About a year ago, I was passed a newspaper with an article about a local author called Mel Sherratt. To be honest, I almost didn’t read it. I put it to one side with the intentions of reading it later and promptly forgot. But then I noticed it as I was doing the recycling and I’m so glad I did. This particular author was doing things in a way I hadn’t encountered before – making a splash on Amazon KDP. I’d heard loads about KDP and, I admit, like many others before me, I had dismissed it as a cop-out for people who couldn’t get published. It certainly wasn’t an outlet I had considered for my own work. I went online and read a sample of Mel’s book; it was really good, it didn’t seem like the sort of thing that couldn’t get published. I was even more intrigued, so I contacted her on facebook to chat. Despite my stalkerish tendencies she replied, and we had a few messages go backwards and forwards before we finally met up in the real world.
When we met in a local coffee shop, there was an instant rapport. We spent the morning sharing writing ideas and experiences as well as lots and lots of coffee. I don’t think either of us stopped for breath and certainly not for the toilet (that was one close call, I can tell you). At the time I didn’t actually own a kindle so I went home and ordered the only paperback that Mel had produced, which was Somewhere to Hide, one of the books of the Estate Series. It wasn’t my usual sort of read but I was interested and had enjoyed meeting Mel so much that I wanted to read one of her books. It duly arrived and for two days I walked around with the book practically glued to my hands. I was in shock; I hadn’t expected it to be so good! Mel had managed to depict an underclass of society in a way that I could understand instead of the vision that the popular press are so fond of showing us; here was a writer who understood what life could be like at the thin end of the wedge. I could empathise with the predicaments that her characters found themselves in, quite often through no fault of their own. After I’d read Somewhere to Hide, I simply had to go out and buy a kindle so that I could read all her others! Even better, we’re still great friends and I owe so much to Mel for showing me how much fun publishing on KDP can be.
The point to this very rambling blog post is to tell you that the fantastic Estate Series books are all on offer on Amazon right now (79p and 99p – a snip, as they say) to celebrate a year since the release of Somewhere to Hide (but not for you YAs, they have rude words and deeds in them… ha, as if that’s going to stop you!) but if you want to see what Mel’s writing is all about, then now is the time to go and grab yourself a copy. While you’re at it, why don’t you check out her blog, Writer of Murder and Mayhem. Here are all the linky links you need…
Sharon Sant 