Meet The Team
Taran Matharu
Taran is the author of the New York Times bestselling Summoner series, with over 2 Million copies sold in English, 8 Million reads on Wattpad, and translations in 14 languages (and counting!).
Taran is a University of Bath alumnus with a 1st class hons degree in Business Administration. Soon after graduating, he worked in digital sales at Penguin Random House. There, Taran learned the ins and outs of traditional publishing. Subsequently, he worked at Tesco’s eBook retailer, Blinkbox books, to explore the retail side of bookselling. Taran has now returned to business of making books with the aim to publish stories he believes deserve to be read.
An avid gamer, shooter, fisherman, writer and world traveller, Taran can often be found at some sort of computer, though whether the backdrop is a tropical beach, an English countryside or the concrete jungle of London is anyone’s guess!
With an immense passion for the books he publishes, you not only have an expert author and editor on your team, but someone with a business mind and the experience to back it up.
Michael R. Miller
Michael is the author of the bestselling LitRPG Battle Spire and has sold over 165,000 books.
His Epic Fantasy Dragon’s Blade Trilogy has hit numerous Amazon bestselling charts, including the top 100 of ALL books on Amazon.com. A scene from his first book will be incorporated into the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts Exam Anthology for Performance starting in 2019.
Michael has also worked at Bloomsbury Publishing in their Digital Marketing Department and spoken on BBC Radio Scotland about Self-Publishing.
Before all that, back in the heyday of World of Warcraft, he was a raider and obsessive gamer. And while life may not allow for such dedication anymore, the same experiences can be found in books. Michael wants others to share in these stories and hopes to bring the best out there to readers.
Brook Aspden
Brook has a knack for selling things. He is a marketeer and business strategist with half a decade of experience launching international brands and products. An alumnus of the University of Auckland, Brook majored in Marketing and International Management and followed up with a degree in Law. Since then he has led marketing strategies for multi-national companies such as Fonterra and KraftHeinz, helping them better understand and relate to their consumers.
‘Geek’ is a term Brook would happily use to describe himself. His journey began playing video games like Final Fantasy and Runescape, eventually evolving into a love of fantasy novels, cartoons, anime, comics, table top games and pretty much anything involving magical powers.
Brook has always had a passion for telling stories, and believes part of creating a great brand is crafting a story that resonates with your audience. As an avid reader, he is constantly immersing himself in new genres to understand their audience’s needs and help create the best possible stories for Portal Books’ readers.
Whether building a brand or a novel, Brook believes in putting the consumer first.