BOOKS ON THE HILL - OPEN DYSLEXIA PROJECT - BLOG TOUR

Working in a school, I see quite a few children who have dyslexia that have initial struggles with reading, and this is partly down to many books not being published in a way that makes them be accessible to everyone. 

Unfortunately this carries on into later life and the fight for dyslexic adults to have access to suitable books is a big one.

Dyslexia is a learning difference that primarily affects reading and writing skills. The NHS estimates that up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK have some form of dyslexia, while other dyslexic organisations believe 1 in 5 and more than 2 million people in the UK are severely affected.

Dyslexia does not stop someone from achieving. There are many individuals who are successful and are dyslexic. Famous actors, such as Orlando Bloom; Entrepreneurs like Theo Paphitis, and many, many more, including myself. All of who believe dyslexia has helped them to be where they are now. Dyslexia, though, as I can attest to, does not go away. You don’t grow out of it, and so we are acknowledging that and trying to without being patronising, create a selection of books that will be friendly to people who deal with dyslexia every day.

Books on the Hill Publishing are currently creating a powerful project that will make exciting, good quality fiction available to a minority group, which in these current times are not properly provided for by today's UK traditional mass book market. 

This is a publishing company who are truly eager to aid people who have dyslexia, or have any difficulty with reading for that matter.

Everyone should have the chance to access the joy of reading a good book. 

As I mentioned in the beginning, there are some wonderful books out now for children with dyslexia, with specialist publishers like Barrington Stokes (one of my favourites that I recommend) and mainstream publishers such as Bloomsbury doing their part. However, despite the knowledge that more of these types of books are needed, sadly books for adults with Dyslexia are very few and far between.

BOTH publishing have recognised this problem and have successfully launched a Kickstarter this month. Running for 30 days, their goal is to be able to pay for the printing of the books that they will publish.

Here are the brilliant authors that they hope to be publishing:

* Stan Nicholls, who has been a great support to me particularly with my PhD. He is the author of many novels and short stories but is best known for the internationally acclaimed Orcs: First Blood series.

* Steven Savile, the fantasy, horror and thriller writer, now lives in Stockholm whose father is a customer of our bookshop.

* The horror duo that is Thana Niveau and John Llewellyn Probert, both well established and engaging authors and also residents of Clevedon.

* Adrian Tchaikovsky is an Arthur Clark Award winner and best known for his series Shadows of the Apt, and for his novel Children of Time.

* Steven Poore is the highly acclaimed fantasy writer who I  firrst met on my  first fantasy convention in Scarborough.

* Finishing with the Magnificent Seven with Joel Cornah, who also has dyslexia, and with whom I participated in a podcast on dyslexia for the Clevedon Literature 2020 'Festival in the Clouds'.

So how can you help?

There will be many ways you can be involved in this. You can contribute on the Kickstarter website itself. There will be a number of different options of donating money, in which you will receive rewards, such as ebooks of a title or a paperback of one or more of the titles to be published. In addition a unique reward from authors who are contributing to the project.

You can still contribute outside the kickstarter. The team are happy to receive your help in their shop, where they will have a donation box available.

Whatever you decide to do, every little helps.

Lets do what we can to make reading an obtainable thing to do for anyone who wants to be whisked aways to a different place (in their minds).