A Cauldron of Mixed Feelings - Let's Go All In with The Fart Witch

Last month during QuestPit, Dapple Grey Press announced that it has acquired The Curse of the Fart Witch, a riotously silly illustrated novel for readers aged 8–12.

There is one slightly unusual detail: I own Dapple Grey Press—and I wrote the book.

That makes this announcement deserving of a little more explanation.

Building the publisher I wanted my children to have

I took over Dapple Grey Press when one of my partners was preparing to close it. Rather than allowing the press to disappear, I decided to rebuild it around a purpose that had become deeply personal to me: publishing genuinely enjoyable books that struggling readers can access without feeling patronised.

Or, in my rather less polished shorthand: accessible books that don’t suck.

My own children are dyslexic. As they grew older, they frequently complained that the books designed to be accessible to them were too young, too slight or simply not very satisfying. They wanted proper stories—funny, exciting stories with characters, danger, chaos and enough meat on the bone to make finishing the book feel like an achievement.

Too often, children who struggle with reading are presented with an impossible choice. They can attempt the substantial novels written for their age group and risk becoming overwhelmed, or they can read shorter books that may feel as though they were written for much younger children.

Neither option does much to make reading feel rewarding.

Dapple Grey Press exists to help close that gap. We want to publish books with an accessible reading level but an age-appropriate interest level: books that children choose because they look entertaining, not because an adult has labelled them “suitable.”

Why I initially said no to the Fart Witch

For a long time, I resisted publishing The Curse of the Fart Witch through Dapple Grey Press.

I did not want the company to be perceived as my personal hobby farm or a convenient place to publish anything I happened to write. Dapple Grey Press publishes other authors, and I want those authors, our readers and the wider publishing community to know that the press has genuine editorial standards.

The Fart Witch was not waved through because I own the company.

The manuscript went through multiple rounds of developmental editing and line editing (thanks to Stephen Black, Black Thoughts), extensive beta reading, professional layout reviews and repeated revisions. The illustrations have been an incredibly expensive labour of love. I have invested an uncomfortable amount of time and more money than I particularly care to calculate in giving this book the best possible chance of succeeding.

It has been subjected to the same questions we would ask of any manuscript: Is the story good enough? Will children genuinely enjoy it? Does it respect its readers? Does it fulfil the purpose of Dapple Grey Press?

Eventually, the answer became impossible to ignore: this is exactly the kind of book we say we want to publish. The book that will appeal to all kids 8-12, and most will have a good chance of being able to read it.

The dream—and the reality

I had dreams of The Curse of the Fart Witch being traditionally published by one of the Big Five. In the most optimistic version of events, it was also going to be my winning lottery ticket into a listed Georgian house where I could host Austen- and Bridgerton-inspired balls. Regrettably, nobody appears to have informed the publishing industry of this plan.

I received some lovely feedback from agents, alongside a consistent warning: middle-grade fiction is an extremely difficult sell in the current market. I fully understand the commercial calculation. Publishing is a business, and if publishers cannot see a reliable market for a book, acquiring it becomes a significant risk.

But I do not believe children have stopped wanting stories. I truly believe that they are inundated by stories that are intimidating ("fat books") and not often as joyful as books should be.

Many current middle-grade novels are physically substantial, emotionally serious and 70,000 or 80,000 words long. There is nothing wrong with those books, but they are a daunting prospect for many children—including perfectly capable readers.

Where are the 35,000- to 40,000-word novels that offer a complete, satisfying adventure? Where are the books a struggling 12-year-old can read without feeling that they have been handed something intended for a seven-year-old?

Finishing an actual novel brings an enormous sense of accomplishment. Too many children are being denied that experience—not because they dislike stories, but because the available books do not always give them a realistic way in.

Enter the Fart Witch

The Curse of the Fart Witch is an illustrated comic adventure about friendship, family, chaos, barking spiders and a witch with an extremely antisocial magical speciality.

The original Fart Witch character was imagined by one of my children, which probably tells you more than you need to know about life in our house.

The book is unashamedly silly because silliness has value. Humour can remove the apprehension surrounding reading. Illustrations can make a page feel welcoming. Shorter chapters, thoughtful typography and accessible language can support struggling readers without flattening the story or talking down to them. The jokes are funny, regardless of reading level.

This is not a remedial exercise disguised as a novel. It is a real story, written to be enjoyed by readers of every ability.

That matters particularly in 2026, the UK’s National Year of Reading. Its Go All In campaign is built around a simple idea: if you’re into it, read into it.

If children are into monsters, comic mayhem, supernatural disasters and fart jokes, then perhaps a Fart Witch is precisely the invitation they need.

What we are trying to build

Dapple Grey Press remains a small, bootstrapped independent publisher. My partners are still involved, and none of us is currently paid. We trade skills where we can, do a great deal ourselves and outsource professional work whenever funds allow.

Some of my other books are published through DGP, but the press also publishes other authors. I have chosen not to take the royalties due to me from my existing DGP titles, including the Elderberry & Jones Mysteries and The Chrysalis Project. That money remains in the business and helps us build towards the point where we can susstainably support more authors.

This is not yet a profitable enterprise. I am certainly not giving up my day job.

Instead, I continue to balance DGP with full-time work in the software industry, raising twin tweens involved in two demanding sports, and attempting to write books of my own. There are too many late nights, too much coffee and more dancing along the edge of burnout than I would recommend.

But I believe in what Dapple Grey Press can become.

Help should not be paywalled

Publishing accessible, enjoyable books is only part of our mission.

Over the years, I spent a substantial amount of money learning how to support my dyslexic children. I paid for assessments, books, courses, applications and teaching programmes. Some were valuable. Others were useless drivel sold by people offering expensive hope to desperate parents.

When one approach did not work, I bought another. Then another. We were fortunate enough to be able to do that. Many families cannot.

Dyslexia varies enormously, and no single resource will work for every child. Parents often find themselves searching endlessly for the thing that will finally help—and paying at every step of the way.

I do not believe help for a disability should depend on a family’s ability to keep entering a credit-card number.

That is why Dapple Grey Press is developing free resources to help parents and educators understand and use evidence-informed approaches to reading instruction. Those materials will be free to access—and they will remain free.

We will have a buy-us-a-coffee link for anyone who wants to help with our coffee bill. Honestly, though, we would rather people invested in our books, handed them to a child and helped us demonstrate that there is a real readership for accessible stories that are funny, substantial and properly entertaining.

So, after years of writing, editing, revising, illustrating and worrying, here she is.

The Curse of the Fart Witch will be published by Dapple Grey Press in October 2026.

In a year devoted to bringing people back to reading for enjoyment, we can think of no better way to begin.

Let’s Go All In.