Fidra Books is a publisher specialising in reprinting unjustly neglected children's fiction that deserves to be back in print and accessible to a new audience. Our books range from 1930s adventure stories to iconic 1960s fantasy novels and from pony books by Carnegie Medal winning authors to contemporary boarding school stories.

Before setting up Fidra Books I was a bookdealer, specialising in rare and collectable children's books. I knew that there are plenty of books that collectors were hunting for and which they had little chance of finding unless they were very lucky or had deep pockets – often both. I knew some of these scarce books from my own childhood but when I read others as they passed through my hands, the realisation grew that these books were so good that there must be a market for them. Ransome and Blyton are still in print and selling so obviously these books weren't too dated. But how to achieve this? I talked this over with friends and fellow booksellers and Fidra was born as the result of a rash declaration that 'it can't be that difficult!' If pressed, I would have to admit that when the aforementioned rash declaration was made alcohol may have been taken…

Fidra Books was set up very simply – just me – and although not actually difficult, it has been the most daunting project that I have ever taken on with a vertiginous learning curve. I have discovered skills I didn't know I had and, with no background in publishing, I have had to learn some new ones fast. I am sales manager, financial controller, contracts co-ordinator, production manager, marketing department, rights department and tea-lady!

Orders To Poach

Getting to a stage where we could start publishing was a long process. We agreed terms with Olivia FitzRoy's husband only for him to die before he signed the contract, leaving us to start from scratch trying to find the new copyright owner. This has turned out to be Olivia's sister who has been an enormous help and we hope that Sir Geoffrey would have been pleased with the end products: Orders to Poach and Steer by the Stars. Another author's children agreed terms verbally only for discussions to be overtaken and ultimately scuppered by sibling rivalries. Tracing some authors has been laborious, involving copies of Wills, scouring Directory Enquiries and hours on the phone – at times I have felt more like a private detective or a stalker than a publisher! Truly, Google is my friend.

The Far Island

Our first book, The Far Island by M Pardoe, came out in late 2005 and we have now published twelve titles. Our books are high quality trade paperbacks with gorgeous creamy paper – they smell fantastic! We use the unabridged first edition text and illustrations and the covers, designed by Emma Quinn, use the images from the original dustwrapper. As many of our authors are not well known, we also include introductions about the authors.

Thus far, our books have been sold via a network of booksellers many of whom are dealers specialising in rare children's books, just as I was. We also sell via our website and we're stocked by some independent bookshops and a growing number of school libraries are taking our books. Many of our books don't have mass market appeal but we are delighted to find that by dint of constant effort to tell as many people as possible about our books, sales are growing steadily, we're making a profit and we're managing to achieve our goal of bringing these unjustly neglected books to a new audience, quite apart from the collectors who are delighted to finally acquire books that they've been searching for for years. As we've grown, my husband Malcolm has taken a greater role and now deals with technical matters, building and maintaining the website and co-ordinating production.

The Winter of Enchantment

We've now reached a stage where we're spreading our wings a little. Our books are now stocked by one of the bigger wholesalers which means that more bookshops can stock them - and BooksfromScotland.com of course. There has been some very positive media coverage of Fidra Books in publications as diverse as The Economist, The Herald, Scots Magazine and SFX. We have new authors in the pipeline and with advice from our commercial consultant we're about to bring out a mass market edition of our best-selling title – The Winter of Enchantment by Victoria Walker.

Two years ago I was questioning my sanity for taking on this project – now; I'm enjoying what we've achieved so far and looking forward to the future of Fidra Books.

Vanessa Robertson