Sales of a novel about Romans in Abergavenny have exceeded expectations, thanks to newsagent Paul Cable according to the author of The Red Mountain, Douglas McArthur.

The book went on sale in Cablenews in November and achieved steady sales right up to Christmas. Even after Christmas sales continued.

“Thanks to Paul, The Red Mountain has sold well but that would have been very different if he hadn’t been so enthusiastic,” said author Douglas McArthur. The book has been well received and people have been asking me when the next one will be available, which will hopefully be in the summer.

“I wanted to thank Paul for his support and had to rack my brains to come up with something I thought he would appreciate. I knew he had just bought a boat on the canal, so I photographed it and had the photo mounted on canvas, which I hope did the trick.”

The presentation came as a complete surprise to Paul, who confirmed that the picture would be given a prominent position. “I haven’t had the boat long, but I love just going to the canal and working on it. This business is very intensive so it’s a way of relaxing and thinking about something else other than work.

“Doug has been a customer for a long time and when he told me that he was writing a book I straightaway offered space in the shop. I like to help people in Abergavenny if I can and its very satisfying to see something do well and help to promote the town.”

Early on in the process of writing the book, Doug decided that the way forward was to self-publish. The downside of that is that all marketing, and distributing has to be done by the author.

“So you stop being just an author and you start being a sort of literary jack of all trades. The big publishing houses are very wary of taking on new authors, because unless they are already a celebrity then selling a new author is very risky. When publishing houses take on a new author they have to commit time and resources to getting the book out and in front of readers which costs money. Publishing is big business and it’s a high risk business as well.

“As a new boy in this market I always knew that widening my audience beyond Abergavenny was going to be difficult and so it has proved. The second book in a trilogy about Gaul Legion Auxiliary Lenc is well under-way but I am under no illusions, writing and selling books is hard work, but when someone stops you in the street and says they enjoyed the book and when is the next one coming out, then that really does make it worthwhile.”