For many years I was trusted to produce and publish information for the UK Government and big global corporations. I loved the high-profile element to the work – knowing millions of people are reading what you produce gives you quite a buzz. But I noticed, that apart from the occasional public inquiry report, the authors never got the credit – the information was always attributed to an organisation or a department, and never those who spent time at the coal face making it!

I wanted to publish people’s expertise and make sure they got credited for it.

So I jumped ship, left my comfortable, corporate consulting bubble and set up own my publishing company, ready to help business owners create their own top-notch books based on their professional experience. 

Before I published anyone else’s expertise, I felt I had to publish my own book first – I needed to “take the bullet for the team.” What’s more, I wanted to see if a book could actually open doors for someone who wasn’t a “household name” with a traditional publisher behind them to give them credibility. I plumped for helping business owners use social media. I published that in 2011. I tested out my writing process to ensure it was quick and easy, without cutting corners. on quality. Thanks to some solitary confinement, a detailed plan and a bucket load of coffee, it took 14 days to produce a first draft totalling 45,000 words. I had a breather when I handed it to an editor to copy edit and proofread, and used the time to work out how to make my word document into “a real book”.

The experience of a lifetime…

The next step was seeing if the book could open doors for me. The most noteworthy knock on the door came from an invitation to speak and run a workshop at a conference at CERN in Geneva. On the same billing was the lesser known of the two people who co-invented the world wide web – Dr Robert Caillau. I spoke many times in the UK, was invited to run a workshop in Africa, and got a contracting gig in Australia.

This was followed by global press coverage from Australia to America, radio appearances, featured guest articles, and UK national magazine and newspaper features.

It was one hell of a ride.

These days, I work privately with motivated clients who are serious about living up to their potential and relish the prospect of becoming a published author. I help them create detailed book outlines, support them as they write their first draft and, with the help from my team of expert editors, I publish a high-quality book, which meets traditional publishing standards, without the restrictions and hassles that come with signing your ideas away to someone else… For the people with smaller budgets (or those folks who get a thrill out of doing half of a process and giving up who drive me batty) there’s my digital checklists.

When I’m not publishing books…

I enjoy spending even more time behind the keyboard, playing the World of Warcraft video game (#AllianceFTW!). With 12 characters and over 12 years playing time, I dread to think how much game-time I have accrued killing off orcs.

I’m a big fan of campervan road trips, especially if it involves running around a medieval castle, going to a rock band gig, or kayaking down a picturesque river. Do you like any of those things too?

I might be a bit of a free spirit, but I care about creating high standard ‘corporate quality” results, but I’d rather do it from home without the commute, and without being overrun with tedious meetings and staff emails about the air conditioning being broken at a site 350 miles away.