On Monday 4th of April, fantasy author Nikki Minty held a lunchtime session in the iHub. Nikki has self-published 3 books, and began her discussion with some wonderful information and advice about the pros and cons of traditional vs self-publishing. Despite the fact that the author originally wanted to have a traditional publishing contract, her favour of self-publication is partly due to the freedom and creative control it allows her in getting her work to the public. 

Nikki describes the two of the best aspects of being self-published as being able to select her own book cover designs. After following several brilliant digital artists on Twitter, she reached out to Indicreates, who designed the 3 covers below.

As well as sharing her experiences on getting started as an author, Nikki shared a writing exercise, highlighting some of the amazing talent amongst the students attending the session. With autographed copies of some of her books as prizes for the most creative writing, Nikki said every one of them deserved recognition for their work and was astounded at their enthusiasm and quality of writing. 

This is hopefully just the first in a series of author/illustrator visits to the senior iHub, aiming to represent a variety of genres and reader interest groups. We’ll keep you posted!