Ask the Author: Jack Heath
Answered Questions (32)
Jack Heath
Thank you! I think the less bombastic, more contained stories (like that one!) are the ones I'm most proud of.
Jack Heath
I'm glad! Hope you've been inspired to do something worthwhile. :)
Jack Heath
Aw, thank you, Jack! I consider a third book in that series VERY unlikely (most people don't even remember the first two) but if you're looking for more of that kind of thing, can I recommend Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith?
Jack Heath
There already is! (I've listened to Book 4, too.) If you can't find it, it may not be published in your country yet. My agent is working on it!
Jack Heath
Thank you, Kaz! I'd like to write a 5th one, but I have several other series on the go, and I was also very happy with how the 4th one ended. I'm aware that this is an unsatisfying answer, but I reckon there's about a 40% chance of more Blake/Thistle action in the future.
Jack Heath
It definitely hurts them in the editing process, but you do need a certain amount of optimism and self-delusion to write in the first place!
Jack Heath
My first four books, I went directly to the publisher. Since then I've had an agent (who is great).
Jack Heath
That actually could make a great story for one of the Danger books, if I took the banana peel out. It could be about a kid who falls down a manhole and breaks her leg, then has to fight off a bunch of rats in the sewer, or something...
Jack Heath
I plan my books in detail from the beginning, but the plan usually gets abandoned pretty quickly!
Jack Heath
Thank you, May! I honestly don't know. I'd like to write a fifth one, and I have lots of ideas, but I also have several other projects on the go. It probably depends on the sales (not only of the Hangman series, but also my other books). Fingers crossed!
Jack Heath
Have you read Whatever It Takes by Paul Cleave? AMAZING crime novel in the same genre (and by a Kiwi!)
Jack Heath
I'm so glad you liked it! It was always supposed to be a 5-book series, so I'm not planning to do any more - but I have a new teen-tech-murder book coming this year!
Jack Heath
I'm a fan of the Southern Gothic Genre, and the first book needed to be set somewhere with a very busy death row. Also, I was keen to differentiate Blake from Hannibal Lecter as much as possible, and I don't think Hannibal ever went to Texas.
Jack Heath
I just finished the first draft of book 4, Headcase! Should be out December 2022(ish). Hope you like it!
Jack Heath
Whoops! That was an oversight - I meant to put him in three times. Fixed now.
Jack Heath
I'd love to write one - but as always, it depends on sales. Wish me luck!
Jack Heath
We'd love to have you, but if you don't want to go to that much trouble, you can order the Australian edition online! https://www.bookdepository.com/Hideou... (Your local bookstore may also be able to order it for you.) Hope it's to your taste!
Jack Heath
It's just something my parents used to say, but a quick web search suggests that it's been traced back to the 1539 Collection of proverbs by R. Taverner! The more you know. :)
Jack Heath
That’s a sad story. In 2011, right before that book was supposed to come out, several major bookstore chains collapsed. My Australian publisher predicted (probably correctly) that without those bookshops, a print release would fail. They decided to release the book as an ebook only. They wanted to do it globally but I refused to give them the world rights. I thought no international publisher would buy the print rights if they couldn’t get the ebook rights as well, and that would mean anyone without a device (which was most people, back then) would never get to read it.
This was a bad decision. After the ebook came out in Australia—and sold about six copies—no international publisher wanted the print OR ebook rights, and the Australian publisher was no longer interested in a global release.
At least once a week I get an angry message about Dead Man Running, and how it isn’t available in the reader’s preferred format or country. Technically I could ask for the rights back and self publish it - but self-publishing is time-consuming and expensive (if you want to do it well). And frankly, I don't even like the book that much. I shouldn't have written it in the first place, given that the second and third books in the series sold so badly. I wrote Dead Man Running when I was in a very dark place mentally, which makes it a grim read - and I was still young and inexperienced, so I wasn't a good enough writer to make the story work. I don't want to release it in the US - I'd rather erase it from existence, even in Australia.
Can I recommend a different (much better) book? Perhaps Lifespan of Starlight by Thalia Kalkipsakis, or Impostors by Scott Westerfeld? I know it's frustrating not being able to finish the series. But I so desperately wish that I had quit while I was ahead (or at least, not so far behind). In my mind, book three IS the end of the series. Book four isn't even canon.
By the way, I'm about to make exactly the same mistake with a different series. (I'm writing a fourth book in the Timothy Blake series, even though only the first two were published in the States - the third was rejected.) Let's hope I've learned enough about writing in the meantime that I don't regret it.
This was a bad decision. After the ebook came out in Australia—and sold about six copies—no international publisher wanted the print OR ebook rights, and the Australian publisher was no longer interested in a global release.
At least once a week I get an angry message about Dead Man Running, and how it isn’t available in the reader’s preferred format or country. Technically I could ask for the rights back and self publish it - but self-publishing is time-consuming and expensive (if you want to do it well). And frankly, I don't even like the book that much. I shouldn't have written it in the first place, given that the second and third books in the series sold so badly. I wrote Dead Man Running when I was in a very dark place mentally, which makes it a grim read - and I was still young and inexperienced, so I wasn't a good enough writer to make the story work. I don't want to release it in the US - I'd rather erase it from existence, even in Australia.
Can I recommend a different (much better) book? Perhaps Lifespan of Starlight by Thalia Kalkipsakis, or Impostors by Scott Westerfeld? I know it's frustrating not being able to finish the series. But I so desperately wish that I had quit while I was ahead (or at least, not so far behind). In my mind, book three IS the end of the series. Book four isn't even canon.
By the way, I'm about to make exactly the same mistake with a different series. (I'm writing a fourth book in the Timothy Blake series, even though only the first two were published in the States - the third was rejected.) Let's hope I've learned enough about writing in the meantime that I don't regret it.
Jack Heath
Every morning I discover how little I know about something, and by the afternoon I usually know a lot more.
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