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The complete origins of RomaReadsPublishing

From a young age, I loved having my eyes glide over the tattooed paper. Reading and writing have always been a part of who I am, my personality, and my identity. Scribbling in journals and leaving half-finished stories around like discarded sweet wrappers, it is surprising I didn't foresee this career path a lot sooner. 

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During my MA in Theatre Practise, I had a module called 'Writing for Theatre,' where my assignment was to write a twenty-minute play. I came up with the idea for 'Teacher's Pet' then, and my classmates encouraged me to submit this play to the playwriting competition at our university. I did so, and it got selected and put on at the Lakeside Theatre. I cannot tell you the pride I had, in myself, in my actors and their dedication to rehearsals and line learning, and to the theatre crew who managed the technical aspects and paperwork that went way over my head. I heard of a book writing competition during quarantine and started my manuscript. In disappointment, I realised the deadline was much too soon to finish it, so I turned to my existing story of 'Teacher's Pet,' as it was already completed. 

Easier said than done, translating the twenty-minute play into a book turned out to be much more time-consuming than I thought, and as I wrote, the story carried on far beyond the pages of what I had initially written. The deadline for the competition came and went, but I didn't mind. I carried on writing for the majority of quarantine, my own little project, and now it is finally done at 207,000 words.

It has been such a joy writing these characters, experiencing their troubles, and in many ways, I will be saying goodbye to a bunch of friends who never knew me. And I look forward to starting my next book, 'Pacemaker,' a Steampunk fantasy set in the gritty streets of Victorian London. 

I sent 'Teacher's Pet' off to one or two agents, neither of which got back to me. Rejection is fine, but the waiting is unbearable. I would rather have a solid 'no' than weeks of waiting and ghosting. The publishers and their agents are incredibly busy people with no time to send a 'no' to the thousands of manuscripts that get sent to them. If they did say 'no,' then they wouldn't have time to be a literary agent! And so, it is always best to never take these things personally because they are never personal. As the saying goes, 'It's just business,' and the silence is not by choice but by necessity. And in those weeks of waiting, I got to thinking about the world of publishing and wondered if I should be waiting around for people to kickstart my career or whether I should take the reins and do it myself. As I looked more into the world of publishing, the more I fell in love with the process of publishing a book. I'm fascinated with how a group of people can take a manuscript and polish the words through various types of editing, how they can make the manuscript have a professional appearance through type-setting, how people can use limitless imagination with cover design, and how people can showcase the manuscript to the world with inventive marketing campaigns.

I wanted to do this not only for myself but for other people. To collaborate and workshop with authors, experience their passion for a project, and bring this project to fruition. It became clear very early on that this publishing company was not about money. It was about creating a platform for authors to share their art, proudly watch them bring an idea into the world, see others become inspired by their message, and use this message for good. I love seeing people's inspiration, confidence, and belief in an idea, and if I can help make that concept a reality, I know it was something that went beyond a 'want' to do. It was a need. As corny as it sounds, the more I have been in the process of setting up this company, the more I realised it was something I was meant to do. Publishing felt right in every sense of the word, and I have fully invested my blood, sweat, and tears into this start-up with the hopes of bettering people's lives.

That is what RomaReads Publishing aims to do.