Coming Soon To A Bookshop Near You

Agents - Who Needs 'Em?

I am just about to deliver the 21st Spider Shepherd book - First Strike. Hodder and Stoughton are set to publish it in July. No agent has been involved in the process, in fact I haven't used an agent for any of the Spider Shepherd series.

Getting an agent these days is difficult. I hesitate to use the word impossible, but for most first time writers I am sure it feels that way. In my experience, most agents lack even basic courtesy and don’t even reply to most writers who approach them. And it’s been that way for many years. I wrote to five agents after I’d written my first thriller - more than thirty years ago - and not one even bothered to reply. Even when I had three books in print and was trying to get an agent for The Chinaman, only two agents out of six replied to my letter. If they won’t even reply to a published author and former Fleet Street journalist, what chance does a first-time writer have? And if anything, it has got worse since then. I am contacted regularly by frustrated writers who are simply being ignored by agents. You’re just going to have to accept that getting an agent is no easy task, no matter how good a writer you are or how good your book is. I’m sorry, but that’s the cold hard truth of modern-day publishing.

Most agents these days have websites and on those websites they will explain their policy on submissions. When I first started you had to send a pristine typed manuscript. That's all changed, these days it’s all done by email. So send the manuscript, but bear in mind that you also have to sell yourself. You need to convince them that they need to read your work. If you’ve written a thriller, then push your military background if you have one. If you’ve written a book set in a school and you were a teacher, mention that. If you’ve written a crime novel and have spent time in prison, sell that. Push yourself as much as you push your book.

The Writers and Artists Year Book has a comprehensive list of agents in the UK, Ireland and the United States. Or you can Google ‘Literary agents who take submissions’. Write to them all. Every one. That’s the beauty of the new technologies, you can send a hundred emails as easily as one. Agents would prefer that you approach them one at at time, but as most don’t reply they have no right to ask that. Write to every agent you can. Dozens. Hundreds, if you want. Emails are free. If an agent really wants to represent you, he’s not going to care who else you approached.

In your email, promote yourself but flatter the agent. Find out who they represent and tell them what a great job they are doing for such-and-such a writer and that you think they’d be the perfect agent to handle your book. That’s how I got my first agent – I wrote Gerald Seymour’s agent a flattering letter and he took me on. He eventually sold The Chinaman and The Vets for a good six-figure sum. He went on to become an absolute nightmare - about which, more later!

Please don’t blame me if agents don’t write back. Most won’t even acknowledge receipt of your email. They can be very frustrating people to deal with. Just keep trying. Keep pushing. Work your contacts. Do you know anyone who works for an agency in any capacity? Did you go to school with someone who works for an agency? Start asking all your friends and relatives if they have any contacts. If it’s any comfort, the publishers I’ve spoken to all tell me the same thing – that if a book is good then it will be published eventually.

Don’t forget that every literary agency has several agents, so if one agent says no it’s still worth approaching other agents at the firm. Writing is very subjective, and what one agent hates another might love. So keep on trying! I am afraid I have a very low opinion of agents in general. That’s not an irrational dislike, it’s based on many, many bad experiences with agents. I’ll run a few by you and you can judge for yourself.

My first bad experience was with literary agent legend Michael Sissons, of Peters Fraser and Dunlop. He sold my book The Chinaman and The Vets to Hodder and Stoughton and I will always be grateful to him for that.

But he then joined forces with an agent called Peter Matson at Sterling Lord Literistic in New York. They got me a six figure deal with Simon & Schuster, which was great, but the deal turned out to be a disaster. Simon and Schuster did no marketing and no publicity and both books died. Peter Matson tried to move me to another publisher but he let Simon and Schuster find out. I had the most embarrassing lunch ever when Bill Grose of Simon and Schuster effectively slapped Peter Matson down in front of me and clearly took great pleasure doing it. I can still remember the evil smile on his face and the plate of untouched pasta in front of me. I have never had a US deal since.

I tried to talk to Michael Sissons about the US situation but he refused. By that point he had acquired something of a reputation for being grumpy and terse, and he was definitely that way with me! He refused point blank to discuss it with me. ‘I am not prepared to talk about it any more,’ he said. We parted company soon after.

After I split with Michael Sissons, I went looking for another agent and met Sonia Land of Sheil Land. Big mistake. She talked a good game and said she would go after more money for a two-book deal. I had written a book called The Stretch, which Sky One turned into a movie. She went to see my then editor - Jon Wood (of who more later) and phoned me next day to say that she hadn’t managed to get me any more money. It was a same again deal and she recommended that I accept it.

I phoned Jon and asked him what had happened. He said that it was a very strange meeting. Sonia had turned up with a large bag and asked him what he was prepared to pay for two more books from me. He said he was offering the same deal as he had offered for the two previous books and she said okay. Then she opened her bag, took out six manuscripts and spent the rest of the lunch pitching work by six other writers to him.

Jon thought it was hilarious. I didn’t, and parted ways with Sonia, who insisted on being paid her ten per cent commission, even though I never signed the deal. Back then agents took ten per cent. Now they take fifteen per cent. Do they do fifty per cent more work than they used to? No, they do not. So why did they all start charging more? It’s a question that no one seems able - or willing - to answer.

Anyway, I went on to deal with Hodder and Stoughton direct and negotiated a fifty per cent increase in my advance, for worldwide rights. And no, I would not recommend Sonia Land as an agent.

Jon Wood later became an agent himself, at RCW Literary Agency, having “left” the top job at Orion, which like Hodder and Stoughton is part of the Hachette group. I had lunch with him not long after he left Orion. It was a very strange affair, he launched straight into a long story about how he had been hankering after new challenges, pastures new etc etc. I listened and smiled and nodded, knowing full well that it hadn’t been his idea to leave. To add insult to injury, he asked me to pay for my lunch!

As part of the deal on leaving Orion, he was to act as Ian Rankin’s agent and take fifteen per cent of his earnings. That’s a hell of a deal, as Rankin’s last Rebus advance was seven figures, meaning Jon took six figures. I had just finished a book called The Runner and Jon said he would read it. A month later I hadn’t heard anything so I dropped him an email. ‘I’ve been busy, I’ll get right onto it,’ he said. Then nothing. I left it two years to the day before getting back to him, by which time I’d sold the book to Hodder and Stoughton.

He did have the good grace to apologise - he said he was very busy - but the damage had been done so I didn’t reply and I haven’t spoken to him since. I thought he treated me really badly and I am someone he worked with. In fact I was one of the first authors he edited, he wanted to move from sales to editing and Hodder asked me if I would take him on as an editor. I agreed, as a favour to Jon and to Hodder. He owed me and he still let me down, so I don’t expect new authors trying to break into the business will be treated any better. He wasn’t a great publisher - hence his departure from Orion - and I don’t think he’ll be much better as an agent, so no, I can’t recommend him.

For a few years I was represented by Julian Alexander of the LAW Agency, now rebranded as the Soho Agency. Julian dropped more balls than a juggler with Tourette’s. The Jack Nightingale series was cancelled by Hodder and Stoughton on his watch and he also lost me a publishing deal with Amazon. He failed to sell my standalone First Response, which I went on to sell to Hodder and Stoughton direct. I asked him to sell the foreign rights to my books - any of them - and he couldn’t. He did manage to sell the TV rights to the Nightingale books and to my standalone thriller The Runner but allowed both deals to wither and die. Oh, when he did the deal for STX to film my book The Chinaman as The Foreigner, he forgot to include flights to the premier as part of my package. I ended up having to buy my own plane tickets, though I did get to shake hands with Jackie Chan on the red carpet in LA so I guess it was money well spent! Ben Clark at the Soho Agency is a better bet, he handles the books I publish through Amazon’s White Glove program and is still young enough to be enthusiastic!

It is still worthwhile having an agent, if you can find a good one. But anyone who has tried to attract the attention of an agent knows just how difficult that can be! In 2022 I wrote a thriller called Triggers, about an assassin with multiple personality disorder and figured I would try to get an agent to sell it for me. I wrote to Ed Wilson of the Johnson and Alcock agency and sent him a copy of the manuscript. No reply. I wrote to Sam Hodder at Blake Friedman (twice). No reply. I sent the manuscript to two agents at Curtis Brown, one of the UK’s biggest literary agents. One agent, Gordon Wise, didn’t reply. That’s despite us both being selected by The Bookseller Magazine as being among the 100 most influential people in the book trade. I wouldn’t recommend him, obviously. I would recommend his colleague Sheila Crowley even less. Because I know her - she used to work for Hodder and Stoughton - I emailed her three times. She ignored the first two emails and then sent me a very frosty reply after the third when she realised I wasn’t giving up. She said she wasn’t interested and that no one else at the agency would be, either. Good to know that she speaks for all the agents there LOL! If nothing else it proved that she was actually receiving my emails and was ignoring them! If she treats me like that - a Sunday Times bestselling author who has sold millions of books - then I doubt she will be any more welcoming to unknown authors trying to get their first publishing deal. Not long after her frosty email, I saw her walking out of the lifts at Hachette’s HQ, laughing and joking with a couple of colleagues. The look on her face when she saw me was priceless, and she spent the entire walk to the exit avoiding eye contact with me. She knew she’d behaved badly. Anyway, I recommend giving Curtis Brown a miss, obviously.

Why are agents generally so unhelpful to aspiring authors? I think it’s because most really good agents are just too busy, and the not-so-good ones have become disillusioned with the book trade. The hard fact is that advances generally have fallen dramatically over the past few years, which means that agents have seen their incomes fall, too. An average thriller or crime novel might now get an advance of just £10,000, which means the agent gets only £1,500. How hard are they going to work for £1,500? You know the answer to that!

Also, agents tend to have many, many authors on their books. Take a look at Jon Wood’s page on the RCW Literary Agency website, Jon has at least four dozen authors to look after including Ian Rankin, Steve Cavanagh, Joanne Harris and the estate of Terry Pratchett. Assuming he works a forty hour week, that means he devotes less than an hour a week to each of his authors. So said authors are paying fifteen per cent of their income for an hour a week. Is that a good deal? I guess you’d have to ask his authors!

So who would I recommend? That’s a tough question. Luigi Bonham (LBA Books) is a great agent. He read Triggers and we had a long chat about it but he’s not taking on new clients.

I did receive very nice emails from Richard Pike at the CWA Agency, Jamie Cowen at The Ampersand Agency, Harry Illingworth at the DHH Literary Agency, and Sian Ellis-Martin at Blake Friedmann. It’s definitely worth trying them, at least there is a chance they will acknowledge you! None of them wanted to try to sell Triggers, which was fine, and I went on to self publish it. It made close to £30,000 in its first year of publication, which is good going.

If you are eventually rejected by every agent in town then there are two possibilities – either your book isn’t very good, or the agents are just incompetent. Either is a real possibility. But it might be worth having a closer look at your work, and try to be objective. Maybe the brutal truth is that your book isn’t as good as you think it is. Maybe it needs a total rewrite or maybe you need to start a new book. I think anyone who actually finishes a book deserves a pat on the back for that alone, but just because a book has been written doesn’t mean that it’s publishable.

One thing you must always remember is that agents are the middle-men in the publishing world. They are acting for writers (their clients) but the actual money comes from publishers. A writer has only one agent, but an agent has dozens, often hundreds, of writers, and will be dealing with all the major publishers. At the end of the day, an agent is not going to jeopardise his relationship with a publisher for the sake of one writer. Publishers are far more important to agents than writers are, and the writer is always going to come off worst in any conflict unless you have the clout that comes with being one of the really big sellers. That’s a sad fact of life, and all writers should remember it.

There’s no doubt that there are advantages in having a good agent in your corner. The agent can act as a buffer between you and your publisher, so that problems can be resolved without anyone taking it personally. It’s better to have a moan at your agent and let him or her negotiate with your publisher rather than you letting off steam yourself! Publishers generally have think skins and don’t react well to criticism. And it’s definitely true that an agent is better placed to negotiate the financial arrangements – there’s more to a book deal than the advance, and often it’s in the small print that a good agent can really earn his commission. The trick is to find an agent who believes in you and who believes in your work. Needle in a haystack time, I’m afraid. The worst agents by far are those that I have come across in the States. Awful people. I had one who told me he didn’t think he could represent me ‘because I don’t think I would walk through walls for the book’. It was a stupid thing to say – a good agent is a salesman and a good salesman should be able to sell anything. I had another agent from a large agency grinning with pleasure when he told me that he wasn’t going to take me on. They seem to take pleasure in belittling wannabe writers, an attitude I’ve always been unable to understand.

One of the great unfairnesses of life is that once an agent has done a deal for you, they will continue to take a percentage of the revenue from that deal for ever. Even if they stop working for you, even if they don’t lift a finger to help you, they still take their cut.

So royalties of my early books that were handled by Peters Fraser and Dunlop continue to go through the company, which is now run by the son of Michael Sissons, Jonathan. I went in to see Jonathan a few years back to ask for help selling the film rights to my books - that’s his speciality. He was more interested in getting the rights to more of my books and pretty much refused to help me on the film/TV front. He had me meet Tim Bates, one of their literary agents. Some time later I sent Tim a copy of Triggers, my female assassin story, Three weeks later I had heard nothing and when I emailed to ask what had happened, he said he was waiting to talk to Jonathan, who was sick. Really? I was asking for advice about the book, not the film rights, so his reply made no sense. I said that better we part company and that I would look for an agent who was more interested in helping build my career. That’s when Tim said he had no intention of giving up his percentage of my early books. This is what he wrote - ‘PFD will continue to collect money on the live contracts with Hodder, as the agents of record, as outlined in the agency clauses in those contracts and the terms of business you signed. This is entirely normal and straightforward and does not compel us to represent you or offer you advice for any projects going forward.’

It’s almost as if he takes pleasure in taking money off me without doing anything in return. Scum-sucking parasites? That’s maybe a bit harsh, but I would not recommend Tim Bates or Jonathan Sissons as agents, in fact I’d be wary of the whole Peters, Fraser and Dunlop set-up.

So, long story short, my advice would be to get an agent if you can. Once you have a deal and the big money starts rolling in, watch your agent like a hawk and if they start to take you for granted, sack them and get another. Most writers I’ve spoken to are unhappy with their agents but few ever move. It’s like banks. People are reluctant to change banks but they should do so at the first sign of a problem. There are plenty of banks out there and there are plenty of agents.

Problems With OVO - Is There A Worse Energy Provider On The Planet? Probably Not.

This is Stephen Fiztpatrick, the boss of OVO Energy, which is consistently rated as one of the worst energy providers in the UK.

Anyone unfortunate to have their gas and electricty supplied by OVO will know what a truly awful company they are.

In my experience, and the experience of thousands of other customers, they care only about profits and nothing about their customers who pay their wages.

Ovo has been fined nearly £9m for sending inaccurate bills over three years. My bills from OVO have consistently been wrong, always in their favour, of course.

While OVO was recording losses, he took a couple of million quid from the company to buy a mansion in the Cotswolds. Nice.

And Fitzpatrick faced questions over taking £17m in furlough money during Covid after making £40m of payments and loans to other Fitzpatrick companies

Money, money, money, that's all he cares about.

Anyway, here's a copy of my latest letter to him. I am no longer a customer of OVO, and if you have any sense, I would suggest you avoid the company like the proverbial plague. Octopus is a much better bet! A great company that cares about its customers, and is the only energy provider recommended by Which? magazine.

ATTN: STEPHEN FITZPATRICK

CEO OVO ENERGY

Dear Stephen,

I have been having major problems with OVO over the past six months so as one Stephen to another I am reaching out to you directly in a last ditch attempt to reach a resolution before I take the matter to the small claims court.

I never chose to be an OVO customer - I was forced into doing business with your company when you took over SSE.

I am sure you are aware that in 2022, OVO Energy was ranked second worst (only behind Utilita) in customer service by Citizens Advice. I wanted to switch to Octopus - the only utilities firm that is recommended by Which? Magazine.

But before I could switch, OVO hit me with a demand for £33,000. OVO made a mistake when it migrated my account from SSE. I tried for three months to get your customer service people to resolve the issue, but failed. It was only when I approached the wonderful Helen Crane at the Daily Mail that OVO apologised, canceled the debt and gave me £100 in compensation. I have to say the £100 didn’t come close to reimbursing me for all the time and trouble OVO caused me.

You can read about that here - https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-11754135/Ovo-billed-33k-month-energy-use-two-bed-flat.html

I would have hoped that would have been the end of my problems with OVO, but I was wrong.

I put the flat on the market at the end of 2022. My daughter moved out at the end of December and the flat was unoccupied for most of 2023. I moved the furniture out in June and the new owners took over the property on July 2.

I supplied a meter reading when I moved out, and a photograph of the meter.

Unfortunately OVO refused to use my meter reading and insisted on using its own estimate - 9895. As a result OVO is claiming that I owe them money when in fact it’s the exact opposite - by my reckoning you owe me close to £600.

Latterly I have been corresponding with Simone Watts, who describes herself as an Advanced Resolution Specialist, which is nice, but while she is lovely to deal with she is as much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot. This is one of her recent emails.

Simone never did get back to me as promised. In fact she has been on holiday for the last two weeks and no one dealt with her emails in her absence so I have been emailing into a void. I phoned on Friday and had a long conversation with another charming Advanced Resolution Specialist but she was unable to assist me and was not prepared to pass me on to a manager.

She did, however, tell me that according to her computer, I now owe OVO more than £500.

That is impossible.

The flat was empty for most of 2023, with OVO continuing to take more than £220 a month from me by direct debit. Over that period you took more than £1,300 from me with very little gas or electricity being used.

Take a look at the statement you sent on June 28 this year - I was almost £600 in credit.

How do I go from being almost £600 in credit to more than £500 in debt, when the flat is empty? No one at OVO seems to be able to explain that to me!

Look at this -

As you can see, OVO is using an estimated reading of 9895 to close the account.

The true final reading was 9723 - I photographed the meter to make sure there was no mistake!

The difference is 172 cubic feet. 172 cubic feet is equivalent to 5531 KWh. At a price of 10.9p per KWh, you owe me £602.88

I am clearly getting nowhere with your customer relations people, and I am reluctant to bother the Daily Mail again. My intention is to raise a claim in the small claims court to recover the money that you owe me. If you are unable or unwilling to resolve this to my satisfaction within 48 hours, I will raise the claim, and we can both explain to the court where we stand. Stephen, neither of us floated up the Lagan in a bubble, let’s put this to rest now. We both have better things to do with our time.

Best wishes,

Stephen Leather

Only Two Days To Go

When The Daily Mirror Uses You As A Crossword Clue

Problems With KDP's Hardbacks

Last year KDP began allowing self publishers to release hardback editions of their books. What a great idea! I tried it with my latest Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novel Rio Grande Night and it was a great success. The hardbacks are of good quality and the price is reasonable. It would be nice if they came with dust jackets, but that's a minor quibble. My Rio Grande Night hardback was well received so I thought I would try it with other books. So I applied to have KDP print hardbacks of my long-time bestseller Private Dancer, and my Thailand novel Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon. And that is where it all started to go wrong! KDP told me that everything was fine and that the books would be printed on demand. But the Amazon.uk site has consistently shown them as 'Temporarily Out Of Stock'. They can't be out of stock, obviously, as they are printed on demand! You order one, Amazon prints it, and sends it to you. Except that isn't happening.

I have notified KDP many times but they don't seem to be able to fix the problem. I get replies, but all the replies say the same, thanking me for notifying them and that they will get back to me. They never do! No one ever gets back to me. I am starting to think that I am not actually dealing with real people and that it is a chatbot replying, because the messages are all so similar!

A look at KDP's community pages shows that many other self publishers are having problems with getting hardbacks published. And they are getting the same unhelpful replies from Customer Service. I have been in this situation for almost a month now, and nothing has changed! I shall keep you posted!

My Backlist All In One Place

If you're not a fan of the Kindle, you can just about fit my whole Hodder and Stoughton backlist - 46 books - in a suitcase! Worth knowing!

I Have A Thing About Talking Cats!

YOU CAN READ THE BLOG POST BY CLICKING HERE!

Great Review Of The New Jack Nightingale Novel

You can read this terrid review of the latest Jack Nightingale thriller - Rio Grande Night - by clicking HERE

More Than A Million Copies Sold On The Kindle

I was checking my Amazon sales and realised that I have now sold more than a million eBooks on the Kindle. And that's only my self-published titles. In fact it's more than 1.2 million! I have probably sold another million or so through Hodder and Stoughton. I was one of the first authors to break the one million eBook barrier! My really big sellers were The Basement and Once Bitten, both of which were taken over by Amazon once they saw how many were saying. That was back in the day when Amazon was happy to talk to authors. In fact they phoned me to make me an offer I couldn't refuse! Those days are long gone but I still sell close to 30,000 copies a year!

Agents - love them or loathe them....

Getting an agent these days is difficult. I hesitate to use the word impossible, but for most first time writers I am sure it feels that way. In my experience, most agents lack even basic courtesy and don’t even reply to most writers who approach them. And it’s been that way for many years.

 I wrote to five agents after I’d written my first thriller - more than thirty years ago - and not one even bothered to reply. Even when I had three books in print and was trying to get an agent for The Chinaman, only two agents out of six replied to my letter. If they won’t even reply to a published author and former Fleet Street journalist, what chance does a first-time writer have? 

 I get contacted regularly by frustrated writers who are simply being ignored by agents. I wrote to seven agents late in 2022 about a new novel I had written - only three replied.  And I have sold millions of books! You’re just going to have to accept that getting an agent is no easy task, no matter how good a writer you are or how good your book is. I’m sorry, but that’s the cold hard truth of modern-day publishing. 

 Most agents these days have websites and on those websites they will explain their policy on submissions. When I first started you had to send a pristine typed manuscript. That's all changed, these days it’s all done by email. So send the manuscript, but bear in mind that you also have to sell yourself. You need to convince them that they need to read your work. If you’ve written a thriller, then push your military background if you have one. If you’ve written a book set in a school and you were a teacher, mention that. If you’ve written a crime novel and have spent time in prison, sell that. Push yourself as much as you push your book. 

 The Writers and Artists Year Book has a comprehensive list of agents in the UK, Ireland and the United States. Or you can Google ‘Literary agents who take submissions’. Write to them all. Every one. That’s the beauty of the new technologies, you can send a hundred emails as easily as one. Agents would prefer that you approach them one at at time, but as most don’t reply they have no right to ask that. Write to every agent you can. Dozens. Hundreds, if you want. Emails are free. If an agent really wants to represent you, he’s not going to care who else you approached.

 In your email, promote yourself but flatter the agent. Find out who they represent and tell them what a great job they are doing for such-and-such a writer and that you think they’d be the perfect agent to handle your book. That’s how I got my first agent – I wrote Gerald Seymour’s agent a flattering letter and he took me on. He eventually sold The Chinaman and The Vets for a good six-figure sum. He went on to become an absolute nightmare - about which, more later! 

 Please don’t blame me if agents don’t write back. Most won’t even acknowledge receipt of your email. They can be very frustrating people to deal with. Just keep trying. Keep pushing. Work your contacts. Do you know anyone who works for an agency in any capacity? Did you go to school with someone who works for an agency? Start asking all your friends and relatives if they have any contacts. If it’s any comfort, the publishers I’ve spoken to all tell me the same thing – that if a book is good then it will be published eventually. 

 Don’t forget that every literary agency has several agents, so if one agent says no it’s still worth approaching other agents at the firm. Writing is very subjective, and what one agent hates another might love. So keep on trying! If you are rejected by every agent in town then there are two possibilities – either your book isn’t very good, or the agents are just incompetent. Either is a real possibility. But it might be worth having a closer look at your work, and try to be objective. Maybe the brutal truth is that your book isn’t as good as you think it is. Maybe it needs a total rewrite or maybe you need to start a new book. I think anyone who actually finishes a book deserves a pat on the back for that alone, but just because a book has been written doesn’t mean that it’s publishable. 

 There was a time when publishers refused to look at unsolicited manuscripts. I came through the slush pile at Harper Collins, back in the days when publishers used to love trawling through piles of manuscripts. What changed? Technology changed. I wrote my first novel on an old manual typewriter. It was bloody hard work. And if I made a mistake I had to retype a whole page. Rewrites were a nightmare! As a result, most would-be writers gave up. The process itself sorted out the wheat from the chaff. But then came computers and printers and writing a book became physically much easier. Anyone could write a book. And they did! And publishers were flooded with manuscripts, the vast majority of which were unpublishable. There was so little wheat and so much chaff that publishers shut down their slush piles and handed the selection process over to agents. Agents didn’t have the staff to deal with the tsunami of manuscripts, which is when the rot really set in. Agents abused their power as gatekeepers by simply ignoring most writers. 

 Nowadays publishers are looking at unsolicited manuscripts again so it is worth writing to editors. Just bear in mind that it is a long shot. Again, sell yourself and flatter them and maybe, just maybe, they might look at what you’ve written. But do bear in mind that your email might not get to the editor, it might be intercepted by an eager assistant. And don’t try phoning them – that is a total waste of time. Again, it is worth working any contacts you have. But don’t ask me or any other writer if we’ll read your work – we just don’t have the time and also won’t put ourselves in the position where we could be accused of plagiarism down the line! I know it’s frustrating, but the thing to remember is that nothing worth having comes easily.

 One thing you must always remember is that agents are the middle-men in the publishing world. They are acting for writers (their clients) but the actual money comes from publishers. A writer has only one agent, but an agent has dozens, often hundreds, of writers, and will be dealing with all the major publishers. At the end of the day, an agent is not going to jeopardise his relationship with a publisher for the sake of one writer. Publishers are far more important to agents than writers are, and the writer is always going to come off worst in any conflict unless you have the clout that comes with being one of the really big sellers. That’s a sad fact of life, and all writers should remember it. 

But, there’s no doubt that there are advantages in having a good agent in your corner. The agent can act as a buffer between you and your publisher, so that problems can be resolved without anyone taking it personally. It’s better to have a moan at your agent and let him or her negotiate with your publisher rather than you letting off steam yourself! And it’s definitely true that an agent is better placed to negotiate the financial arrangements – there’s more to a book deal than the advance, and often it’s in the small print that a good agent can really earn his commission. The trick is to find an agent who believes in you and who believes in your work. 

The worst agents by far are those that I have come across in the States. Awful people. I had one who told me he didn’t think he could represent me ‘because I don’t think I would walk through walls for the book’. It was a stupid thing to say – a good agent is a salesman and a good salesman should be able to sell anything. I had another agent from a large agency grinning with pleasure when he told me that he wasn’t going to take me on. They seem to take pleasure in belittling writers, an attitude I’ve always been unable to understand. So, my advice would be to get an agent if you can. Once you have a deal and the big money starts rolling in, watch your agent like a hawk and if they start to take you for granted, sack them and get another. Once you have a revenue stream on offer, you will suddenly find that they will reply to your emails!  Most writers I’ve been are unhappy with their agents but few ever move. It’s like banks. People are reluctant to change banks but they should do so at the first sign of a problem. There are plenty of banks out there and there are plenty of agents.

Book Promotion With Sockpuppets

Is it ethical for a writer to promote their work with sockpuppets?  Personally I don't see anything wrong with it and this video definitely works for me.

I've Been Buying More Covers!

A lot of writers talk about writer's block as if it was an illness, something that strikes out of the blue and prevents them from getting words down on the page.

With me it's about inspiration. Usually the words come tumbling out, but on the rare occasions they don't I always have fallback work ready to get my teeth into. Often if I find I am stalling on my main book, switching over to a short story can get the creative juices flowing again.

But where do you get the ideas for the short stories, you may ask?

Well, here's what I do. Every few months I pop over to the website of The Cover Collection. You can VISIT THE COVER COLLECTION HERE.

They have an awesome collection of pre-made covers for just £50, with many in a sale for just £30.

I buy a few, often using the titles that they have come up with, and I put them in a folder marked 'SHORT STORIES TO WRITE'.

Then when I find myself in a lull, I pick up one of the covers and write a short story to go with it!

I just bought another five. See what you think? It's hard not to be inspired, right?

What Books Are Best Suited for Self-Publishing?

This is a guest post from the awesome Faith MacAnas, a technology blogger for Secure Thoughts - Enjoy!

Self-publishing isn’t for every book. There are some genres that significantly outperform others, and it is important that authors in pursuit of self-publishing their books using tools like Kindle Direct Publishing are well-aware of the types of books that sell well as self-published titles.

Romance
Romance novels are the best-selling books by self-publishing authors. Books in this genre that have been published independently make up 66 percent of the market share. In fact, Big Five publishers earn just 18 percent of the profits generated by romance books. For reference, the Big Five publishers are Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

Meredith Wild is one of the best-selling romance novelists. She self-published her debut novel, “Hardwired” in 2013, and eventually became stocked in brick-and-mortar bookstore chains across the country. By 2014, she was listed on the Bestsellers lists of the “New York Times” and “Wall Street Journal”. She has sold millions of books worldwide and her novels have been translated into 20 languages.

Science Fiction and Fantasy
In the self-publishing market, Science Fiction and Fantasy are a close second behind Romance with 56 percent of all sales in these genres coming from self-published authors. Some of the most successful self-published Fantasy and Science Fiction authors include J.R. Rain (400,000 copies sold), B.V. Larson (250,000 copies sold) and David Daglish (175,000 copies sold).

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Earning 26 percent of its sales from self-published authors are the Mystery, Thriller and Suspense genres. One of the most successful self-published authors in this genre is Adam Croft. He used Kindle Direct Publishing to distribute his 2011 debut novel “Too Close for Comfort”, which saw huge success on the platform. Over the course of the next five years, he has self-published a further eight books and has sold over 350,000 copies. In 2016, his novels generated $1.4 million in sales.

Non-Fiction
Self-publishing is the perfect outlet for non-fiction writers, with 26% of all sales in this genre coming from self-published outlets. There are a number of advantages to publishing non-fiction books yourself, and it is ideal if your topic is a niche one. Previously, you would have to sell your idea to agents and publishing houses, who may not see the need to publish a book on a subject that they deem too specialized to sell well. However, self-publishing allows you to directly reach out to those who are interested in that particular niche.

One of the major benefits of self-publishing non-fiction e-books is that you can make updates and revisions as necessary. When new information on your subject becomes available, you can update your book’s digital file to include it and keep readers in the know about the latest developments. With print books, you would have to wait for sales to dictate if a new edition is necessary before you make any changes.

The Bestselling Self-Published Authors 

Some of the most successful writers in recent history are self-published authors who specialize in the above genres. They knew their readers and were able to forge successful careers with self-published novels that were eventually printed by Big Five houses and optioned for movies.

The most popular example is E.L. James who wrote the “Fifty Shades of Grey” erotic romance trilogy. Before becoming one of the bestselling print novels ever, it was originally published on fan fiction sites since it was based on the “Twilight” series. Her stories eventually went viral and James was eventually offered a contract worth over $10 million by Vintage Books. By the end of that year, the trilogy had sold 70 million copies around the world.

Hugh Howie, author of “Wool” went a more traditional route for self-published authors. In July 2011, he published the opening chapters of his dystopian sci-fi trilogy as an e-book novella using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing tool. Over the course of the next few months, he released four more installments, which put his name at the top of the Amazon Bestsellers list. Eventually, Howie was selling up to 30,000 copies of “Wool” every month.

After negotiating with plenty of publishing houses, he was offered a six-figure advance by Simon &Schuster to finish his trilogy. The rights for the “Wool” have been purchased by 20^th Century Fox, and several big names have signed on to produce the film. Nicole Perlman, who wrote the screenplay for “Guardians of the Galaxy”, will write the film, while Ridley Scott and Steve Zallian are producers.

If you’re writing a Romance, Science Fiction or Mystery book, you can look forward to tapping into a great market for self-published authors. These are just a few of the success stories out there, and you can certainly follow their examples in forging a fruitful career as a writer.

Are you working on self-publishing your next book? Leave a comment. We’d love to hear more about your project!

Author Bio: Faith is a technology blogger for Secure Thoughts, a leading cybersecurity resource, and her content aims to help creatives keep their work safe online. She also has a passion for reading novel thrillers. As a huge fan of authors like Stephen Leather, Hugh Howie and Adam Croft, she is fascinated with their success in self-publishing.

Getting A Boost From Amazon

The wonderful folks at Amazon have decided to slash the prices of most of my self-published paperbacks for UK readers for the month of May.

It's a terrific promotion for those readers who want to hold a real paperback in their hands.

I've written before about the advantages of having Amazon promote a writer's books. You can read that HERE   Amazon have run several promotions for my eBooks over the years, and they have always boosted sales. But this is the first time they have offered to promote my self-published paperbacks.

This is what they said to me late last month.

It's a great promotion, and a chance for readers to get paperbacks at a really cheap price.
I have self-published the books through Createspace, which is an awesome print-on-demand system which most self-publishers use. The promotional Amazon price is less than I pay when I buy copies from Createspace!

Authors don't make as much money from the POD paperbacks as they do from eBooks but it's worth doing as so many readers do prefer paperbacks to eBooks.

Amazon have chosen six Stephen Leather paperbacks as part of the May promotion.

New York Night is just £5.99 for the month of May - You can buy it - HERE

San Francisco Night is also just £5.99 - You can buy it HERE

Spider Shepherd: SAS Volume 1 is now £5.39 now, down from £8.99 - You can buy it HERE

Spider Shepherd: SAS Volume 2 is also £5.39, down from £8.99 - You can buy it HERE

Take Two is also down from £8.99 to £5.39 - You can buy it HERE

The Bestseller is slashed from £7.99 to £4.79 - You can buy it HERE

Createspace - Another Way Of Self-Publishing

I was one of the first writers to crack the eBook market with self-published books. At one point back in 2010 I had four of the five top positions in the UK Kindle bestellers chart, something no other writer has managed.

But it took me some time to try selling self-published paperbacks. I was never convinced that the time and cost was worthwhile. But I had a lot of people telling me they wanted to see my self-published books as Stephen Leather paperbacks.

I was a bit nervous about making the jump to self-publishing paperbacks but I've been pleasantly surprised at how well my paperbacks - published through Amazon's Createspace platform - have sold.

The two Jack Nightingale stories I have put on Createspace - New York Night and San Francisco Night - sell in greater numbers than the five Jack Nightingale books published by Hodder and Stoughton. And my copies are selling at £9.99 each!

Here are the covers of my two self-published Nightingale books.

Anyway, here's me talking about Createspace on a blog - CLICK HERE

Awful 'Journalism' From Ian Johnston Of The Soon-To-Close Independent

A truly awful piece of journalism appeared in the Independent this week under the byline of Ian Johnston, describing Amazon as Darth Vadar and accusing it of closing down small publishers.

Strong stuff. Totally wrong, of course. No one has done more to help independent publishers than Amazon. Any book published by anyone anywhere can be bought through Amazon. How does that not help small publishers?

So what is the source of this attack on Amazon?

Well, the headline says it all -  AMAZON. THE 'DARTH VADER OF THE LITERARY WORLD' IS CRUSHING SMALL PUBLISHERS, FORMER DOWNING ST ADVISER CLAIMS

Ah. So the source is a political spin doctor? Hmmmm. We all know how reliable they are, right?

The adviser is Rohan Silver, who is launching his own book shop.

Ah. So the source is a spin doctor who plans to go into competition with Amazon. Obviously a man with an axe to grind. And what better way to get publicity for his new venture than to attack Amazon in public?

Silver even describes his new shop as 'an Amazon-killer'.  Now I know that spin doctors do tend to tell porkies, but seriously? His shop has as much chance of killing Amazon as I have of walking on the moon.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan - and supporter - of book shops (and libraries).  I shop at book shops and I do signings when asked. And I agree that Amazon's discounting and superb customer service has hurt book shops. But the Amazon marketplace is available to all sellers, and offers opportunities for small publishers to sell their wares around the world.

If small publishers are hurting, then let's hear from them. But let's also hear from all the new publishers that have been formed to take advantage of the Amazon marketplace.

I function as a small publisher. I sell thousands of eBooks a month and 90 per cent of them are sold through Amazon. I am not alone. Thousands of other authors are publishing their own work and most sell their work through Amazon. Small publishing operations like ours would not be possible without Amazon. And hundreds of small publishing companies have been set up to help authors sell their eBooks - that would never have happened without Amazon.

This article by Ian Johnston is one-sided partisan nonsense. And it's not even his own work!

You can read Ian Johnston's article in The Independent  HERE

As you can see HERE  it's a rewrite of an article that appeared in The Daily Telegraph. That's all he did. He didn't speak to anyone, and he didn't add anything. He just rewrote what the Telegraph had published.

What would a decent journalist have done? Spoken to Amazon, for a start. Or spoken to small publishers. Or spoken to someone with a different point of view. Or perhaps realise that the 'story' was a nonsense and should be ignored.

Ian Johnston didn't do any of that. He just rewrote the Telegraph article and the Independent published it. Shame on the Independent, but then it's a pretty awful newspaper these days. Readership has slumped to just 40,000 and it will shut for good next month.

Good riddance, I say. It's a pity, because I was a Fleet Street Journalist when The Independent was launched in 1986 and back then it was a terrific paper and I like most journalists admired it for what it was trying to do. Friends of mine worked for it and they were all enthused by The Independent's commitment to fine journalism. But those days are long gone. Now it's staffed by ill-trained youngsters in the main, wannabe journalists who would never have been hired back in the Eighties.

The Independent will continue as an on-line edition, but I'm fairly sure it won't succeed in that form either. Not with journalists like Ian Johnston, anyway.