More and more established authors are discovering that even though they have had good relationships with their publisher, it is now extremely difficult to get their work published.

Ann Lingard, who has had two successful novels published, Figure on a Landscape and The Fiddler's Leg, believes this is because publishing is now big business and big names sell lots of books, whereas middle-list authors, whose works will not sell tens of thousands, are much less likely to be commissioned.

Ann, who lives at Islip, speaks from experience, having spent some time attempting to sell her third novel, Seaside Pleasures, to publishers and agents.

She said: "An agent once told me that she loved my book, but she needed something that was going to make mega-bucks."

She became despondent after several rejections for Seaside Pleasures, despite doing a major revision at the request of the editor of one big publishing house, who then took nine months to tell Ann that she didn't want the novel after all.

Before turning to writing, Ann had been a lecturer and researcher in zoology and parasitology. Wearing her other 'hat' -- as Dr Ann Lackie -- she conducted research into how insects' immune systems react to parasites, and how their white blood cells interact with 'foreign' surfaces and molecules. Because she had called on her scientific background for much of its colour, she was confident it would appeal as much to historians and members of the scientific community as it would to the general reader looking for an interesting yarn that blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction.

Her latest book opens in the present, but is set partly in Victorian times and embraces the African continent as well as Scotland and England.

The story is woven around the lives of the English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, who died in 1888, and his son, the Victorian biographer Sir Edmund Gosse.

Edmund Gosse's book Father and Son, which describes his puritanical childhood in a Plymouth Brethren household, provided much of the background she needed.

But the central players in this story are the shells, particularly those decorating the Shell House, built on a Cornish cliff in 1860, in which her main characters live. The shells are described both as objects of great beauty and as specimens of scientific interest.

However, despite the clever balance she has achieved throughout, publishers did not appear interested. "In the end, I decided I would self-publish," she said, pointing out that self-publishing is very different from vanity publishing, in that the author holds the copyright and has complete control -- no other party is involved.

"It has been a fascinating and invigorating experience -- extremely hard work of course, as I found I had to master new skills like marketing.

"But the exciting thing is I've been involved at every stage of the process. The printers and their designer were tremendously supportive," she added.

To get the book to the general public once it had been published, Ann had to find out about copyright and barcodes. She also had to find a distributor who would take credit card orders.

Being an enterprising woman, she has worked through these problems, setting up websites, sorted out compliment slips, invoice forms and other stationery.

Because the novel has Victorian and contemporary science in it, she then got in touch with ex-colleagues and soon discovered that people running conferences and editing scientific newsletters were interested in supporting it -- which is why Seaside Pleasures is now on the the British Association's website and the New Scientist promised to review it. It is also being advertised through flyers and articles by the British Society for Parasitology.

Ann says that various marine biology organisations such as the Zoological Society of London are also interested.

Publishing the novel herself has taken longer than if a mainstream publisher had handled it, but having gone through the self-publishing process and come out the other side, Ann says it was a far more satisfying way of getting something done, because she was in control.

Indeed, she advises any novelist who is struggling to get a work published to consider going it alone.

Seaside Pleasures, by Ann Lingard, is published by Littoralis Press at £8.99.