Self-Publishing

I am a reasonably successful, traditionally published writer in Hungary. I am a published literary translator in Spain and Hungary. However, breaking into the UK book market proved nearly impossible.

Thanks to winning a large grant from Arts Council England with my project Translating Me, Translating Us, I got in touch with the Women in Translation movement. I learned that fiction in translation makes up less than 5% of the British book market. Only 20% of that 5% are female authors.

This means non-English women writers comprise less than 1% of the UK market. So my chances were very slim from the beginning.

I decided to take action, and during the first Covid lockdown, I self-translated the first volume of my crime series with John Clarke. It took me two more years to believe I could publish it myself, and I did it in December 2022. It was my Christmas present for me.

I took care of the re-editing for the British public and found a great typesetter to work with. Alison from Romy Design created a fantastic logo and a fabulous cover. I had friends from the industry to do proofreading for me and a running friend, Hannah Moore, to take professional pictures. And I was ready to go.

Even after having been published in two countries as a writer in my own right and as a literary translator, after having published articles and essays on literature and having run a literary magazine, self-publishing brought me the greatest satisfaction of all.

I plan to share my experience and encourage writers to take this decisive step in the future.

Please get in touch if you would like to have a copy.