Joanne Phillips, an aspiring Chester author, has just had her first book published.
As a child, Joanne loved making up her own stories but she never dreamed that it would become her career.
Joanne trained to be a hairdresser after she left school and worked at Hairmatters hairdressers in Chester. She later moved to Milton Keynes where she worked in many different roles including as an air hostess for easyJet and as a librarian, which she describes as “being like a dream because I love books so much”.
She relocated to Whitchurch when she married her husband and that was when she started working on her first novel.
It took her six years and six rewrites to get Can’t Live Without perfect and she was incredibly happy when she was given positive encouragement by a literary agent.
“I started writing the novel with just the thought of what it would be like to lose everything you owned in a fire, and worked from there.
“The main character, Stella, jumped into my head fully-formed, and while she certainly is not me, there are a couple of similarities!
“I had some interest from a literary agent back in 2008 when I was pregnant with my daughter but things didn’t proceed any further at that time.
“But the agent’s comments were very encouraging, though, so earlier this year I decided to publish chapters of Can’t Live Without on my blog, and the response was fantastic,” the 42 year old explained.
Joanne published the book on Amazon Kindle was overjoyed when a paperback edition was published in July.
“Things have really changed in the publishing world since I first dreamed of becoming a novelist all those years ago; while it is harder than ever to get taken on by a traditional publisher, it is now possible – easy, even – to reach readers via e-publishing,” adds Joanne.
“And with Print on Demand, you don’t have to invest a ton of money upfront to get your book available as a paperback, either.
“I published Can’t Live Without on a very tight budget – the biggest cost was proof reading – and I’ve already recouped my investment 10 times over.”
Her novel reached number 1 in the free bestsellers chart when Kindle offered it for free to its users. She reached number five on the paid top 100 bestsellers, behind the Fifty Shades trilogy.
“I’ve now reached more than 13,000 new readers since I published, and the response has been amazing. I’m currently working on my next novel, a romance/mystery set in Shropshire, which I plan to publish in November.
“I love writing, and it feels amazing to be living my dream. And I also plan to set a future novel in Chester, which will be told across two time frames: the Chester of my youth and the city as it is today.”
You can purchase Can’t Live Without in both eBook and paperback formats.