Ladies And Gentlemen, I Give You Stradbally Press!

The publishing world was going through a massive change right around the time I was looking for a publisher, and for a long time I thought I was the problem. I was, but that wasn’t the whole story.

After a very long time, I came to realise that I wasn’t the only problem – publishers are just trying to second-guess the public, which is their financial obligation – but I am no longer at their whim.

Only a would-be author knows the crushing ordeal of trying to find a publisher. It is very like hoping you’re pretty enough to be asked to dance, knowing that if no one ever does, you won’t get the babies you so badly want. But it’s worse than that, as I found out. Indulge me in expanding on my analogy.

Let’s say you have caught the eye of a nice young man, you fall in love and have the babies, you have cooked the meals and done the laundry and kept a clean house. (You’ve promoted the book in all the ways he’s asked you to, and many he hasn’t thought of.)

Despite having enjoyed your incredible cooking for years, the husband questions your ability to cook new things. (One of my publishers asked me to prove I could paint natural subjects, despite having sold thousands of books featuring beautifully-sketched subjects.)

He decides you’re leaving your house, and you don’t have a say in it. (The publisher decides not to republish your book.)

He buys you a new home, but this one is awful. (Second editions can have much lower production values than first.)

He has lots of other women, and he wants to wine and dine them rather than you. (One publisher promised me a dinner to celebrate my book launch, saying he thought regular launches in bookshops were a waste of money. The dinner invitation never arrived, and I watched as he launched other lady authors in bookshops to great fanfare).

He tells you that unless you agree to a tiny allowance, he won’t marry you. (I got €1.60 per book for a cover price of €24.99.)

He decides the clothes you’re going to wear. (I didn’t care the font one of my publishers used for the cover, but had no say in the choice.)

On the other hand, he is a famous man, and by association with him people think you must be quite the wife.

But then you get uppity. People start noticing how pretty you are, and how accomplished.

And you decide to leave your husband – not for a new one, but just to be pretty and accomplished all on your own.

Okay, after this the analogy starts to get a bit weak, so I better stop.

Thank heavens for social media

Through my many and varied online platforms, I can speak to YOU directly. I feel very lucky. I am very happy to have had a great start in the traditional publishing world through my first three books, and the experience did give me a lot of confidence, but it’s time to go it alone now.

With self-publishing:

• I can keep the income from the sales
• I am more than happy to do all the marketing: I have a loyal audience
• My taste and style is the final word
• I decide the content, from A to Z
• I can be fast to publish
• There are no people along the chain to pay – no bookstores, no publishers, no editors – only printers
• I can publish according to my values, and do not have to wince at my bedfellows in the publishing house

My values, and mine alone, appear in the books published by Stradbally Press.

What are they?

• Integrity
• Positiivity
• Beauty
• Truth

Sketch Club NATURE

The first book from my little ol’ publishing empire in the wilds of Galway is hot off the press.

It is a collection of sketches and classes to go with them. It is called Sketch Club NATURE!

It’s a collection of twenty sketches of nature subjects, and twenty classes that go with each sketch. Each class is around 90 minutes long. You don’t need to sign up for anything, you just have them, as long as you have an internet connection.

You are streaming them, not buying them, just as you stream Netflix and so on. It means you don’t have to find space on a disc to store them – they are large MP4 files! I don’t store these classes on my computer as it would be full with just a few classes, so they are all on the cloud. I guess it means you can’t sit on a beach and do the classes but sand would get in your paint anyway. But you can watch them as many times as you like, pause, rewind, the lot. And they will be available as long as Zoom doesn’t go bust, since they are viewed through their platform. Even if they do go bust, I will have downloaded them myself, so we’ll figure something out, should the need arise.

A few years ago the classes were available for download, and I paid the price of my naïvety. As creators, we have to protect our IP! With the advent of AI we must be especially careful, and although I am very happy to use it as a tool, I like to control when and how it’s applied to my work. (Which, by the way, is limited. For me, the interaction I have with my students is what it’s all about, so I don’t yet know how far I want to take my use of AI.)

Does the book lie flat? Yes, if you bend it back the other way first. That’s because I used heavy paper and a heavy cover. I might go lighter next time, but I wanted to make sure the paper was strong and heavy enough to withstand the battering and splashing paper products can endure on our work spaces.

Are they suitable for beginners? It’s hard for me to say. Every single class I teach starts with a blank page and simple instructions. On the rare occasions something is tricky, I warn you to be forgiving of yourself! I have people of all levels of experience in my classes. I am sure you’ll be fine.

There is one problem – I have left no space in the book to sign it!

The book, classes and shipping anywhere in the world costs €35. It’s an introductory price, and the normal price is €50. The price must have hit the right spot, because to my amazement and delight, they are already nearly half gone – after 24 hours. So get yours while you can: https://roisincure.com/product/sketch-club-nature/

The QR code that takes you to the page with all the classes hasn’t been printed at the time I am writing this, but I hope to get it done in the next couple of days, when I will send out all the little books, the sheet with the numbered thumbnails and the book itself. So you might have to wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive if you live far away – the post can be extremely slow these days, especially to the US. Enough time to get any art supplies you might be missing! Ask me if you’re not sure.

There will be many more books from Stradbally Press to come, and I will release them throughout the year. It’s a lot of artistic effort on your part to do the classes, but there will be plenty of time to complete each one – it depends on how motivated you are! To help with that I will be sending out gifts for “sketch of the week” or “sketch of the month” – and there may well be crickets for a while! But once you see how much fun choosing your prize will be – think Lucky Dip over a live Instagram or YouTube broadcast – shucks, I will want to take part myself!

Future titles include:

• Sketch Club PEOPLE
• Sketch Club SEA
• Sketch Club ILLUSTRATION
• Sketch Club FLOWERS
• Sketch Club URBAN SKETCHING
• Sketch Club TREES & PLANTS
• Sketch Club TIPS & TECHNIQUE
• Sketch Club BOATS
• Sketch Club WATER

Whew! You will have quite the collection… that is a lot of watercolour!

Which reminds me – I can provide pretty much everything you will need, so don’t be stuck.

And…thanks SO much for all your comments. You know I read every single comment and savour your responses. Sometimes you touch me deeply with just a few words. Other times you send me stories of relatable things that have happened to you. Your words make me feel like Róisín in her little wet and windy corner of the world has touched people, despite the jittery husbands, I mean publishers, of this world.

PS of course, there will also be the much-anticipated The Wilds Of Caraclooma, featuring Brine, Shibo, Cathy and Séamus!