I began my writing career by publishing over forty books with traditional publishers, including Random House, Orion, Simon and Schuster, Headline, Carlton Books etc before changing to self-publishing, something I never envisaged when I received my first commission to write a book in 1989. But fate intervened. In 2016 an actress telephoned me after reading my book “Long Road to Baghdad” set during the First World War which was fought principally between the British and Turks in Mesopotamia. She was searching for a project for the Welsh film company Tanabi. I pointed out the project would require an enormous budget running into millions to cover the thousands of extras needed to play British, German and Turkish armies and Arab irregulars. However, we arranged a meeting with the CEO of the company. We met, but it soon became obvious there was no hope of us bankrolling such a large project.
Before leaving, I handed the CEO, a copy of one of my crime books I had scripted for a company that had been dissolved some years before. “By Any Name” was basically a two handed chase thriller set in the Brecon Beacons. The CEO took the book and to my amazement, six somewhat hectic weeks later we were on set, and I was working as script supervisor as well as writer. The film By Any Name can now be found on Amazon,
A few months after we finished shooting, the film was in post-production when the CEO of Tanabi contacted me again and asked if I was interested in scripting a project he desperately wanted to film, a biopic of the great Welsh leader Owain Glyndwr. I told him I was interested but I would need to research the subject first.
After reading every book I could lay my hands on featuring Owain Glyndwr, I embarked on a journey around Wales and visited every site that had a real or romanticised link to the great man. I also visited the bar of every hotel we stayed in and asked the customers where they thought the great man was buried. It’s one of the great remaining mysteries of Wales as he disappeared around 1516.  I received variations on the standard reply. “Not anywhere near the English border, but in the heart of Wales.” After living with Glyndwr for five years  I’m inclined to agree.
Slowly gradually after a full year of research and comparing legend to actual contemporary records the man I now regard as the greatest Welshman who ever lived began to emerge from the many fictions woven around him. I began outlining the book (it was intended to be only one at that stage) and sent it to my agent, who solicited various publishers, to be met with blank refusal. Along with many contemporary Welsh Authors I’ve come across this several times in my career. “Wales doesn’t sell, can you move your story to Ireland/Scotland/Yorkshire/Cornwall . . . ” When I had my first book published in 1989 this would have sounded the death knell on the project. But courtesy of technology and more specifically, Amazon, I had an option, self-publication. I checked my sales figures and discovered the largest majority came from Amazon. But it remained to be seen whether they would continue to do so
I wrote and published the first book “Glyndwr The Foretold Son” and three more at yearly intervals, “Glyndwr Glorious shall their dragon be” “Glyndwr My child’s child to weep” and finally “Glyndwr When Warriors go to die.”
To my amazement I survived the self-publishing experiment due principally to Amazon simplifying the process. I then made the momentous decision to try and retrieve the rights to some of my other books. It took a while and dented my savings but I now own most of my rights and can call myself an independent writer and publisher. But like everything in life there are pros and cons.
First the cons. I’m on my own, there is no one to blame for any errors other than me. I also had to find a book jacket designer. I found one among my friends and hit gold. I now receive as many compliments on Steve’s jackets as I do the contents of my books. I also had to arrange to have my books edited and again struck gold. My Random House Editor agreed to take on the task, and after working well together for years we are now in the delightful position of being able to say anything we want to one another without either of us taking a comment personally or as a criticism.
The Pros. I pick and choose projects that interest me and set the action wherever I like. I control my sales, and there is no pressure to accept deals where I’ll be paid pence per copy of my books, which will then end up remaindered in retail outlets that neither value nor respect the work that goes into a book.
I’ve just published my first book since Glyndwr. “For Elise” is based on the true story of a close friend I met in Swansea Writers’ circle who entrusted me with the story of her past as a diplomat in the Berlin Embassy in the 1930’s, where she fell in love with a Prussian Wehrmacht officer she was ordered to “befriend.” It is a wonderful story, the essence of a romance that captivated me and allowed me to revisit my mother’s childhood country of East Prussia. Which I first wrote about in my book “One Last Summer.”.
The greatest advantage of self-publishing is the freedom to follow stories that interest me and experience again the thrill I get every time I receive an e-mail from a reader, new or old. Yesterday I received e-mails from readers asking when I would write another Trevor Joseph crime book. Tomorrow I will write the opening paragraph.