I paid to have my debut book, The Desolate Garden, published. There was a time when I was too embarrassed to have said that, but not now. Given the circumstances when I had finished my novel I saw little other choice than to take that route, but I knew nothing about the publishing business, and the snobbery within.
The first time I heard that word ‘vanity’ it struck me that I was one of those so bracketed in that derogative term, hence my reluctance to come clean. My book, as a lot people know, is to be made into a film this year costing $30,000,00, but it’s not that fact that now allows me to face those critics, it is the realization that my decision was right.
I have now a so-called ‘traditional agreement’ with my publisher, but that doesn’t mean there is money to blaze on the razzamatazz of publicity and marketing, but I get on well with them, and what they give I’ll deal with. From what I read on the internet, and from the people I meet at speaking engagements, I believe the world of publishing has been turned on its head, and now the word ‘vanity’ could be replaced by ‘insanity’ and aimed at those that are still in the past, waiting for something that will never arrive.
The days of money being thrown at an unknown author are virtually dead, or if not, just breathing, reserved for the young with potential to make the business of publication as profitable as it can be. I, in my innocence, would label those that wait for the ‘pot of gold’ to be ‘vain’ and those that were once so labelled, as the innovators of a new real world.
http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/
About Daniel Kemp
At the age of seventy-six, Daniel Kemp has started his second year of studying the science of Psychology at the Open University. He is a member of The Society of Authors and also a bestselling writer. However, in early September 2025, he was diagnosed with cancer. He is now in palliative care at home, being looked after by his ex-wife. When he was writing his novels, he enjoyed writing stories that appealed to those who liked challenging themselves to solve mysteries that were set out before their eyes, but they couldn't.
His introduction to the world of espionage and mystery happened at an early age when his father was employed by the War Office in Whitehall, London, at the end of WWII. However, it wasn’t until after his father died that he showed any interest in anything other than himself!
On leaving academia he took on many roles in his working life: a London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver, but never did he plan to become a writer. Nevertheless, after a road traffic incident left him suffering from PTSD and effectively—out of paid work for four years, he wrote and self-published his first novel —The Desolate Garden.
Within three months of publication, that book was under a paid option to become a $30 million film. The option lasted for six years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company.
All ten of his novels are now published by Next Chapter Publishing Company which has added an edition titled The Heirs And Descendants Collection, which holds all four books of that series, alongside an edition titled The Lies And Consequences Collection which contains all four volumes of that series.
He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication and described as—the new Graham Green—by a highly placed executive of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of book signing events. He has also appeared on 'live' television in the UK publicising his first novel.
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Daniel Kemp 
The fact that you took a risk shows more spirit than those that whine about their rejection letters. It’s your money, your risk, your right to take a chance where others will not. They may call you vain, yet when they do this, they are looking in the mirror of envy.