Another self-published success

Following a story earlier this year, Louise Jury inThe Independent highlights another author who has made a success of self-publishing.

Mark Robson, 39, who began writing when bad weather grounded his DC10 in the Falkland Islands, has been snapped up by the publishers Simon and Schuster who are to publish his novel, Imperial Spy, in the spring.

But unlike most newly signed writers, Mr Robson has already published more than 30,000 of his books himself - after his first attempt at writing was rejected by every literary agent and publisher he sent it to seven years ago.

Encouraged by friends and family who loved the story, The Forging of the Sword, Mr Robson found a printer, commissioned an illustrator and proof-read and typeset the book himself.