text: David Lee Stone, a.k.a. David Grimstone, explains how selling his books to a publisher changed his life differently to his expectations.
  I was working at Blockbuster Video when I got the call: it was sometime during March 2002. My agent, who had been negotiating with a major UK publisher for a few days, asked me if I was sitting down.
  I took a deep breath, and checked to see who else was in the room. My girlfriend was already at work: she started on Saturday mornings a bit earlier than I did. My mum was standing in the doorway, and my grandmother was in the kitchen (she liked to smoke at least five cigarettes in the morning before she could think about tea).
  She told me…and I sat down.
  Less than a year later, I would get another call to tell me that Disney had bought the same series in the USA, but this initial call—turning a dream I'd had since I was twelve years old into a reality—is the one I remember most vividly.
  I left Blockbuster Video a few months after the first publishing deal was done. I didn't want to leave, and it certainly wasn't about the money. It's just that the job had changed, and I was being viewed differently. I wasn't one of the 'guys' any more: I was that guy…or, at least, I felt that way.
  Finally, during a week when the Sunday Times wrote a feature on myself and my family, and Richard & Judy interviewed us on their Channel 4 show, it actually became impossible for me to just go 'on shift' and do my job. My girlfriend and I chatted about what would be the best course of action, and I decided to quit.
  If you're a sociable person—I am—then becoming a successful author can be likened to being handed a poisoned chalice. You get your dream, you get the money, you get the media whirlwind and you get all the free time. You trade in a lot of your friends, lose your sense of 'place' in the world and have a whole new set of worries to replace the old ones: will my book sell? Is my Amazon rank good enough? Why are these newspaper reviews saying these things about my writing? Why is nobody calling me? Those people who said they were going to make a film—are they still making it? Who was doing the audio books again: the guy I thought was good, or the other guy?
  I would send out a very serious warning to all would-be authors: make sure you want the job as badly as you think you do…and be sure you're willing to make the trade.