From Horsforth to the Realms Beyond: One local author's journey to publication

When I first started writing Realms Beyond - The Asanja Saga: Book One, I thought the biggest challenge would be finishing the book. But as it turns out, writing it was the easy part. Getting it published? That's where the real story begins.

- By Nick Child Contributor

The turning point for me came during lockdown, when a friend - Mike Mawson - published his book The Open Sky. I was impressed. Inspired, even. But I kept telling myself the same thing many aspiring writers do: “I don’t have the time.”

Then I realised I did. It just didn’t look the way I thought it should.

Every week, I’d take my daughters to extracurricular activities - music, swimming, the usual - and spend hours waiting around, usually scrolling on my phone. So instead, I started writing.

Not on a laptop. On my phone. With two fingers. Tapping away in a Google Doc.

That’s how Realms Beyond was born - in waiting rooms, car parks, and quiet moments between pickups. When I eventually transferred the draft to Word, I discovered over 2,000 spelling and grammar mistakes, plus the occasional autocorrect disaster. It took me three months to clean it all up.

But I had something real - a finished manuscript. And I was ready to share it.

Like many new authors, I dreamt of my book sitting on a shelf in a bookstore, so I started by submitting to traditional publishers and literary agents. I sent the manuscript to a dozen publishers. Each required wildly different submission formats: some wanted three chapters, others exactly 10,000 words, a one-page synopsis, or a three-sentence elevator pitch. Each one needed a personalised cover letter.

Fewer than half replied. The responses I got felt impersonal. Some were word-for-word identical to templates I later found on Pinterest. The waiting times stretched to six months.

Agents were no better - different rules, long delays, and often, silence.