Lliam West, self publishing sensation

Lliam West is a self-publishing legend in Cornwall. You'll see his books in many different outlets but all those outlets have one thing in common - their Cornishness. Starting with Pandora in 2001, he's sold over 20,000 copies of his books by focussing on where his readership is likely to congregate as they look for a little piece of Cornwall to take back with them. And Liam's evocative thrillers are just what they need.

I caught up with Lliam on his stall at the Royal Cornwall Show at the weekend. He told me that what I consider to be a remarkable sales record has been achieved by a great deal of hard work and driving up and down the county.

"I'll approach a gift shop and offer them my books on a sale or return basis if I see they have some empty shelf space. I'm aiming at the "grey" market so feature a big house somewhere in Cornwall and many links back to the past like a secret mission undertaken in World War Two, the effects of which are only just coming to light in a more contemporary setting."

In the case of Pandora, the big house is the pub of that name at Restronguet. In the case of Frenchman's Gold, it's Ince Castle overlooking the waters of the River Lynher. For The Queen's General the focus is Tredethy House on the Camel estuary, once the home of Prince Chula of Siam. Lliam chooses each one carefully and does a lot of research into the real stories surrounding his chosen settings.

"It's not just people in the UK who buy my books. As a result of the Cornish diaspora, I've sold them all over the world. In fact, the Cornish market cannot be saturated."

For me the most impressive thing is that Lliam has achieved his sales record without using the internet very much. He has his Tamarisk West website but the vast majority of his sales are made through getting the book in front of its prospective audience. That literally means gift shops, fudge shops and art galleries. His success hasn't happened over night, either. It's been a consistent campaign building up trading relationships with many small businesses.

Curiously, Lliam's not had many sales through local bookshops. His books are there but it seems his potential customers frequent the other outlets that he also has covered.

I think there is a very important lesson for all self-publishers here.

Lliam goes out to find his audience and gets his book where they can see it. In those circumstances, what the book trade do with it or think of it, is largely irrelevant. I've met many mainstream authors who set great store in how the book trade operates. I've often felt that their focus shouldn't be the book sellers but those who buy the books - the author's readers. Liam's success has served to re-inforce that opinion.