DEREK WILSON 'STORYTELLER EXTRAORDINAIRE'

Thank you for visiting my website. I'm old enough still to be amazed at and grateful for the modern technology which brings readers and authors much closer together than I could ever have dreamed of when I embarked on my writing career many years ago. People often ask (and do keep the letters and emails coming in) how I 'got in' to the business. It came about (as it does, I suspect, for most authors) by a combination of persistence and luck. Ever since leaving university back in the sixties I had bombarded publishers with MSS and received the usual succession of rejection slips. When I went out to teach in Kenya I made a point of getting to know the handful of reps who between them looked after the interests of the leading London publishers. Then, out of the blue, the Ministry of Education decided to change the School Certificate (as it was then) history syllabus. There was an urgent need for new textbooks and I was in the right place at the right time. How writing school text books led on to writing popular history and fiction for the 'trade' market is a long story I won't embark on because I know how unbearably smug successful authors can appear, especially to aspiring writers desperate to get their foot in the door. I often wish I could produce a 'How to' guide but sadly there isn't a pathway to publication which I or any other writer can signpost. However, I do love meeting at festivals, bookshop signings and other events people who share that compulsion to write which is common to all authors and potential authors.

Contact Derek on: enquiries@derekwilson.com