Blaze of glory for firefighter turned writer

Richard McMunn, who was born in Blackpool and was brought up in Leyland, has written more than 150 self-help books after first writing a career guide for prospective fellow firefighters more than 10 years ago.

Now judges have given his company two prizes at the 2016 Independent Publishing Awards.

Richard’s How2become.com won IPG specialist consumer publisher of the year and the Nielsen digital marketing award.

Richard, 44, whose company beat off competition from a shortlist of 30 others, was presented with the awards at the Independent Publishers Guild’s annual spring conference in Oxfordshire.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted that the company has been recognised in this way at what is a very important awards scheme for the publishing industry.

“I was particularly pleased that the judges for the specialist consumer publisher award highlighted the way we invest in our staff and I am indebted to their hard work over the last year.

“The judges also praised the way we interact with customers and make it as easy as possible to buy the books they want direct from our website and that is a great endorsement of the service we work hard to provide.”

The business was founded after Richard, who attended Balshaw’s High School in Leyland, wrote and self-published a book for prospective firefighters while he was still working as one.

He has now written more than 150 books with many becoming best sellers.