How thriller writers get it wrong
I’ve always maintained that authors, and most especially the writers of thrillers which feature what might be termed ‘boys’ toys’, need to get their facts right. Over the past two or three years, I’ve been asked on several occasions to review books immediately prior to publication so that a short quote from ‘James Becker’ or […]
The death of the book – again
Talking with a friend of mine the other day, I was reminded of a television programme I saw about a decade ago that basically explored this question. The BBC had devoted an hour of prime-time viewing to exploring the birth, history and ultimate death of the book, in part by talking to authors, the people […]
Kindling enthusiasm
I’ve mentioned Kindles and tablets a few times in past blog posts and I’ve just remembered one particular journey I did some years ago that brought very much to a head the sheer convenience of carrying an entire library in your pocket. I was driving from Andorra to the UK in a fully-loaded car. Fully […]
Does advertising work?
In the good old days, in this context meaning BA – Before Amazon – publishing a book followed a tried and tested routine, followed at a sedate and gentlemanly pace. An author would submit a manuscript to a publishing house, ideally through a literary agent. In due course it would, hopefully, be accepted, then edited […]
Cyberstrike: DC at a discount!
Not exactly a news flash, but if you haven’t read Cyberstrike: DC yet, it will be available at a hefty discount this weekend. The link to use is: hellobooks.com/thrillers-and-action That’s it!
The perfect Christmas present?
As most people know, Christmas has got virtually nothing to do with Christianity. In the early days of the Church, the fledgling religion faced competition from all sides, and one of their biggest problems was trying to combat paganism and other faiths, and particularly to subdue their long-established festivals and religious days. The 25th of […]
The unknown bestseller. And why you should read it.
I’m not normally in the business of promoting other people’s books – let’s face it, I have enough trouble selling those that I write myself – but very, very rarely a book is published that is so important and so crucial to our present way of life and our immediate and long-term futures that I […]
The 28-day novel
Back in April 2012 Simon & Schuster published the first of my two ‘Jack Steel’ novels, The Titanic Secret. I’ve covered the circumstances of writing this book before, but just a quick recap: my agent came up with the initial idea in January 2011, I started writing it on 4 February and delivered the final, […]
Climate change, environmentalists and Jeremy Clarkson
Throughout history, there’s been a selection of anti-establishment figures whose dreams of creating a new world order have shone like the most brilliant stars in the firmament, and then burnt out and died. The world has been to the outermost reaches of extremism throughout the nineteenth century – from Fascism to Communism – and it […]
Paying for publication
As a follow-on from my last blog post, if you want to publish a book there are three possible routes you can follow. The first – commercial or mainstream publishing – is by far the most difficult because you need to convince a publisher, or more likely convince a literary agent to convince a publisher, […]