A SCHOOLGIRL has become a publishing sensation after her first novel sold 50,000 copies in six weeks. A second print run for Emma Maree Urquhart’s Dragon Tamers has been ordered.

Emma Maree, 13, from Inverness, wrote about a teenager who is dragged into a virtual reality game involving a dragon. If she dies in the game, she dies in the real world.

She said: “It’s a perfect read for the computer generation. Lots of kids out there like playing computer games and this is taking it to a whole new level. The characters go into the world and experience it for real.”

Her publishers have had calls from collectors asking to buy up to ten signed copies at once. Although Dragon Tamers has a recommended retail price of £9.95, a copy has featured on eBay for £35, her publishers discovered.

Charles Faulkner, who heads Aultbea Publishing, in Inverness, said: “I would describe her as a genius . . . You would not know this novel had been written by a 13-year-old. She can take a situation and make it come to life. Even adults have found it interesting. It’s difficult to put down.” He anticipates sales topping six figures in the book’s first year.

Emma Maree was writing short stories at the age of 10 and is determined to pursue a career as a novelist. She writes in longhand and then transfers the material to a computer.

“I enjoy writing,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. My parents encouraged me to write. It has been a long ambition of mine to write a book and get it published. I have been writing stories for quite a while, but none of them have been as good as Dragon Tamers.”

There are no writers in the family and she finds inspiration in J. K. Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson and Terry Pratchett, as well as classics such as Treasure Island. Her father, Ian, an electrician, said: “She does everything off her own back. We have to safeguard her, but she’s taken everything calmly. She’s coping well, with our support.”

The novel took her about a year to write. “It came naturally,” he said. “It just flowed out of her.”

As soon as she had finished the novel, Emma Maree consulted the internet to find a publisher. She sent off her manuscript to several, including Aultbea, which responded immediately.

Emma Maree is now working on a second book in a series featuring the same characters.

PRODIGIES ON PAPER

Four years ago, Katie Chadd, 7, from Croydon, South London, created The Snail Who Lost His Shell, which was published by Brilliant Books for Tesco

Daisy Ashford, 9, wrote The Young Visiters (sic) in the 1860s

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