Gollancz Sign Self-Published Author Kit Berry

One of the many criticisms laid at the door of mainstream publishers is that they do not sign new authors, unknown authors or self-published authors. This simply is not not true and a peruse through Publishers Weekly, The Bookseller or Publishers Marketplace will reveal that this happens regularly and the list of published books, week after week, contain the names of first-time authors. Every so often I like to highlight this fact here.

Today, The Bookseller ran a piece on Kit Berry, a self-published author of adult fantasy fiction, who has just signed a five book deal with Gollancz for a six figure sum. The real challenge for an author is not just sealing a deal with a publisher, but maintaining a writing career, book after book. And that is the challenge for all writers whichever path to publishing they choose.

You can find The Bookseller piece on Kit Berry and here series of Stonewylde fantasy novels here.

“I’d always wanted to write novels, and can’t recall how many exercise books I bought as a child, computers not having yet been invented. I’d start grandly with Chapter 1, and then run out of steam by the second or third page. As an adult I found the same problem. I’d spend a long time trying to plan a novel, and then just get bored with the whole thing before I’d even started. But one day this all changed. I had a transformational encounter with a great golden hare in some woods. I felt different afterwards. Then a while later I had another very deep experience at sunrise on the morning of Samhain in a labyrinth made of fallen autumn leaves. I knew then with absolute certainty that I would write, and that what I wrote would be successful.”

Kit Berry, author, courtesy of her website.

Wiki Entry for Victor Gollancz
Kit Berry Stonewylde website. 

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