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