St Ives teen author’s fantasy trilogy sells thousands on Amazon
St Ives author Nathan Davey, with his latest books - Credit: Archant
A TEENAGE author from St Ives has sold thousands of copies of his self-published novels ... in America.
Nathan Davey, 19, had given up on becoming an author after his first five attempts at fantasy fiction flopped on Amazon. But when he decided to write from the heart rather than what he thought people wanted to read, he found thousands of online fans.
The first two volumes of his Sparkle Trilogy sold more than 10,000 copies – both paperback and e-book – in Europe and the US and the first instalment topped one of the charts on German Amazon in May.
The series, which follows teenage sorcerer Amber Sparkle as she discovers a horrifying secret, has been acclaimed by Amazon users in the US – where the bulk of Nathan’s sales have been made. His stories have even been compared with the Harry Potter and Hunger Games novels.
Nathan, of Houghton Road, said: “The success has just completely taken us all by surprise. The books have gone insane online. I released the first book in January this year and that’s sold around 8,000 copies and then the second came out in May and has already sold 3,000.”
The film and television studies student at Cambridge Regional College had published five online books before the success of his latest novels.
He is set to start a writing and film studies course at Anglia Ruskin University in September where he hopes to develop further as an author and go on to write movie scripts.
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Nathan, who counts JK Rowling, Douglas Adams and Hunter S Thompson among his favourite authors, said: “I had a couple of attempts writing before, but all of the books flopped. The last couple of books I did to try to get noticed and they just weren’t successful, so I said: ‘This time I’m going to write what I want to write and I don’t care if anyone reads it.’”
Nathan is currently editing the second draft of the third and final instalment of the Sparkle trilogy ... and his fans the world over are undoubtedly eagerly awaiting the ending of the story. Amber Sparkle and The Anti-Magicians is set for release later this year.
INFORMATION: To find out more about the Amber Sparkle Trilogy go to www.facebook.com/TheSparkleTrilogy.
