Over the last ten or so years, I have been attempting to be a writer. I say attempting, because, although I have written many books, selling them is another story.  When I first started I did a lot of research and tried to find literary agents, publishers and everything in between.

I discovered some almighty problems :-

1) Publishers didn’t want you unless you had an agent, or were already well known.

2) Agents didn’t want you, unless you had a book already published and were also well known.

3) All other avenues  rubbed their hands together with glee and were standing ready to fleece you of hundreds of dollars to print your book.

To top this all off, ebooks were starting to make a mark, and print books were soon considered passé.

By this time, I had 14 books ready for publication (there have been more since). I couldn’t even entertain the thought of the vanity publishing world – I just didn’t have the money.

So what to do?

I sat down and learnt.

I learnt how to publish ebooks (My Amazon page is viewAuthor.at/MaureenLarter – please feel free to have a look.)  I learnt how to design a book. I learnt how to print a book (I spent $1500 on a you-beaut printer) and I found a local book binder.

I was in business!

The thing that was driving me more than anything else, was the satisfaction of being able to say – ‘I did it myself’ – and really mean exactly that.

Now I have to learn how to market – damn – another uphill battle.

What I need is several cups of coffee and something decadent to eat!

Something like this:-

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

90g (3oz) margarine or butter

90g (3 tablespoons) castor sugar

90g (1/2 a cup) brown sugar

1 egg

185g (1 and 1/2 cup) Self Raising Flour

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

90g (3ozs) chocolate chips (I always use more)

60g (1/2 cup) crushed nuts or peanut butter (optional)

1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda

Cream

Mix all the ingredients together. Put walnut-size balls of mixture onto greased trays (leave room to spread). Bake in a moderately hot oven (375°F or 200°C) for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool slightly on tray (they are fragile when they are hot). Makes about 30 to 36 biscuits.

Now to add the decadence!

Whip cream until it is stiff – sprinkling a little icing sugar (about a tablespoon worth but you can add or subtract to your taste) and/or some chocolate powder in as you whip. Sandwich two biscuits together with the cream.

Swoon as you eat!