The author and journalist Christopher Hitchens once said: “Everybody does have a book in them but in most cases that’s where it should stay.”
His biting humour is unlikely to make any impression on another journalist and aspiring author, Andy Dickenson, from Hove.
He has spent almost 20 years writing and honing his debut novel and has lessons to share with others struggling to be published.
Mr Dickenson, 40, who works for ITV in Brighton, has followed the path trodden by the likes of EL James, the author of Fifty Shades of Grey.
At least, he’s followed her example when it comes to using the internet to try to build an online audience.
And he takes heart from the enthusiastic and hard-working example of another bestselling author, the crime writer Peter James, who comes from Brighton.
Mr Dickenson said: “You’ve got to be passionate about your story if you’re somehow going to find time to write a book.
“They take a huge amount of time and if you’re going to do it well you’ve got to go back and edit everything you’ve done as well.
“It’s why you really need a fantastic editor like Laura Atkins who’s going to say you need to change this and you need to lose that. And who will encourage you to keep going.
“I met her at an event in town. She teaches creative writing. I went to one of her classes and I’ve been working with her ever since.”
His book – The Last Days – is now available as an ebook on Kindle, Kobo and iTunes for £1.99. For more information, visit www.thelastdays-online.co.uk.
He said: “It’s still going out to agents and publishers but that in itself is an incredibly long process.
“The flip side of everyone now being able to publish themselves on Kindle is the publishing market is now very different.
“For a first-time writer it’s getting incredibly difficult to get published.
“It’s possible if you can build an audience for a book online to create your own hit. Those stories themselves are going to be very rare.
“EL James had a blog. She took the Twilight characters and was basically writing soft porn. And it grew and grew.
