a little different! So I wrote Diana and her Crocodiles.

 

Then I decided to let the mice come flying back into the public eye in a hot-air balloon and I called it Henry and the Hot-Air Balloon.

 

Too often in life our dearest dreams twinkle as prettily out of reach as stars in Orion’s Belt. People keep bashing away at doors that were locked years ago and will probably never open again.

 

Then once in a glorious purple moon something magical happens and we find a staircase. And I say, why wait for someone to give you a rocket tomorrow when you can start climbing today?

 

 

 

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