THE CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR

 Last week I gave a talk to Creative Writing students at Westminster University who wanted to hear about an author/illustrator running a small publishing company. Was it possible to be both creative and entrepreneurial? There was a lively discussion and it was obvious that many of the students, some of them already published writers and journalists, were seeing the advantages of being ‘creative entrepreneurs’ in a fast changing publishing world.

    My feeling is, you lean more on one side or the other; you are either creative or entrepreneurial. The only way I can easily be both is to split my day; mornings I’m creative, afternoons I’m an entrepreneur. But it takes a lot of will power, at lunch time, to tear myself away from my creative work. In my battle between being author/illustrator and publisher, the author/illustrator in me always wins and I find myself, late afternoon, slipping back with relief to the comfort of the drawing board. This is the reason I have decided not to expand Plaister Press and publish other people’s books. I couldn’t bear to lose those creative mornings.