Gallery owner turns hand to children’s book
The man behind Number Nine the Gallery in Brindleyplace has teamed up with illustrator Gary Craven for a new children’s picture book.
Could you hear her? The Adventures of Shelly Egg is the second offering from Lee Benson and his long time friend Craven (pictured left), a full time teacher in Walsall, who are publishing, promoting and selling the book themselves.
The book follows the ups and downs of Shelly, a young lady who will go to any lengths to chase her dream of performing alongside the greatest opera singer in the world – quite a feat for an egg! The book follows the success of their first book The Adventures of Henry Egg.
Lee said the pair had decided to go it alone with the book after struggling to get support from the publishing industry for their project. He said: “Publishers of picture books seem disinclined to take people on board once they have their own stable of illustrators.
“However, we can take comfort from the history of rejection suffered by J.K.Rowling and look at her now.”
Two thousand copies of the new book have been printed and the authors are confident they will soon be looking to do a reprint. Lee said: “With our first book we started selling to family and friends then word got around and we had orders coming from all over the place.”
Further details on Lee and Gary’s books can be found by logging onto www.numberninethegallery.com