Members' News: Hazel Bennett

Educational writer Hazel has set up her own e-publishing company
‘I had four published books, over 100 educational features, short stories and other articles published in magazines and newspapers,’ writes subscriber Hazel Bennett.
‘Like many writers, a share of disappointments has come my way from publishers. Branching into writing for children was my next aim, but, eager to avoid spending years chasing publishers, I decided to go down the daunting route of self-publishing
‘It was easy to get my first ten ISBNs from Nielson’s and register my own company, Edgware Books as the publisher. Electronic books seemed a safe option to start, and with the help of Ebookpartnership, I published The NQTeachers’ Survival Guide and Teaching Children to Write Great Poetry.
‘I then joined forces with an excellent artist, Christine Spring, and we produced our first electronic picture book, Henry the Explorer.
‘Writing Magazine’s feature on Createspace was a great help. With the aid of my husband, I formatted and uploaded all three books onto Amazon.
‘Marketing has been a steep learning curve and I am still climbing. Emails and telephone calls to almost every university, which provided teacher training, to ask them to look at my books and show them to their students, bore me some fruit.
‘A lecturer from Sussex University invited me to give a lecture on teaching children to write poetry – a great opportunity to show my books. My old college, Stranmillis University, published a feature about me and my books on their website.
‘Writers can advertise their books on their local Town Talk website and this has proved useful as my page has had a few thousand hits.
‘I have contacted educational magazines and asked them to review my books or offered to write a feature in return for some space to advertise them. Offering to send them a few free books to pass on to readers is a useful carrot.
‘Marketing is an ongoing task and I am still looking for more avenues to publicize my books.’
Website www.edgware-books.co.uk

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