We self-published the paperback edition of  our first collaboration One Year One Night One with Publish Nation in 2021.

It ran to 116 pages and gave us our first International Standard Book Number or with the British Library.

Our artist friend David Malcolm created the cover using an image of our heroine Annie which he found online. He sourced the picture of the soldier from a museum in Vancouver and the snap of the schoolboy is of the husband of Laura Meloni Bywaters – one half of SL Roman.

We did our own proofreading and copy editing – the other half of SL Roman, Sarah Onions, had worked as a proofreader and Laura had achieved a 1^st class degree with the highest honours. Despite all that there was a howler of a mistake on the first page in an early print run.

The cost of the self publishing was just over £300.

Sarah had self-published her family’s story in Don’t Bring Lulu; Her Family’s Tale of Trial and Triumph in 2012  with the Brighton-based Book Guild which cost £8,000 for a hard back edition, complete with 12 photos.

Self publishing has changed a lot since the days it was known as vanity publishing. The advances in technology has made it a relatively cheap affair.

Note to editor. SL Roman is the pen-name of Sarah Onions and Laura Meloni Bywaters who both live in the borough of Kingston in SW London. Sarah was born in Brighton in southern England and Laura was born in Rome.

Now on sale everywhere: in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Year-Night-S-L-Roman/dp/B09GZPYRJ4 and in the US: https://www.amazon.com/One-Year-Night-2nd/dp/194715981X.

Also, at Barnes and Noble in North America. And in Surbiton, SW London at The Regency bookshop.