Dead is the way to get ahead. Dead, it seems, is the lifeblood of book promotion. For a writer, dead sells.
I lose track of books I’ve read because dead is everywhere. A search of Amazon UK showed 46,919 results for ‘dead’ in book titles.
But the word and the idea are to crime writers what a trowel is to a bricklayer. Some series have ‘dead’ or variations of the word in every title.
A quick poll of leading authors puts Peter James top with ten followed by Mark Billingham (5), Ann Cleeves (4) and Simon Kernick (3). Val McDermid has one ‘dead’ and four ‘murder’.
A book with the D word on its cover looks like a dead cert.
TO blog or not to blog? Social media is a huge void crying out to be filled and the temptation is to waffle if you have nothing to say. This temptation I try to resist.
If I have something to say, especially if it’s current, I put it on Danny’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates (all “likes” gratefully received!) – although I will blog when the muse visits.
I’VE read a run of really good books lately. One is the second in a crime series featuring Dr John Watson – another ‘dead’.
As if the Hound Of The Baskervilles wasn’t dangerous enough, Watson faces peril again in The Dead Can Wait, Robert Ryan’s second crime story featuring Sherlock Holmes’s biographer in the First World War.
After a rough time in the trenches as a medical major in Dead Man’s Land (there’s another one!), Watson returns to England but life is no less lethal. He is sent to a secret base developing a war-winning weapon but some people do not want it to succeed. Excellent stuff, brilliant series.
LAST week it looked as if Amazon had awarded GUNNER, the ebook of my father’s war diary, a category all its own. It featured in the top 100 KindleStore-Books-BiographyTrueAccounts-Historical-MilitaryWars-Branches-Army chart. Nichy but nice.
I WAS puzzled when an Amazon taste robot rejected a GUNNER promotion due to unacceptable language. It took a while to spot the problem. The bot objected to a type of German aircraft – a Focke Wulf. WTF!
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Remembering Barbara – www.barbaragubbins.co.uk
GUNNER: The diary of an ordinary soldier – all proceeds to a military charity
UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LGSZQTU – only 77p
US: www.amazon.com/dp/B00LGSZQTU – only $1.26