(This is the transcript of a BBC Breakfast Show Segment shown on Saturday 12th July 2014 – TSRA)

The home of author Nick Spalding is striking, owing to the lack of books.

There is no sign of the bulging bookcases and reams of paper you might expect in a writer’s den. Instead, a tablet computer lies on an armchair – a virtual library of Mr Spalding’s required reading and 11 of his own works.

It signals how the book world has changed as technology has moved on. It also gives a clue to how writers may be trying to make money in different ways.

The emergence of e-readers and tablet computers does not mean the end of printed books. However, it does allow writers to become their own publishers.

Yet, getting their words on the street still takes time, money, a bit of help, and a lot of luck.

‘Easy to do’
Mr Spalding, now aged 40, was working as a communications officer for the police in Hampshire, but wanted to write romantic comedies.

Some years ago, he wrote what he admits was an experimental novel, unlikely to be touched by a traditional publisher.

My aim was to earn enough money for my partner and I to go for a meal”

But he then discovered that he could upload his work, and sell it to people reading e-books.

“I remember my aim was to earn enough money for my partner and I to go for a meal,” he says.

“Because it was so easy to do, and because I started to earn a little more money and build up a small following, that prompted me to write another book, then another and another.”

His fourth – Love…From Both Sides – sold 250,000 copies in a year and pushed him on to become one of the bestselling self-published authors in the UK.

Initially, he says, it cost him nothing. He designed his own e-book cover, and wrote his own “blurb” about the storyline. His partner was his in-house editor.

Potential costs
While it is possible to create a do-it-yourself e-book, even those who have self-published their work do not recommend going it alone.

Book and e-reader
The arrival of digital books has prompted some people to publish their own work
Orna Ross, director of The Alliance of Independent Authors, says every author needs a good editor, which comes at a minimum cost of £1,000. Add the cost of a designer for an eye-catching cover, and someone to oversee the marketing and the costs can mount up.

She estimates that the total cost of a professionally produced book, either digital or on paper, is between £2,500 and £5,000.

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