I realised this morning that Writers Exchange E-Publishing has been going 14 years this month! I hadn’t even thought about it, but a couple of people congratulated me on LinkedIn, it must be in my profile…

I really want to thank Will Greenway and Victoria Heckman for staying with me all these years – you guys were the first two authors I ever signed up!

Rounding out the VERY early authors who are still in our ranks we have Lauralee Bliss, Michelle Levigne and Mrs Mouse (Chris Williamson). We do have a lot of others who came on board in the first year, but these were our earliest:)

We would have a lot more authors from back then, but we decided to stop publishing children’s picture books, because it seems the time for picture books in ebook version is still too far in the future. We were very sorry to see many of those authors transfer to a children’s publishing company we recommended. And I think of them too as I celebrate this milestone.

For those of you who were around back 14 years ago, that wasn’t the beginning of our story, for about 5 years before that, Writers Exchange had been a writers resource website. One that had so many resources it was quoted from or mentioned in a number of books (print and electronic!).

We decided to morph into a publishing company because so many of the writers who frequented our site gave us the feedback that they really needed a publisher who would judge books on the quality of the writing, rather than the “pedigree” of the writer.

We took up the challenge, and although we aren’t the biggest publisher out there we are one of the oldest still in business. And for a publisher who refused to do erotica when it was sooo popular (and profitable) I am really proud of that achievement.

It was a different time back then, when people asked what I did, and I said I was an electronic publisher, they would look at me blankly. When I “clarified” by saying I made ebooks they would almost always ask, “What’s an ebook?” Here in Australia, it took another 12 years for ebooks to become public knowledge and the journey from visionary to mainstream has been long and arduous.

It was also a very different time for me personally, I was still in my twenties, and my kids were 3, 4 and 5 and homeschooling was just beginning. Now I am no longer in my twenties and my kids are all grown up or close to it.

I want to thank my family for supporting me all this time, and putting up with my absorption in my work. On the upside, my kids did discover one benefit, if mummy was editing, you could ask her permission to do anything and get an automatic yes, because she was actually immersed in what she was doing, and not really hearing a word they had actually said:)

It has been a frustrating and rewarding time, and I cannot imagine ever stopping, so here’s to the next 14 years!