Tomorrow sees the release of the ninth full-length entry in the DCI Warren Jones series, Web of Lies. So this week's #TuesdayTip is going to examine the process of writing the quickest novel I have written to date.
Web of Lies wasn't the book I was planning on writing. A couple of years ago, when I signed my latest 3 book contract, I gave my publisher three loose outlines for the next in the series. The first, about an unidentified dead body found in a ditch, became 2021's Out of Sight. The second, a blood-soaked serial killer novel, became 2022's Time To Kill. The third was an idea about homeless victims. The basic premise for each pitch was little more than a couple of paragraphs (regular readers of this blog will know by now that I rarely plan much in advance), although I had sketched out the character arcs for my series regulars.
Like many writers, when I am coming close to the end of the current novel I am writing, my mind starts to wander and I begin to think about the next book. This time, as I was coming to the end of Time To Kill, I started to realise that my proposed third book had too many themes in common with Time To Kill. As I mulled over what to do about that, I happened to be watching a true crime documentary. I can't for the life of me remember which one, but my attention was caught by an interview recording. The set up was unremarkable: a couple of police officers off-screen, a suspect in the obligatory grey tracksuit, and a solicitor, face blurred, diligently taking notes.
And an idea started to form. Nothing to do with the crime for which the man was being accused, rather the set up. And a really interesting 'what if?' scenario.
I did some research, and then reached out to a fellow crime writer, Lesley Jones and her husband Chris, who I had enjoyed the company of at a CWA conference dinner a few years previously. They are experienced solicitors, and so I proposed the central premise of my novel. To nobody's surprise, what I suggested would be legally questionable, ethically dubious and unlikely to happen in real-life. But it was still a good idea. So with their help, I worked my way around the problem and came up with a scenario that would work. I then placed it to one side and carried on working on the book I was supposed to be finishing. But of course, now that the idea had taken hold, other thoughts started to form.
For years, I have fancied writing a missing person novel. The attractions are obvious - from the very start of the novel, there is a ticking clock. Rather than starting with a dead body, which in some ways can be almost routine, the investigative team is immediately thrust into a high-stakes race against time.
By the time I had finished the first complete draft of Time To Kill, I was desperate to start writing my new book. According to the time stamp on working draft version 1.0 for Book 9 (the working title for Web of Lies) the document was created on July the 1st 2021.
One of the things about being a writer under contract is that you always have a couple of books on the go at different stages of development. Time To Kill was far from finished; I had sent copies to my trusty beta readers, Mum, Dad and my then fiancée Cheryl. After a few weeks, their notes came back and I stopped writing Book 9 to incorporate those changes. I then had to go through the manuscript again, looking for places to trim and shorten. Eventually I submitted Time To Kill to my publisher and started writing Book 9 again .
Over the next few months I took time out for a brief holiday and to supervise some building work. The first complete draft of book 9 was finished on the 12th of October. Subtract the time when I was doing other things, and I estimate that initial draft took less than three months. This is less than half the time taken usually.
Why it was so quick, I genuinely have no idea, and if I could bottle whatever it was that caused the words to flow so quickly, I'd be a very happy man!
Maybe it was the weather and the summer months? I wasn't tutoring over that period, which helps, and the weather was warm enough for me to work in the garden. I've found that using my tiny little writing laptop that doesn't even have  email installed helps me maintain focus. In the winter months, I tend to work in my office on my proper laptop. This has a double screen set up, and whilst it is undoubtedly more efficient and easier to work on, perhaps that is off-set by having more distractions? Perhaps I need to exercise more discipline and close my email and put my phone away? Alternately, maybe I should move somewhere that I can work outside all year around?
Or perhaps those are just excuses. Maybe I just bottled a bit of lightning this time and it all came together.
I'll let you know next time…

If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.

Until next time,
Paul.

This week's #TuesdayTip is inspired, in part, by the epic conclusion of the BBC drama, Happy Valley. First off, rest easy that there won't be any spoilers!
It occurred to me as I watched the series that one of the key strengths is the characterisation, in particular the way in which even the worst characters have qualities that make the readers empathise with them.
I've written before about how protagonists (the 'hero') and antagonists (the 'baddie') can often be two sides of the same coin, and how the same character can switch between the two (Tip#113). Today, I want to focus on the antagonist and discuss why the most memorable 'bad guys' have positive traits interwoven between the evil.
It's very easy to write a pantomime villain - a character that is all bad. They have no redeeming qualities, and the audience loves to hiss and boo as they make their entrance. But I find that one-sided approach to be ultimately unsatisfying.
Human beings are complex creatures. We accept that no person is wholly good. We all have flaws, some big, some small. Dig deep enough into your personal heroes and you'll find aspects of their personality or things that they have done that you disagree with. Similarly, the tabloid newspapers are experts at presenting killers and rapists as monsters with no redeemable qualities. But look beneath the surface (sometimes very deep, admittedly), and you will always find something that is good or likeable about that person. It doesn't excuse their actions, but it is there.
Furthermore, it is this contrast that often makes them more scary. How often have you heard shocked neighbours describing the quiet man at number 42 who turned out to be a serial killer as 'an ordinary family man'? Aside from the uneasiness from realising that evil-doers often hide in plain sight, the juxtaposition of a person who outwardly appears affectionate towards friends and families with an individual that is capable of great cruelty, magnifies the horror we feel at what they do. That contrast amplifies the impact of their crimes.
In Happy Valley, the writer Sally Wainwright, and actor James Norton, crafted a memorable antagonist that kept millions of viewers hooked for three seasons, spread over almost a decade. Tommy Lee Royce was capable of tremendous cruelty and violence. Yet in the final episodes he evolved from a wicked bogey monster to a complex, damaged individual. Many viewers were left discomfited by the fact that whilst none of his actions could be justified, they could be understood on some level. They found themselves feeling a degree of sympathy towards him, that means he will linger in their consciousness long after the series has ended.
Humanising The Bad Guy.
As writers, we want our characters to not only leap off the page through cleverly-crafted descriptions and memorable actions, but we also want our readers to experience emotion as they read about them. In the case of our antagonists, we want the over-riding feeling to be negative. But if we truly want them to feel authentic and to make them memorable, we need to tap into that inner contradiction that human beings are both good and evil. In other words, we need to humanise them.
Now first of all, humanising is not the same as condoning. Empathising with a character is not the same as forgiving them. Hitler was no less evil because he was a vegetarian who loved his dogs.
So how can we humanise our antagonists to make them more rounded, memorable and effective villains?
To do so, you need to give them traits that we can empathise with, or motives and desires that we can understand (and perhaps even agree with, even if we would never countenance how they set about to achieve them).
The first tranche of Marvel comic book movies built towards an epic showdown between the Avengers and Thanos, a god-like creature who, with a snap of his fingers killed 50% of all living beings. Evil incarnate.
Yet look at his motives: to simplify greatly, he believed that the universe was being destroyed by over-population. His drastic solution was to halve the number of lifeforms. Few would agree with his methods, but his goal, the protection of the universe, was on one level laudable. Fundamentally, he believed he was making a sacrifice for the greater good. Add to that his love for his adopted daughters and you have a character that is a lot more memorable than at first glance.
Back on Earth, I was faced with a conundrum when writing The Common Enemy, the fourth full-length novel in my DCI Warren Jones series. The victim in this book was the leader of a far-right extremist party. Tommy Meegan was racist, homophobic and violent, as were his friends. However, I needed the reader to empathise with the victim, otherwise they wouldn't care if Warren brought his killer to justice or not. They didn't have to like him, or agree with him, but they did need to see him as a human being.
You can do this for your own characters in a number of ways.

• Most powerfully, show that they are loved. Despite their failings, give them family and friends who enjoy spending time with them and miss them when they are absent.
• Show why they are loved. An easy way to do this is small acts of kindness or loyalty. Does your murderous, psychopathic serial killer do a bit of shopping for their elderly neighbour? Do they ring their grandmother or visit a dying relative every day without fail?
• Show that they can love. Maybe they have a family that they would do anything for? Or a beloved pet.
• Give them traits that make them likeable under the right circumstances. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, they are unlikeable. But do they have a sense of humour? Or everyday interests and hobbies and opinions that you or I may share? Hannibal Lecter is a charming, erudite and cultured individual. If it wasn't for his murderous impulses, I dare say he'd be enjoyable company at a dinner party.
• Give them flaws that the reader can empathise or sympathise with, because the reader shares them or knows others who do.
• Give them a motivation that we can understand (or perhaps even agree with to a certain extent). Do they kill for revenge (they or a loved one have been hurt)? Are they so obsessed with always being in control because they had a childhood where they felt powerless? Do they commit acts of violence because that is the only way they were taught how to solve a problem? Do they just want to share their inner pain with others, so they aren't alone?

How can you humanise your antagonist? Can you think of any good examples in fiction or real-life?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.
Until next time,
All the best,
Paul

It's release day for DCI Warren Jones' eighth full-length outing! Time To Kill is available as an eBook today, and paperback and audio later in the summer.
​You can read more about it here, or download it here.
So I decided to celebrate by interviewing the star of the show, Detective Chief Inspector Warren Jones.
Enjoy.

PG: Welcome to this week's Heart of Herts podcast, in association with Middlesbury Gazette - your number one source for Hertfordshire news and views. I'm your presenter, Paul Gitsham, and today I am joined by Detective Chief Inspector Warren Jones. I'm sure listeners to the Heart of Herts podcast will be fascinated to hear from Middlesbury's most successful detective.
WJ: Um, thank you. That's very kind of you to say so.
PG: Now, just a little background. I can tell from your accent that you're from Birmingham, and I understand you started your career in the West Midlands Police?
WJ: Sorry, just to interrupt there, I'm from Coventry. The accents can sound similar to those not from the West Midlands.
PG: Oops, sorry about that. I guess my next question about whether you support Aston Villa or Birmingham City is a bit redundant! I imagine you follow Coventry City. The Sky Blues?
WJ: Erm, I don't really watch football...
PG: OK. Why don't we start that bit again? We can replace it in the edit.
[PG starts recording again.]
PG: You started your career with West Midlands Police, on the mean streets of Coventry. But you decided to transfer to our quiet corner of North Hertfordshire, back in 2011, I believe? Why the move?
WJ: That's correct. I did my training with the WMP, and worked in Coventry and the surrounding towns as a uniformed officer, before joining CID, where I was eventually promoted to detective inspector. Unfortunately, when it was time for me to progress further, there were no vacancies within West Mids, but a post had recently become available at Middlesbury CID, so I made the move down here.
PG: Ah yes, a vacancy became available after DCI Gavin Sheehy was sacked after allegations of corruption. Were you aware of the circumstances surrounding his removal before you moved down here?
WJ: I'm afraid, I can't really talk about that.
[PG sighs]
PG: OK, I'll cut that from the interview. Let's try something else.
I referred to Middlesbury as a 'quiet corner of North Hertfordshire'. And up until 2011, it certainly was. But since your arrival, it would seem that's no longer the case. How many murders have there been since you came here?
WJ: Um, I can't tell you off the top of my head ...
PG: At least one a year, often more. Some of our listeners feel that crime rates have soared recently. In fact, a few weeks ago, you investigated a serial killer. Can you tell us a bit about that?
WJ: Unfortunately, I can't comment directly on that investigation until the trial concludes.
[PG rubs eyes wearily]
PG: We're not having a lot of luck here, are we Warren?
WJ: Sorry.
PG: OK, let's try something more general.
Some of our listeners feel that crime rates have soared in recent years. What are you doing to try and bring the crime rate down?
WJ: That's not really the role of CID. Our job is to solve crimes that have already taken place. Hopefully, by locking up those responsible, we can prevent future offences. You really need to speak to the Community Policing Team about their initiatives to reduce crime. Why not contact the Media Relations Unit?
PG: I'm not sure our listeners are really interested in a press release, I think they'd rather hear it from you, Warren.
WJ: Sorry. It really isn't my department.
PG: In that case, let's start again and talk about how you go about solving a crime.
[PG clears throat and reactivates the microphone]
I believe that you are somewhat unusual in that despite your senior rank you still interview suspects and speak to witnesses. Why is that?
WJ: You are correct that most of my peers tend to have a more managerial role, however I've always enjoyed the hands-on side of policing. I am very fortunate that Middlesbury's unique role as a first-response CID unit allows me the freedom to pursue investigations in that way. It's one of the reasons I love my job.
PG: Some would say that it is a role better suited to a lower rank, such as a detective constable or perhaps a detective sergeant. And that with the ever-shrinking police budget, it would be better to close Middlesbury and absorb you and your officers into the combined major crime unit in Welwyn Garden City. How would you respond to that?
WJ: I can't really comment, it's a bit above my pay grade.
[PG stops the recording again]
PG: We're really struggling here, Warren.
[PG starts again]
PG: What are your views on the austerity cuts to the police under the Conservative government?
WJ: As a serving police officer, I'm afraid I have to remain politically neutral.
[PG sighs]
PG: What about the decision to close the Forensic Science Service in 2012? How badly has that impacted what you do?
WJ: Again, I can't ...
PG: Yeah, yeah, I get it.
[PG switches off the microphone]
PG: Warren, why exactly did you agree to this interview?
WJ: Off the record?
PG: If you must.
WJ: I lost a bet to DI Tony Sutton.
PG: Can I ask what about?
WJ: He said that I wouldn't be able to last a whole week without caffeine. If I managed it, I got to choose the music in the car for the next month. If I lost, I had to agree to do an interview with a journalist.
PG: How long did you manage?
WJ: Three days. Which is longer than my wife thought I would.
PG: Do you think DI Sutton would agree to an interview?
WJ: He'd be delighted. But he'd probably end up saying something that would get Hertfordshire Constabulary sued, so the Media Relations Unit have already banned him from speaking to the press.
PG: You know what? Maybe we should knock this on the head.
WJ: That's probably for the best.

Paul Gitsham is a former biologist, secondary school science teacher and tutor. Time To Kill is the 8th full-length DCI Warren Jones novel, with another four shorter novellas, plus short stories.
He currently lives in the east of England with his fiancee, in a house with more books than shelf space. 

Where do you go next when your last book had half a dozen victims?

As writers, we always want to improve our craft. We want our next book to be better than the last. We owe it to our readers, and we owe it to ourselves.

But as in so much of life, there can be a perception that better means bigger.
So, to repeat the question, where do you go next, when your last book had half a dozen victims? Do you kill seven this time? Eight?
Clearly that would soon get ridiculous. Lee Child's Jack Reacher series numbers over twenty entries, and whilst Reacher can be a one-man wrecking crew at times, the body count is rarely that high!

Over the course of my DCI Warren Jones series, I have resisted the urge to try and make the next story "bigger". In fact I have deliberately switched between "big" stories and "smaller" stories.
But what does that mean? First of all, it has nothing to do with wordcount. Each of my full-length novels is the same length, plus or minus about 10%.

Rather, I define a story as Big or Small based on the impact that the central murder or murders have on wider society.

Murder invariably has an impact beyond the immediate victim. Like throwing a stone into a pond, the ripples extend to effect the all those around them. Friends, family and loved ones of the deceased are affected, for good or bad. The same can be said for the killer - murder is not an act to be undertaken lightly, and the consequences of a life sentence can also be felt by those associated with them. And, whilst every death is a catastrophe in its own way, some leave a bigger impression on society than others.

Yet a Small story should be no less compelling than a Big story. A meaty thriller with a serial killer who kills multiple victims is by definition a Big Story. That story is composed of many individual tragedies and the ripples can be felt far and wide. A Small story allows for greater study of an individual tragedy. The ripples might not travel as far, but the author can spend more time with those affected. The investigation at the heart of the novel can still be as complex and twisty, but there is no need for a escalating body count to satisfy readers.

I like to write a mix of stories whose impact is either big or small. The first in the Warren Jones series, The Last Straw, concerns the murder of a university professor. And whilst we meet an ever-widening pool of suspects, with multiple motives, the ripples are largely contained within that pool. On the other hand, book 2, No Smoke Without Fire, is about a serial rapist and murderer. There are multiple victims. Each is its own tragedy, and we spend time with their loved ones, but there is understandably a wider effect on the wider community. Who will be next? Should those in the surrounding area be concerned about their own and loved one's safety?

The ripples can be felt in other ways. The central murder in The Common Enemy is that of a far-right extremist. The consequences here would seem to be contained to his loved ones (and whilst he was a deeply unpleasant character, few people travel through life without at least someone who cares for them and will miss them). However, Middlesbury is a powder keg of racial tension at this time, and the death of this one man has the potential to spill over into far greater conflict, so I would class this as a Big story.

The latest two entries in the series, Out of Sight, and this summer's Time To Kill are an example of each type of story. Out of Sight deals with the killing of a lonely man with a secret life. He's ostracised by his family, but as we find out, he still had many who cared for him, however the ripples are largely contained within his circle. Time To Kill has Warren and his team uncover unexpected links between seemingly unrelated deaths. Once it becomes apparent that anyone could be next, the ripples are more akin to those caused by throwing a large rock into a pond, rather than a pebble.

The take home message here, is that a better story doesn't have to be a Bigger story. It isn't necessary to raise the body count or even raise the stakes to keep a series improving. A small intimate study of a single death can be just as good as a wide-ranging investigation into a bloodbath. The next book in a series can still be better than the previous without needing to throw a larger stone into the pond.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel that once an author has "gone large" they need to continue with those Big books whose ripples extend far and wide, or can they dial it back in the next book and focus on a single death that is important to those in the victim's immediate circle but of limited concern to the rest of the society?

As always, feel free to share your thoughts her or on social media.

Until next time,
best wishes,
Paul.

To celebrate the release of DCI Warren Jones, Out of Sight, as paperback and audiobook, I decided it would be a great time to sit down with Malk Williams, my long-time audio narrator, and have a chat about what it takes to turn a novel into an audiobook.
The full conversation was kindly hosted live on the Facebook page of UK Crime Book Club and is archived on their YouTube page. You can watch the whole thing here, and hear some of Malk's favourite accents, as well as some of his stories about being a narrator.
But as this is a #TuesdayTip, I have distilled some key bits of advice from this conversation, plus other tips that I've picked up in previous chats with Malk.

Why Have Your Books Narrated?
Over the past few years, audiobooks have increased massively in popularity. Once seen as a niche market, increasing numbers of people have been turning to them when commuting, or as a way to while away the hours when doing other things, such as housework. Audible is owned by Amazon and books are often synced with the Kindle version of the novel, allowing readers to switch seamlessly between reading and listening. Depending on the price-point that the royalties for eBooks and audiobooks have been set to, audiobooks often come with a greater revenue cut. Although, it should be noted that the higher price of audiobooks is in part necessary to recoup the additional costs needed to produce the recording. 
How Is It Done?
As with everything these days, authors can in theory create the audiobook themselves. But it should be noted that to create a professional-sounding recording, you will need a decent microphone setup, somewhere that can act as a soundproof booth, and appropriate editing software. Furthermore, you really need to consider paying for an editor, and that reading for twelve to sixteen hours takes its toll (a decent-sized novel might take a couple of weeks of full days)! Furthermore, not everyone's voice is suited to reading aloud. Audio narrators are skilled professionals.
The process itself is somewhat more complex than it may seem - it isn't just a case of sitting in a sound-proofed room, pressing record and reading. The specialist software is needed to help you edit out mistakes, balance sound levels so that each chapter is a consistent volume, and artefacts such as throat clearing or fluffed words are removed. The finished recording typically consists of a number of individual sound files - one for each chapter - which then need to be correctly packaged.
For most writers, paying a professional is the most sensible route to go down. In the same way that self-published books where the author has designed the cover themselves, edited it themselves and typeset and formatted the eBook/paperback, tend to stand out and look amateurish, self-recorded audiobooks are similarly difficult to produce. It's up to you to decide if the investment is worth it, but if you are serious about producing a polished, professional product that will turn a profit, you need to think about hiring professionals. See the section below for more information about how you can get your books narrated.
The process.
There are several steps of which reading the text aloud is only one.
A typical work flow might look like this:
Pre-reading. The narrator reads through the manuscript. They make notes about which voices they will need to do, identify words that they need to verify the pronunciation for, and think about accents. Malk sometimes contacts me here.
Read each chapter and record it as a separate MP3 file. If they are working with a producer, they may send each chapter to them as it is completed.
First pass editing. Experienced narrators will probably do this themselves. They make sure there are no obvious errors and it all sounds even and clear. Often the narrator will pick up an error as they are reading. They can mark the error by clapping and continue reading (this creates a spike in the waveform, that can be easily located later) or they can "punch and roll", where they press a button and the software rolls back a few seconds, so they pick up the narration before the error and just record over the mistake and continue.
Proofreading. Just like writers, narrators can miss small errors. The proofreader will return corrections, which the narrator re-records. An editor will then insert these corrections into the audio file, as well as cut out background noises or coughs and other artefacts and unnecessary pauses.
Mastering. Here the volume etc is balanced across the files so chapter one isn't louder than chapter two etc.

Dos And Don'ts.
(or how to be kind to your narrator!)
When I started writing my DCI Warren Jones series, audio narration wasn't something I had ever considered. I was four books into the series before it was even mentioned. With the benefit of hindsight, there are things I would have done differently.

• The biggest error I made, was failing to mention until several books in that one of my characters has a distinctive regional accent. I knew from book one that DS David Hutchinson was a Geordie from Newcastle. But I somehow neglected to write this down until a third of the way through book 5! Obviously, it was too late to correct this. I managed to get around this by mentioning in subsequent books that he'd spent most of his adult life in the Hertfordshire, and so his accent has been buried, only to resurface after a few pints or if he has been watching Newcastle United playing football. Malk and I still laugh about this now 🤣. If you can, give some clues early in the text as to how you'd like the character to sound. That way, they'll sound the way you want them to off the bat.
• Don't give the killer dialogue in the prologue! It seems obvious, but your narrator will have to speak that dialogue in the killer's voice, giving away their identity on page one! I dodged this bullet after a chance conversation with Malk - I subsequently rewrote the prologue of the book I was about to submit, so the killer's identity was concealed.
• Another classic error from that first book was including a load of data in a table! The team had the phone records for a number of unknown mobile phones, which they were using to construct links between different people. This is a commonly used data analysis technique and reproducing the table for readers seemed like a sensible thing to do. It worked beautifully for the eBook and the paperback - but presented a challenge for Malk when he narrated! Fortunately, he has a background as a technical writer and so was able to succinctly describe the table for listeners, but it could have gone horribly wrong. Narrators are often asked to record textbooks etc so they can describe graphs, images or tables, but if you need visual data in your book, consider writing a few lines of description for your narrator to read out - they'll appreciate it!
• A final faux pas from that book was the inclusion of a written note by a person with dyslexia. The text on the page was spelled phonetically, with the incorrect use of some homonyms (words that sound the same, but are spelt differently with different meanings - eg there and their or bear and bare) and it was obvious to the reader that the writer was dyslexic. Fortunately, my forensic linguist character discussed the note in detail, so listeners didn't miss anything. If I do anything similar in future books, I will have to put some thought into how my narrator can make it obvious to the listener, without me patronising readers.
• Read your manuscript aloud to yourself. It's amazing how we often read what we think we wrote, not what we actually typed! Reading aloud will pick up many of these mistakes, and so is good for editing generally. But it also highlights tricky sentences with complex punctuation - whilst a five-line sentence may be grammatically correct, will your narrator actually be able to read it aloud in one breath!
• Finally, emojis. These are available in character sets for printed material now. Malk assures me that he can deal with them, by reading a sentence and describing the relevant emoji eg "I'd hate for something to happen to you 😉" would be spoken as "I'd hate for something to happen to you, winking emoji".

How Can You Get Your Books Narrated?
If you decide that you would like your books narrated, then there are a few steps you can take.

• First, make sure you possess the legal rights to audio narration. If you have been published by a publishing house, check your contract. You may have granted the rights to audio narration etc to the publishing house, in which case you would need their permission to record the book. When signing a new contract, look at the terms - get it checked by a lawyer or join the Society of Authors and get them to vet the contract. If the publishing house is a large one, and they have already produced audiobooks of other authors' work, then you might be better off speaking to them about whether they would be willing to have them recorded (that way, they'll pay for everything!). If you are independently published, then you probably own all your rights, so there's no need for permission.
• Once you have the rights secured, you will need to choose a narrator. ACX is the talent exchange owned by Audible, but others exist. They have a database of performers that you can search to find a match that suits your book. They detail their skills and availability, list previous books that they have worked on and have samples that you can listen to.
• If you are looking for specialists in the British crime genre, there is a newly formed collective of experienced, award-winning narrators. Malk Williams, my long-time narrator, is a founding member, but between them they have contacts for most of the narrators working in the UK. Check out www.raconteurs.co.uk.   
• Payment methods vary. You can pay them a one-off upfront fee, or you can enter into a royalty-share agreement, whereby they get a cut of the royalties earned. As you can appreciate, this is a gamble for them - if the book doesn't sell, they won't get paid, so don't be disappointed if they want some sort of fixed-payment upfront to cover the time they will be investing. A novel may take two to four weeks to record and is a full-time job, meaning they can't do other paid work. If you register your book for PLR (the payment system for UK library loans), they will typically get a share of that also.

How Can You Get Into Audio Narration?
If you fancy getting into audio narration, be warned that it isn't for everyone. I know a couple of voice actors who steer clear of audiobooks. They've done them, but didn't especially enjoy the experience.
Malk cites the voiceover coach Sean Allen Pratt (paraphrased):
If you think audiobook narration might be for you, then go and sit in a cupboard. Choose a book to read. Start at the beginning. If you make a mistake, go back to the beginning of the sentence and start again. If you come across a word you are unsure of, stop and look up the pronunciation online - don't guess. Continue reading for several hours. Do that for several days in a row, until you've finished. If you haven't gone mad by the end of it, then maybe the job is for you.
To get work, you should record some samples and post them on ACX or similar.
When you have recorded a few books, then you may be able to apply to join a production company, whose casting directors might put you on their books and start contacting you, rather than the other way around.
As with anything in life, professionalism is key. Don't over commit to unrealistic deadlines. Make sure you are clear about any limitations (eg if you can't do Scottish accents, say so upfront, don't embarrass yourself and the writer). Keep a portfolio of work you are proud of.
It's also worth noting that at the moment, because of Covid, the market is saturated with out-of-work stage and screen actors.
Home-based narrators with their own studios, like Malk, were fortunate during Covid to be able to continue working, however, you don't need to commit to that sort of outlay. You can hire studio space as well as editors and producers.
Your Voice Is Your Tool.
Like all professionals, you need to take care of your work equipment - namely your voice.

• When I started my teacher training, we were taught how to look after our voices. For example, if you need to speak at high volume, practise this (there are tutorials on YouTube) - otherwise you can strain your vocal cords.
• Keep your voice well-lubricated. For example take regular sips from a bottle of TEPID water (cold can constrict the vocal cords) - use a bottle with a screw lid, not a glass, to avoid any expensive accidents!
• Take regular breaks when you try not to speak for a while - your vocal cords are muscles and will need periodic rests.
• Try not to start recording "from cold" eg as soon as you wake up. Speak a bit to loosen your vocal cords before recording, otherwise the pitch might change as the muscles warm up.
• Some suggest that coffee might dry your mouth, but it's not an issue that Malk has ever found a problem.
• If your voice is feeling scratchy, try a spoon full of manuca honey to soothe your throat.

So there you are. I have been delighted with my audiobooks, I love them! There is something special about hearing a skilled professional like Malk bringing my characters to life. Even if you aren't considering having your books recorded, I hope you've learned something and please do check out the video, Malk is an entertaining speaker.
Until next time,
Best wishes,
Paul.

They say that you aren't a real writer until you've had your first 1 star review.
The emergence of Amazon two decades ago, followed by the launch of the Kindle, accelerated a shift in the way in which readers and writers connect, and rewrote the definition of what we mean by a book review.
Readers have always communicated with writers. Before the internet revolution, it was done the old-fashioned way by pen and paper. When the World Wide Web emerged in the nineties, anyone with an internet connection could track down an email address and let the writer know what they did (or didn't!) like about the book they had just read.
Similarly, prior to this a 'book review' was an opinion piece, written by a professional journalist or literary expert, and published in a newspaper, magazine or journal. The problem was that these 'gatekeepers' only had enough time and column inches to read and review a small number of books each month. With thousands of books published each year, authors and their agents needed the right connections to get their latest manuscript in front of these influential eyeballs.
A blockbuster author is all but guaranteed space on the books page of every national newspaper, whilst lesser-known writers have to fight it out for the few remaining paragraphs of space left over. In many ways, that hasn't really changed.
The changing of the guard.
However, the advent of Amazon helped catalyse the rise of the 'review society'. Now, anybody buying any product, or using any service, is exhorted to 'leave a review'. At the same time, the ease with which one can set up a simple blog to share your thoughts has led to an explosion in booklovers sharing their passion with the world (you can read my own small contribution to this by visiting my Recommended Read Blog).
The newest revolution is in social media. Facebook in particular is a fantastic platform for readers to talk about the books that they have finished. If you aren't already, I would recommend joining a few of the many Facebook book groups out there.
Democracy is a double-edged sword.
This democratisation of the review process has been, for the most part, positive. Traditional book reviews have sometimes been seen as elitist; the reviewers part of the book industry. What so many of us want is a good honest recommendation from a person just like us. I liken it to trying to choose a wine. You can read a detailed review by a wine connoisseur, or you can go with your best mate, who had a lovely bottle from Tesco last week and reckons you'll really enjoy it.
As writers, we really appreciate the effort that so many of our readers go to. It validates what we do, gives us valuable feedback and ultimately helps sales. For those of us typically locked out of the review pages of the national newspapers, a review on a blog, a post on Goodreads, or a star rating on Amazon is much appreciated.
So, with all that being said, what are the downsides?
The first question is should read your reviews? Not everyone does. That's not because we don't appreciate them- really we do - but because it can be a bit uncomfortable. For everyone who gets a warm, fuzzy feeling inside when a stranger writes about how much they loved their latest book, there are those that cringe with embarrassment. Any teacher will tell you that there are kids in their class that hate it when they tell them how pleased they are with their work. It's human nature.
Then there are the bad reviews.
Writing a book is emotionally demanding. I know it can sound a bit pretentious, but you really do put your heart and soul into it. Even those of us that aren't writing searing, honest memoirs about our heartbreakingly miserable childhood have still spent hundreds or thousands of hours plugging away, in solitude, doing the very best we can. For me, that finished book is the culmination of the previous year's work. Waiting to see what others think of it is like going into your boss' office for your end-of-year appraisal, having not had any previous feedback on whether you've been doing your job to the standard expected. It can be nerve-wracking. A bad review just confirms what you suspected all along - you're actually an imposter, who has no business foisting their meagre talents on the world at large.
Human nature is such that a writer can look at a list of thirty or forty 4 and 5 star reviews, and skip straight to the two 1 star reviews.
Trolls don't just live under bridges and on Twitter.
Another unintended consequence from this ubiquitous reviewing culture is that the pseudo-anonymity of social media has made bullying much easier. Once upon a time, if you stood toe-to-toe with somebody and told them they were useless and crap at their job, you ran the risk of a headbutt. Not anymore. And unfortunately, book review sites aren't immune to these keyboard warriors. Trolling is rife on review sites and whilst Amazon will remove personally offensive comments about the author, they won't touch reviews that are factually inaccurate or deliberately contain spoilers designed to ruin other customers' enjoyment of a book. They've also just removed the option to comment on posted reviews, or explain why you think a review should be taken down, leaving it to the 'judgement' of a faceless moderator (or more likely AI bot).
Goodreads (owned by Amazon) is another site with little or no moderation. Unlike Amazon, which at least blocks the ability to post reviews until after a book has been published, Goodreads allows reviews for any books listed on its site, including those not yet available. The reason is to allow reviewers with advanced copies to post their thoughts and 'generate buzz' before a book hits the shelves. It's not uncommon for publishers to create a holding page for a book a year ahead of publication; it is a useful way of letting fans of a series or author know to keep an eye out for their next book. I've got off pretty lightly, compared to some I know, but I did ask that a 3 star rating for a book that I hadn't even finished writing yet be removed...
Opinions are like ar$eholes; everyone has one.
You are not going to please everyone. Furthermore, it's probably best not to believe your own hype. Telling you not to place too much stock in your reviews is the easiest advice to give and the hardest advice to follow.
For a dose of realism, read the Amazon reviews of the 'big' authors. What you'll soon see is that in amongst the hundreds of gushing 5 star reviews there are middling 3 star reviews by readers who got bored halfway through. There are thoughtful dissections of why they feel this book isn't as good as their last - hard to read, but valuable sometimes. And there are excoriating 1 stars from readers who absolutely hated the book, or who have an axe to grind. And of course there are those who are clearly as mad as a box of frogs or who don't fully understand the system (nothing is more depressing than 'best book ever, I couldn't put it down' - 1 star.")
Similarly, a 1 star review for one of my books lamented that it never arrived. It was an eBook...🙄
Identifying the axe grinders.
A useful exercise is to click and see what else that person has reviewed. I have some brutal 1 stars from somebody who has read and hated everything I've ever published - seriously, maybe my books aren't to their taste and they should stop the self-flagellation? I will willingly forgo the royalties from those sales if it helps put this poor person out of their misery.
Another reader gave me a blistering 1 star that was so bad I wondered if they knew me personally! A look at their review history indicated that they don't actually seem to like crime fiction. Rather more tellingly they were similarly disappointed with a packet of lubricated suppositories. I wonder if they were perhaps sitting a little uncomfortably when they read my book?
However, my favourite review ever is this gem for my second book, No Smoke Without Fire:
"Good power ,and seems quite sturdy, have to make sure you don't leave it lying down full in the kitchen as it might leek and annoy the wife."
So with all that in mind, what do you think about reviews?
If you are a writer, do you read them?
As always, fell free to comment here or on social media.
In the meantime, I'm off to check the Amazon page for my latest, Out of Sight... please be kind...
Paul

Click here for more details about DCI Warren Jones 7, Out of Sight.
 Out in eBook on June 4th 2021 and paperback and audiobook on August 5th.
Amazon Link.
Consider buying paperbacks from Bookshop.org to support independent sellers.

Hello, and welcome to the latest #TuesdayTip.
This Friday sees the publication in eBook of the seventh full-length DCI Warren Jones, Out of Sight. And so I thought it would be interesting to relate the journey of this, the eleventh book in the series - a book created largely during one of the strangest years in my, or anyone's life.
It all started so well...
Officially, I started writing what would become Out of Sight during the first week of September 2019. I had just submitted the first complete draft of book six in the series, A Price to Pay, to my editor at HQ Digital, the imprint of HarperCollins that currently publishes my series. That book marked the completion of my latest contract - three novels and three shorter novellas published over the previous three years. I had pitched my latest ideas for another six books a couple of months previously and although I had not yet received confirmation that I would get another contract, I was keen to start work on the next instalment, which I intended to be a novella.
The basic premise, as is normal for me, was little more than a collection of loosely-linked ideas. I'm not a great plotter, and tend to write out of sequence, so the final product usually bears only a passing resemblance to the initial outline. However, HQ have always been generous enough to let me crack on and see where the book leads.
I had also started a new job, teaching science three days a week at a new school, so I had quite a lot on my plate!
By October, I had written about 15,000 words - and then my editor phoned to discuss my next contract and the future direction of the series. The upshot was, that for a number of (very good) reasons, it had been decided to stop publishing my novellas. Rather they wanted to concentrate on full-length novels.
My first thought was "what the hell am I going to do with this partially written novella?" Ditching 15k words and starting again seemed like a cruel blow.
But then a nagging worry that had been keeping me awake at night suddenly had a solution.
As stated earlier, I am not a plotter. And for the first time, this was proving to be a potential problem. You see, I kept on having really good ideas, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that they weren't all going to fit into a short novella. But suddenly, I had 120k words to play with. Ideas that I had reluctantly concluded wouldn't fit into the book could now be used.
It was as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
Immediately, I set about rewriting what I had already completed.
For the next few months, I happily juggled writing book seven with completing the edits for book six and the forthcoming novella, At First Glance.
Then March happened!
Suddenly I found myself installed on the kitchen table, our lovely office given over to my partner who needed its privacy more than I did. On top of that I, and thousands of teachers around the country, found themselves remote teaching with little notice. It's hard to overstate the size of that shift. My school was better equipped than many, with all learners having devices to use at home, and already versed in Google Classroom, nevertheless writing and rewriting resources for a practical-based subject such as science for students to use independently was a huge undertaking.
Experienced teachers such as myself may take 30-60 minutes to plan a typical lesson. Suddenly, each lesson was taking up to two hours to prepare. The need to track our learners' progress - normally done by walking around the classroom and interacting with students - became ever more important and time-consuming. I resigned myself to the fact that my jealously-guarded, two-day-a-week writing time was going to have to take a back seat. No longer needing to produce two books that year became an even bigger blessing. Then there was the small matter of having to reorganise a wedding (repeatedly)…
A faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
By June, I had found a new rhythm. Lessons that I and my colleagues had written in April could be tweaked and delivered again to a different class. Both of 2020's books had been published, and by the end of the summer term I had largely regained my two writing days. Now the challenge was to hit my September 1st deadline!
One of the biggest jobs at this stage, is to start putting my book into the correct order. I write out of sequence, and so, by the time I hit 90 to 100,000 words, I have scores of short sections that need placing in a logical order.
In July I moved all these fragments into 'working draft 2.0' and started identifying what sections needed rewriting, what chunks of text needed moving again (for example references to the forensic analysis of a piece of evidence needs to take place after the evidence been discovered!) and what needed writing from scratch.
At the end of July, school ended and I could become a full-time writer again. 2020 was the summer without a holiday, so there were no excuses there and I ploughed on, taking advantage of the nice weather to do some red-penning in the garden.
By the beginning of August, the book was ready for its next stage. It had been through several drafts and it was time for a fresh set of eyes. By now, Public Health England were inviting people at random to take home tests for Covid-19 to monitor its prevalence in the community. My partner and I were fortunate enough to be selected; the timing couldn't have been better. Since the very first book, The Last Straw, was completed, my father has been a beta reader, alongside my partner. And so, armed with our recent negative tests, we took advantage of the relaxation in the rules to surprise my Mum for her birthday (they were shielding, as were we, so our negative tests meant that we could be confident that it was safe to do so). Alongside her gift, I also presented them with a bulging lever-arch file...
Some new eyeballs.
Now it's time to wait! What would they and my partner think? I emailed my editor to explain that the book was completed, but that pandemic logistics meant that I might not quite hit my September deadline. My editor values the input of my beta readers almost as much as I do and so was more than happy to give me a bit of leeway.
A few days later, my partner finished her read-through. Lots of red pen, but she liked it! And importantly, hadn't spotted any significant errors that would necessitate a big rewrite. I worked my way through her edits, then had my first ever editorial meeting by video, with my Dad! He had spotted many of the same errors as my partner, plus some others, and had some interesting ideas which he read out, and I either corrected there and then on my laptop or noted for later. He then suggested that as Mum (a former teacher) was at a loose end, she could have another go at it. Needless to say, the following week's meeting had even more corrections!
Barely a fortnight after my initial deadline, I emailed my editor the most polished submission of my career!
The waiting game.
Of course that's only the first stage, but I could now start writing book eight, summer 2022's novel. At the end of October, my editor sent her initial feedback. It was positive! She liked it. But I needed to lose about 8,000 words and make some changes. She suggested a deadline of December and so I placed book eight on hold, printed out a copy of the manuscript and her editorial letter, and wielded the red pen again. I've written before about the editorial process (#Tip 48), so won't go over it again, suffice to say, some darlings were killed, some new ideas incorporated, and what emerged was meaner, 4,000 words leaner, and all the better for it.
Then some wonderful news - my editor was leaving to have a baby! I was disappointed that we wouldn't be working together for the next book, but she handed me over to Dushi, who had worked on the series previously so was familiar with the characters. I knew I was in good hands.
Christmas came and went, and mid-January, Dushi sent back her thoughts. This is the first time that I have had two editors go through a manuscript and it was a fantastic experience. Dushi did a brilliant job, and so I printed it again and spent the next week or so incorporating her suggestions. It was now even tighter, with a further 2,000 odd words ditched. We also finally settled on Out of Sight as the title.
Mid-February, the manuscript came back from Dushi with her line edits.
This time, there was no need to print. These are done on Word, using the 'track changes' feature. Dushi had corrected my spelling and grammar, rigorously applied the HarperCollins style guide, tightened some sentences and used the comment function to suggest some more tweaks and request clarifications. That took two full days, largely consisting of me clicking the 'accept change' button, adding or removing a few sentences, as per Dushi's suggestions, and writing my own response to some of her comments. Remarkably, it was now three hundred words shorter!
Amusingly, despite dozens of passes by me, three beta readers and two editors, it was only then that I noticed a character picked his daughter up from school on a Sunday... A hasty correction fixed that problem before I received emails from bemused readers, and snarky comments from Amazon reviewers - bullet dodged!
The final push.
I submitted this draft on February 23rd, along with my acknowledgments and dedication. I always leave this to the very end. Last year I was nearly caught out when I referenced events that should have taken place in May but were cancelled, so had to rewrite my acknowledgements just before publication. Lesson learned!
A final set of edits came back from the copy editor, with some more tweaks and then it was off to the proof reader. By now we had a fantastic cover, and the team at HQ had written a nice, punchy jacket blurb.
April the 8th was set for my cover reveal, neatly coinciding with my self-declared 'DCI Warren Jones Day' a few days later. The book became available for pre-order on all the major eBook sites, and the paperback and audio release dates set for August the 5th. I am going to write a separate post detailing my interactions with my long-standing audio narrator, so keep an eye out for that later this summer.
Marketing a book is always interesting. My publisher does a lot of work behind the scenes of course, but I'm no Richard Osman so much of the hard work falls to me. I actually quite enjoy making my own graphics and videos, it's a creative process that I never realised was so much fun. You may have seen some of my posts on social media. There will be plenty more to come, particularly in the run up to the audio and paperback releases.
Now it's just a case of sitting back and waiting for the glowing reviews and multi-million dollar royalty cheques to come rolling in... And finishing book eight.
I hope you enjoyed this insight into the creation of a book, particularly in a year that threw up unique challenges.
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time,
Best wishes.
Paul

According to the file creation date on the Word document that would become the first draft of the book that would eventually be published as The Last Straw, DCI Warren Jones came into being on Tuesday 12th April 2011 - exactly ten years ago today. So for this reason, I decided to bring forward this week's #TuesdayTip and put together an article sharing some of that journey and what I've learned in those ten years.
For a quicker, more light-hearted read, you may want to check out my post on the HQ Stories blog, where I catalogue the 10 things I've learned in 10 years.
https://www.hqstories.co.uk/2021/04/08/ten-things-paul-gitsham-has-learnt-in-ten-years/ 


Your debut novel probably won't be the first book you have attempted to write.
An oft-quoted saying can be paraphrased as 'the first million words don't count'.
Whilst there are exceptions to every rule, most authors have at least one previous attempt locked away in a drawer somewhere. I have several. Some are literally in a drawer - I became quite the expert at purloining blank exercise books from school for my scribblings*, and these unfortunate attempts will never see the light of day. Neither will the three hidden on my hard drive.
Yet none of these were a waste of time. Writing is like any other skill. You need to practise, and whilst a million words seems like a lot, when you add up those abandoned manuscripts, the various short stories and essays I've written for creative writing classes, and my rambling missives on social media, I'll bet it isn't far off.
But, The Last Straw was the first novel I completed.
The key point I am making is do not despair at a perceived lack of progress. Your first finished book is just the visible point of a very big pyramid.
 (*For the avoidance of doubt, I pilfered these exercise books when I was a pupil, not as a teacher twenty years later!)
Titles come and titles go.
The title of my first book was The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back.
It was clever, fitted the story perfectly and highly original. It was also ridiculously long.
Take a look at the titles of a typical crime fiction novel and you'll see why my publishers promptly renamed it The Last Straw. If nothing else, at least that fits on the cover!
Since then I have published a further ten titles - all of them follow the loose theme of a play on a well known phrase. I'd love to take credit for these titles, but really I can't. Naming a book is an art form in its own right and only a few are mine. No Smoke Without Fire, Forgive Me Father, Blood Is Thicker Than Water and At First Glance are the only names that stuck. The rest have either been tweaked by my publisher or are entirely a product of their marketing department.  Aside from a couple of times where I have fought my corner, I've generally been content to accept the wisdom of those more experienced than I. 
And so do names!
I've written previous articles on how to name characters (TuesdayTips 31, 32 & 33). But don't let that fool you. Since day one, I've found choosing the perfect name for characters almost impossible. When I started writing The Last Straw, the two lead characters' names were place-holders - Smith and Jones. Fans of British comedy will know why that pairing was never going to be the final choice. As it happens, I became very attached to Warren Jones, but Tony Smith became Tony Sutton  - a popular surname in Essex, the county from where he comes. Other characters in that manuscript changed in the final draft. With the benefit of hindsight, I would go back and tweak the names of a few of the series regulars - some are very similar to each other - but I'm stuck with them now, and I've grown to like them.
Finishing the book is just the start.
First of all, if you've just completed your first draft, congratulations! Seriously, give yourself a pat on the back.
My best friend, upon hearing that I had completed The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back, told me I should be proud of myself. 'Do you know how many people have started but never finished a novel'? And he was right. Probably hundreds of thousands of people have ideas for a book. Tens of thousands have tried to write it. Yet only a small number actually get to type The End.
Even if that's the final step of your journey, you have accomplished something that many people attempt, but never quite manage.
But that first draft is just that. By the time I was ready to shyly ask some close friends and family to have a look at my book, it had gone through months of revisions. That first draft was completed at the beginning of November 2011 - a little over 6 1/2 months after I first started writing it, but it was the best part of a year before I bought my copy of the Writer & Artists Year Book and started submitting to agents and publishers.
Rejection, rejection, rejection.
Aside from a lucky few, almost all writers have a pile of rejection slips (or more likely unanswered emails) evidencing their attempts to get an agent and/or publisher. It's not personal. There are a million reasons why you aren't signed. The chances are good that it has nothing to do with your writing! Agents and publishers have very clear ideas about what they are looking for at any given time, and it can be something as simple as the fact that they have just signed a writer similar to yourself - if you'd submitted before them, they could have taken you on instead. Keep on plugging away!
Back in 2012, I was still a full-time school teacher and self-publishing was in its infancy. Many authors were starting to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by Kindle and forging very successful careers. Some are extremely well-respected today and have earned an impressive following. But many of the tools and services that exist now were not available, and I just didn't have the time to do all the hard work that publishers do when it comes to editing and polishing a book, choosing a cover, typesetting, converting and uploading to Kindle, then marketing it etc.
It would have been a fascinating project to take on, but I wanted to spend my precious free hours writing more books and so traditional publishing was the best route for me. If I were starting today, perhaps I would have chosen differently, but I don't dwell on that . 
Publishing the first book gets in the way of writing the next one!
After finishing book 1, I was buzzing so much I promptly started on book 2. But that soon ground to a halt when my first beta readers gave their thoughts. There were months of work to be done on book 1 before I could start submitting it. The same thing happened with book 3; feedback from book 2 came in and I had to put that manuscript to one side. Nevertheless, by the time I finally got the call in summer 2013, from a new, digital-first publisher. I was half-way through book 3. They offered me a three-book deal. Now I had to juggle writing book 3 with editing books 1 and 2 again as my publisher sent them back for revisions and rewrites.
Some novelists only produce a handful of books during their career, with a gap of years between them. They finish a book, publish it, promote it and then start thinking about what to write next. For an ongoing series, momentum is the key to building a following. And so you find yourself stepping onto a treadmill; many writers I know are working on three books simultaneously: completing the edits for the upcoming book, writing the next in the series and planning the following book. 
Publishers change.
The publishing industry is very dynamic. Personnel come and go constantly, accepting promotions within their organisation or moving to a different publishing house. The traditional concentration of the industry in central London can make such career changes quite easy. Even the publisher itself can change.
My original publisher was Carina UK (their logo can be seen on the original editions of my first four books). Carina was a digital-first imprint of Harlequin, a publishing house known primarily for its women-oriented fiction, including the famous romantic fiction imprint, Mills & Boon.
I vividly remember my only visit to their headquarters in Richmond. I was buzzed into the office and upon reaching the first floor was confronted by a sea of pink, a massive M&B logo and a room full of women.
"Anyone expecting a delivery?" was how my presence was announced by the receptionist.
"Actually, I'm an author," I said.
Now, it's a myth that all romance writers are women - I know quite a few male authors of romantic fiction, but they usually hide behind their initials or pen names, so I can forgive her assumption.
"I'm with Carina."
"Ah, that makes sense," she said, pointing towards a corner of the room that had been painted the distinctive blue that they still use today. Back then, I was one of only a handful of male authors, and even fewer crime writers, working for the fledgling imprint - something that changed rapidly over the coming years.
After my first four books were published, it was all change. Harlequin was bought by HarperCollins. The Carina UK imprint (which shared its name with a different imprint in the US) was renamed, along with the rest of Harlequin and became HQ Digital (later HQ Stories as they started to publish more physical books and audiobooks), retaining its distinctive blue branding. For obvious reasons, they kept Mills & Boon as it was, given its name recognition and heritage.
Since then, I have had many more books published with HQ and have had several editors over the years. It's always sad when they move on, but change is a part of life, and I have always forged enjoyable and productive partnerships with their successors.
Covers aren't as unique as you think.
One of the lovely traditions when releasing a new book is the cover reveal. I had mine for Out Of Sight just last week. If you are with a traditional publisher, then the chances are it will have been cooked up by the design team (or whoever they subcontract to). There's no question that there are certain tropes within the genre.  A recent joke doing the rounds on Facebook was asking if anyone knows who the woman in the red raincoat is that features on so many covers, since she probably needs counselling!
When choosing the cover, there is quite often some dialogue with the publisher, and you may be asked your opinion. For a series, there will be an attempt to unify the fonts, colour palette and layout to allow for a consistent branding. I have been very fortunate over the years, with my publisher completely changing the covers of my first four books after a few years to make a more distinctive look as the series expanded.
All well and good, but there is a little secret...
The original cover for my second book, No Smoke Without Fire, perfectly encapsulated a key scene in the book. I loved it. So imagine my horror when a few months later, I spotted the exact same cover image on a different book. The title and genre were different, but they'd even used similar fonts! I checked the publication date and it had been released about a month after mine. Plagiarism! I sent an urgent email to my publisher...
Well it turns out that generally speaking, they don't have teams of photographers scouring the world for that perfect image... Instead they use a stock photo from a database and then modify it. Ten minutes with Google reverse image look-up revealed that the picture had been uploaded to one of the major stock image databases a couple of months before publication date - roughly about the time that our respective cover designers will have been choosing the perfect image...
Show me the money!
Everyone has heard of the six, seven or even eight figure advance. It usually helps if you are a celebrity. Unfortunately, the reality is different. Only a select few authors get to sign contracts for life-changing sums of money. In fact, surveys have shown that median income for writers is now far below that needed to live on if it is your sole source of income and it appears to be declining. And most of that income is derived not from advances, rather royalties on books sold.
I remember well the excitement and anticipation of my first royalty cheque. At the time, Harlequin paid its authors quarterly, so this cheque would be a bumper sum covering three whole months of sales.
£50.60 for 52 copies sold.
The following quarter was a breath-taking £217.60 as 242 copies landed on Kindles... Since then, things have picked up, and whilst sales will always be up and down, all my titles continue to sell. The annual release of a new book also renews interest in earlier entries in the series.
But you know what? Whilst I am grateful that I earn enough from writing that I have been able to reduce the hours in my day job to part-time, I couldn't stop writing about Warren if I wanted to. Over the past ten years, he and his team have become like friends to me and no longer chronicling his adventures would leave a gaping hole in my life. All that being said, if Netflix are reading this, please don't be shy, my email address is on the image at the top of he page...
And finally, whilst we are on the subject... Amazon Sales Rankings tell you nothing of any value! Obviously, a book in the top ten of the paid book chart is selling more copies than one languishing around the 500,000 mark. But the algorithm used to calculate your sales ranking each hour is a closely-guarded trade secret that takes into account everything from actual sales in the past hour to historic sales data over an unspecified period, the outside temperature and the colour of Jeff Bezo's underwear last Tuesday. Unfortunately, because rankings are relative to other books, yours depends on others' performance as much as yours. There are services that attempt to use the hourly changes in the rankings to calculate when sales occur, but Amazon deliberately makes it difficult for them to work accurately. I suspect this might be because authors publishing directly via Amazon have privileged access to real-time sales data, one of the key selling points for their services.


So there you have it. Ten years since I started writing DCI Warren Jones and just over seven years since The Last Straw was published. A further ten novels and novellas have since been written, with the seventh full-length, Out of Sight, just a couple of months away, and more are in the pipeline. 

Happy Warren Jones day!