Hebe Morgan, who writes as Barbara Yates-Rothwell, is so far the author of five books and a strong advocate for self publishing and print on demand.

Hebe lives in Australia and has over 40 years experience as a professional writer, working as a journalist and author of short stories. Her writing has appeared in Woman’s Realm, The Lady, She, People’s Friend and others, including a few overseas publications. She began writing fiction in the 1960s when she sold a story to the BBC.

On completion of her first novel Hebe approached several agents and publishers. Despite being represented by three different agents she was unsuccessful in attracting any interest.

She decided to go it alone and in 1994 she self published her first book The Boy From Hulks, a teenage novel set in Australia, with Longman Cheshire. Shortly after she set up her own imprint, Lagoon, through which she released her historical novel of Western Australia, Dutch Point. She was pleased with the outcome of both titles but had no help with marketing or promoting the books.

In 2004 she spotted an advert for print on demand which she decided to use for her next book, Coulter Valley, which was published by Trafford. This style of publishing suited her greatly and lead to two more releases: Klara and Ripple in the Reeds. At 78, Hebe’s showing no signs of slowing down and is currently working on her next title: No Time For Pity and Other Tales.

‘I can guarantee that I shall never again search for an agent or a mainstream publisher. I’ll stay with Trafford until I run out of ideas.’ Let’s hope that isn’t anytime soon.