I’ve been a
little quiet about my writing lately. It’s not that I’ve stopped writing or
anything. On the contrary, I’ve been pretty busy over the past year. But it has
also been a time of reflection, uncertainty and change. Right now I’m working
on the first of a new series of crime thrillers, this time set closer to home.
But fans of the Doyle series may also be glad to hear that I haven’t given up
on him. Not yet. In fact, I’ve written the fourth in that series too. This
one’s a little different, in a number of ways.
I’ve done a
lot of thinking recently about Doyle’s fate. The reception the books get is, for
the most part, extremely positive, both from readers and the media. Pariah, the
first in the series, was Highly Commended in the CWA Debut Daggers, got rave
reviews, and audio and translation rights in several languages have been sold.
What I think
is missing, though, is exposure. I need to reach more readers. And that’s not
for financial reasons – it’s because, like most authors, I want people to enjoy
reading the books I have spent many hours of my life writing.
This leads me
to my first major decision about the new Doyle book. I’m going it alone. To be
more accurate, my fantastic agent (Oli Munson at AM Heath) and I are going it
alone. Doyle #4 is to be published under Amazon’s White Glove Program. If you
haven’t heard of the WGP, it’s a scheme that is open only to agented authors,
and offers the incentive of increased promotion. Everything comes at a price,
however, and what we have to offer in return is a period of exclusivity on the
e-book rights. That means that, at least in the short term, the only e-reader
on which the novel will appear is the Kindle.
The WGP has
done wonders for some authors. Mark Edwards published The Magpies under this scheme
– a book that has sold in the gazillions. He tweeted recently that the three
biggest-selling Kindle authors last year all achieved their success via the WGP.
Although I don’t expect to replicate that, I am excited at the prospect of
finding more readers than I have ever managed before. And while I’m on the
topic, I’d like to record here my heartfelt thanks to Mark for all the advice
he gave me.
A huge factor
in this decision is the autonomy it gives us with respect to pricing. We can
set it at whatever level we please, and we can change it as many times as we
like. When my third Doyle novel, Marked, appeared as a mass market paperback,
its price was something like £6.39, and it hasn’t dropped much since then,
despite my protestations. For a small fish such as myself in a very large pond,
this rules me out of the competition, especially when there are so many good
books by household-name authors that are being sold for a quid or so.
So what of
the novel itself? Here’s the jacket image (created by my talented wife) and
cover blurb:
It’s every mother’s nightmare – the
abduction of her baby.
That’s how it starts for Erin Vogel
when she is attacked and left unconscious in her apartment. When she awakes, it
is to find that Georgia, her six-month-old daughter, has been taken.
But Erin is given a chance to get
Georgia back. At an unthinkable price.
Like most mothers, she has always said
she would do anything for her child. Now the strength of that bond is about to be put to
the ultimate test.
And when her actions arouse the interest of a certain Detective
Callum Doyle, one thing is inevitable: a confrontation that will be as
explosive as it is unforgettable.
From the highly acclaimed author
of Pariah, The Helper and Marked comes a nerve-shredding novel that questions
the line we draw between good and evil.
I hope you
like the sound of it. As I said above, Cry Baby differs from its predecessors
in a number of ways, of which the Kindle decision is but one. I think you’ll
notice a difference in style in this book too, which I think has matured since
I began writing, and the tone is somewhat darker. Despite being a Doyle book,
it can easily be read as a standalone, with much of the focus being on
characters other than Doyle.
At the moment
I’m doing a final proofread, with the intention of sending it out to potential
reviewers before its publication (so please let me know if you are interested
in a free review copy).
It’s an
exciting time, but also a scary one. Wish me luck!
