It was an ambition of mine to publish comics ever since I started up a comic book speciality store in 1991. I've always felt that there is a huge gap in the UK comic scene for a US style comic publisher. The comics industry is very small for the amount of bright talent out there looking for work, and retail had given me experience of what comic fans generally want - although what you expect to be a big seller usually turns out to be average in sales.

With that in mind, and with a burning ambition to create comics as well as publish, I teamed up with a local guy to publish a three-issue black and white series. We then moved quickly onto a full colour monthly title, Monster Club, which was launched in December 2002 and is still running today.

This publishing sideline became a business venture with a very bright future, so, selling my share of the shop, I teamed up with an animation studio called Treehouse Productions (owned by Phil Littler) to work on publishing full time. Phil also had a massive interest in producing comics in the UK and so APC - Autumn Press Comics - was born.

Forming a publishing company is not an easy thing to do. I've had nights where I've worked through until four in the morning - but you have to put energy and effort into any business. Our first comic convention in Bristol was a real turning point for us, as we met many up-and-coming unpublished talents who were dying to get their work shown - and the majority of them are more talented than the pros working for the US giants. Our attitude is if they are willing to do the work alongside us, we are willing to put some finance into their ideas and creativity until they are established and move up within the industry.

There's more problems than benefits in being a small publisher and it usually boils down to sales at the end of it. The big four US publishers get in the region of anywhere between 5,000 to 200,000 copies ordered of any comic... but indies are lucky to see 2,000-3,000 copies sold through the speciality stores.

It's more about comic shop budget than the product looking good. Most speciality stores only have a certain amount to spend on small-press products and it's a fight to win any store's approval. There's roughly 3,500 comic stores in the world and if every one ordered five copies of all of our books we would be in a very healthy financial situation. But it just won't happen overnight as there's been too many smaller companies come and go. It's about believing in the product, yes, but also about bringing out out regular publications for regular retail sales.

I would say that 99 per cent of our creators that have started with us have already been to see the big names - but with no gig at the end of it. You can see the queues when you visit the conventions and the amount of disappointed faces as they leave. The big four (Marvel, DC, DarkHorse and Image) are looking for people who have been published before - to them it's about potential sales. And that's where we come in.

All of our creators can go up to any publisher, big or small, and show them at least four issues that have actually been on sale in shops and published to a worldwide comic community.

Artists, writers, inkers, colourists and general comic creators e-mail us for work on a regular basis. We usually get ten submissions a week and at least one hundred e-mails for work. We have to turn down a good percentage as we haven't got the finance, manpower or time to publish all.

My tips to aspiring comics creators would be:

• work hard
• keep drawing
• keep writing and just keep improving
• visit the conventions, but make sure you plan your day to visit the most important publishers.
• only ever show your most up-to-date and best work you've done, because the second a publisher looks at an average folio he will lose interest.

If you have the belief that you can do it and you've given it your best shot and still you've had no luck - SELF PUBLISH! It isn't cheap, but the satisfaction of seeing your work in print is like having Christmas Day over and over again and it will inspire you to work harder to get published. Plus, once it's in print you can leave copies with publishers rather than keep showing off that portfolio.

At the moment APC publishes Assassin School, B1N4RY, The Chase, Comicana, Darkham Vale, Digital Graffiti and Monster Club.

Monster Club is really our flagship title. The sales are really good and we're also in pre-production on animated feature film.

Our best selling title, by far, is Assassin School and it's girls and guns. Think of St. Trinians meets Marvel's Electra and you're halfway there. The main character, Emma Lee, has been classed as a either a "super-spoof" or "highly skilled" assassin.

Superhero book B1N4RY started off as a four issue series but due to good sales we're going to continue.

The Chase, a mobster story, is created by the Spanish creative team of Inaki Miranda and Eva de la Cruz who have done quite a bit of work with us and 2000AD. It's recieved a great response on its first issue. Issue two is due back from the printers this month and sales have been really good.

Then there's Comicana, by Dan Boultwood, all about comics and comic shops! The two main characters in the story run a comic book store called "The Dragon's Giblets" and it's fun from the word go. The only thing I can compare it to is Kevin Smith's Clerks and Spaced. Dan's also been the artist on the latest issues of Monster Club. It'll be launched at the Comics 2004 show in London on the 23rd October.