Wolverhampton author and editor publishes 22nd paperback
An award-winning editor who quit his career in journalism after a nervous breakdown has just edited and published his 22nd paperback since taking early retirement eight years ago.
Nic Outterside, from Penn Fields, Wolverhampton, decided to turn his back on newspapers and magazine journalism after 28 years in the business.
But following a nervous breakdown he began the slow road to recovery under the watchful eyes of his doctor and family and part of the suggested therapy was for him to begin writing about the life experiences which had led to his breakdown.
His first paperback book, The Hill - Songs and Poems of Darkness and Light, was published in November 2014 but it was a chance meeting with a young Indian author from the Himalaya which set in train a series of book publishing.
Nic said: "I was approached by a 25-year-old writer from Almora, in Northern India, who asked if I could edit her first novel.
"I agreed, but the problem was she wanted it published in just five weeks and she had not even written the first word.
"It was at times hectic, communicating endlessly through emails and Skype calls but we did it."
That publication set in a motion a chain of more contacts and other book projects carried out from Nic's small office on the top floor of his Victorian semi-detached home in Wolverhampton.
He then went on to edit and publish four anthologies during the following three years and these were for writers as far apart as Bangladesh, Palestine, Australia, Canada, India and Pakistan
Nic also edited and published books for four other writers as well as producing 10 of his own books, two of which became Amazon best-sellers.
His most recent project was publishing a series of affordable poetry books for contemporary international writers, titled Cast Iron Poetry, with a sixth scheduled for later this spring.
Last year he registered his business, Time is an Ocean Publications, as an independent UK publishing house and has a forward schedule of books into 2023.
Nic said: "These include a full colour Punjabi cookery book and a photo journal, both of which will be firsts for me,
"I enjoyed an amazing career in newspaper and magazine journalism.
"Along the way I also edited all kinds of publications, including leaflets, brochures and football programmes but book publishing was a whole other world and I had to teach myself as I went along.
"I am very lucky that my wife is an English lecturer and a superb proof-reader and I am getting as much fun out of books as I did with newspapers or magazines."
