Iain Cameron's Blog, page 3

Look What’s on Amazon Daily Deal Today!

Today (Monday 7 Aug), pick up the 5th novel in the DI Angus Henderson series, Red Red Wine, for only £0.99.

Amazon have included Red Red Wine in their Daily Deal – this price will be available for one day and only in the UK. Find the book here.

Book Synopsis

A ruthless gang of wine fakers are operating in Sussex. They have already killed one man and will stop at nothing to protect a lucrative trade that is making them millions.Budget constraints prevent Henderson travelling to France where the victim once worked and where he suspects the dodgy wine originates, but American Harvey Miller can. Working for a wine investor, Miller stakes out the vineyard but his spying activities are spotted and gets beaten up for his trouble.Henderson suspects a London gangster, Daniel Perry, is behind the gang. Perry is a ruthless operator who has already been acquitted of murdering his business partner. Henderson is aware of Perry’s reputation but while he vows to tread carefully, no one warned him to safeguard those closest to him.

 

Amazon Daily Deal

This coming week, pick up the 5th novel in the DI Angus Henderson series, Red Red Wine, for only £0.99.

Amazon have included it in their Daily Deal and this price will only be available this Monday/Tuesday (7/8 Aug) and only in the UK.

Book Synopsis

A ruthless gang of wine fakers are operating in Sussex. They have already killed one man and will stop at nothing to protect a lucrative trade that is making them millions.Budget constraints prevent Henderson travelling to France where the victim once worked and where he suspects the dodgy wine originates, but American Harvey Miller can. Working for a wine investor, Miller stakes out the vineyard but his spying activities are spotted and gets beaten up for his trouble.Henderson suspects a London gangster, Daniel Perry, is behind the gang. Perry is a ruthless operator who has already been acquitted of murdering his business partner. Henderson is aware of Perry’s reputation but while he vows to tread carefully, no one warned him to safeguard those closest to him.

 

Move Over Fifty Shades

The latest fad (or should it be ‘dad’) to fly off the bookshelves are books about single dads. This summer, according to romance novel veterans Mills & Boon, the most desirable male heroes in fiction will be hot, single dads. Their appeal to equally single women is their capacity for looking after children, as by implication they will be caring and nurturing. The heroes of these books (according to the publisher) are real and relatable, and often offer hope of a second chance at happily ever after. New titles include The CEO Daddy Next Door (woman finds herself with a billionaire single dad neighbour)’, Bachelor Dad (single mum falls for single dad), The Daddy Project (single mum and dad have fake relationship) and Saved by the Single Dad (paramedic dad is saved by red-headed beauty). All have covers featuring images of topless men with six-packs, like these three.

Single Dad's Hostage: A Fake Marriage Romance

On a personal note, a couple of my books are included in the ‘Heist’ category within Amazon. To me ‘heist’ suggests bank robberies with guns and post office hold-ups with sawn-off shotguns but it never ceases to amaze me the number of books like the ones above that also appear there. If you’ve read one (or several) and can explain the ‘heist’ connection, I’d love to hear it.

 

 

 

Fancy a bargain?

Two of my books have been selected by Amazon for their June Monthly Deal promotion. Driving into Darkness and Fear the Silence have both been reduced in price and are now available for £0.99 in the UK and £1.27 in the US.

Car thieves are terrorising Sussex

A gang of vicious car thieves are smashing into rural properties and stealing expensive cars. Their violence is escalating and it is feared someone will soon be killed. The prediction comes true when Sir Mathew Markham, a prominent Brighton businessman is murdered. Detective Inspector Angus Henderson can see differences between the methods employed by the car thieves and the way the victim died, but his bosses, the press and the general public believe it was the gang and are baying for justice.

The DI must go out on a limb to prove another murderer is responsible, but in doing so, he puts his own life on the line.

Find it on Amazon UK £0.99 here

Find it on Amazon US $1.27 here

 

Fame won’t protect you

A famous ex-model goes missing. Her husband is a womanizing, aggressive businessman and it isn’t long before friends and the press start to speculate about his role in her disappearance.

Detective Inspector Angus Henderson is at a loss, as their investigation shows nothing is missing from the house but the items she was carrying in her handbag on the morning she disappeared.

In time, the DI starts to believe it was her husband, but his judgement is called into question when another woman disappears.

Find it on Amazon UK £0.99 here

Find it on Amazon US $1.27 here

Self-Published Authors Being Snapped Up By Hollywood

An article in today’s Guardian highlights the fact that many self-published authors are being courted by Hollywood producers. One is Mark Dawson, the author of the Beatrix Rose and John Milton thrillers. I’ve been keeping up with the story of how a top Hollywood producer has lined up a well known director to film Mark’s Beatrix Rose books for television, as I follow the weekly podcast that he and James Blatch make available at SelfPublishingFormula.com. Mark is keeping the exact details of the deal close to his chest at the moment, but expect an announcement in the next few days.

Several self-published books have trodden this path before. The Martian, a highly successful film that took over £600m at the box office, was first published by Andy Weir as a $0.99 self-published book, and there can’t be many people who haven’t heard of 50 Shades of Grey, first published as a blog and then a self-published book.

What’s the attraction?

The reasons are twofold. In common with any successful published book, Hollywood loves a large pre-existing audience, think The Girl on a Train and Me Before You. Despite their names not appearing on any book chart being published by a national newspaper, many self-published authors, the likes of Mark Dawson, Adam Croft, Rachel Abbott and Russell Blake have sold millions of books.

The second reason is due to the film world being so litigious. Self-published books are regarded as having original stories and not based on something overheard in a Los Angeles cafe frequented by wannabe screenwriters.

While many dismiss self-published books as badly written and poorly edited, and I agree that many of them are, others are written by serious authors who intend making a success out of self publishing. They edit and re-edit their work, employ proof readers, editors and engage a professional book cover designer. Those with Mark Dawson’s level of success, spend hundreds of pounds a week on Facebook and Amazon advertising and now with Hollywood knocking at the door, he must feel it was all worth it.

 

Is Apple Developing Wireless Charging?

An interesting article in the business section of  Saturday’s Daily Telegraph caught my eye – ‘Apple prepares to introduce wireless charging for its mobile devices.’

There are agencies out there monitoring patent filings and recently Apple filed a patent which allows for mobile devices to be charged wirelessly, by picking up small amounts of energy emitted by radio devices such as wi-fi routers, radio masts and television transmitters. This is not a new idea as Toshiba and even Apple have previously done work in this area but commentators now believe the new patent is a sign that the company is starting to take the idea seriously. Wouldn’t it be marvellous to never again run out of battery during a phone call and not arguing with your children on holiday over the use of the only adaptor you took with you?

 

For those of you who have read my second book, Driving into Darkness, you will realise this is the very technology mentioned in the story as being developed by Markham Microprocessors. Markham were set to make millions from the idea and I suspect that if Apple can overcome the difficulties of making it work and shoe-horning the device into the small space available on an iPhone, it will become as important to them as any of their hardware products.

If you’d like more information about this book, please see the Home page on this website.

 

Is James Patterson Really an Author?

There are few people who regularly read books that haven’t heard of James Patterson. With an staggering output of more than 150 titles, he is without doubt, one of the world’s best selling authors and ‘one of the most prodigious literary figures that the world has ever seen’, according to a recent article*. He doesn’t just write crime thrillers, but has ventured into fiction, fantasy, romance and young adult.

How does he maintain this colossal output?

Patterson, a former Madison Avenue advertising executive, makes no secret of the fact that he runs a writing cooperative. Authors such as Liza Markland, Mark Sullivan and Michael Bennett work on developing a plot created by Patterson and their written drafts are edited by the man himself. The finished book will be published under Patterson’s name, or ‘James Patterson and …’ or using the author’s name with heavy endorsement from Patterson. Several of these co-authors have gone on to forge successful writing careers of their own, but many have not.

Is it immoral?

His methods could only be considered wrong or immoral if readers are being deceived. When you pick up a James Patterson book you know what’s inside; fast paced crime thrillers with few frills. Similarly, in collaboration with another writer, the same quality of plot and prose will be found between the covers. Interestingly, in the article mentioned below, ‘stylometry’ was used to analyse JP’s collaborated books and the dominant writing style was found to be that of the co-author – no real surprise there. Even with the range of books published under the collaborative author’s own name, identified by heavy JP endorsement on the cover, JP’s influence on the plot and the finished writing style is clearly evident.

This puts James Patterson in a unique position within the writing world, not so much an author or a publisher, but a quasi combination of both. What he does is certainly successful, selling more than Stephen King and John Grisham combined, and contributing significantly to five of the six major book groups within the Hachette Publishing Group. Now aged 70, there are no signs that he is slowing down, as a visit to his website will testify.

 

 

*James Patterson: Is the world’s bestselling author the main writer? by James O’Sullivan

Is James Patterson an Author?

There are few people who regularly read books that haven’t heard of James Patterson. With an staggering output of more than 150 titles, he is without doubt, one of the world’s best selling authors and ‘one of the most prodigious literary figures that the world has ever seen’, according to a recent article*. He doesn’t just write crime thrillers, but has ventured into fiction, fantasy, romance and young adult.

How does he maintain this colossal output?

Patterson, a former Madison Avenue advertising executive, makes no secret of the fact that he runs a writing cooperative. Authors such as Liza Markland, Mark Sullivan and Michael Bennett work on developing a plot created by Patterson and their written drafts are edited by the man himself. The finished book will be published under Patterson’s name, or ‘James Patterson and …’ or using the author’s name with heavy endorsement from Patterson. Several of these co-authors have gone on to forge successful writing careers of their own, but many have not.

Is it immoral?

His methods could only be considered wrong or immoral if readers are being deceived. When you pick up a James Patterson book you know what’s inside; fast paced crime thrillers with few frills. Similarly, in collaboration with another writer, the same quality of plot and prose will be found between the covers. Interestingly, in the article mentioned below, ‘stylometry’ was used to analyse JP’s collaborated books and the dominant writing style was found to be that of the co-author – no real surprise there. Even with the range of books published under the collaborative author’s own name, identified by heavy JP endorsement on the cover, JP’s influence on the plot and the finished writing style is clearly evident.

This puts James Patterson in a unique position within the writing world, not so much an author or a publisher, but a quasi combination of both. What he does is certainly successful, selling more than Stephen King and John Grisham combined, and contributing significantly to five of the six major book groups within the Hachette Publishing Group. Now aged 70, there are no signs that he is slowing down, as a visit to his website will testify.

 

 

*James Patterson: Is the world’s bestselling author the main writer? by James O’Sullivan

Newsletter July 2016

DI Henderson Box Set

Just launched – the DI Angus Henderson Kindle box set. It includes the first 4 books in the series and in the UK, it’s priced at £4.99 – a saving of over 25% on the published price. In the US and Canada, you can buy it for $7.99 – a saving of around 20%. If that doesn’t keep you occupied all holiday, you must be a very fast reader. If you’d like to find out more, click on your country below:

UK

US

Canada

Australia




Authors Turn to the Theatre

There’s usually some fanfare when a book gets sold to a film producer, but less so when an author puts on a play. Agatha Christie holds the record here with the Mouse Trap, now in its 64th year, but a couple of crime authors have recently been getting in on the act. A Perfect Murder by Peter James has just completed its third nationwide tour and coming up this September, John Harvey’s Darkness, Darkness at the Nottingham Playhouse. John Harvey is one of the giants of crime writing with dozens of books to his name. Darkness, Darkness is significant as it’s DI Charlie Resnick’s 12th and last case and in the story, he has to come out of semi-retirement to investigate, so there’s no going back.




X-RAY

If you own a Kindle, you won’t be a stranger to X-ray; it’s the handy feature that allows you to look up a character to remind you where they fit into the plot. But why do some books have it and others do not? In my case, three of my books have it, but Fear the Silence doesn’t. I wrote to Amazon thinking I had to ask them to do it, but the truth is more mundane. I quote –  ‘X-ray feature is added based on the number of readers reading a book each day.’ The key word here is ‘reading’. Amazon picks up the LRP, the Last Read Page, when your Kindle is receiving a wireless signal and calculates how often a book is read. Now you know.



ARM Takeover by Banksoft

This piece of business news was probably only of interest to employees of ARM, a Cambridge maker of microchips, and their shareholders as they both should do handsomely out of the deal. But did you know that Markham Microprocessors, the company featured in my second book, Driving into Darkness, is loosely based on ARM?

The backstory of Markham, as it appears in the book: ‘in this monastic atmosphere they produced a brilliant piece of computer code, frugal in its use of computer memory and power but devastatingly effective in the way it executed commands’ is just how ARM started. The architecture that the two brilliant (real) programmers developed, is still incorporated into chips that power most of the smartphones and tablets available today.



If you downloaded a free copy of One Last Lesson you’ll be familiar with Book Funnel. It’s a book service used by hundreds of authors, so if you had any problems downloading mine, your experience will be put to good use when you come to download a book by another author.

The easiest way to do this is via wi-fi, if your Kindle or e-reader is so equipped. If not, or you prefer to read on your computer or tablet, Book Funnel can send the book to you via email.

If you don’t have a computer and only use a tablet, have it emailed to you. When you receive the email, tap the attachment and your device will ask you which application you want to use. If you use the Kindle app or iBooks app, tap on the relevant one and the book will copied over. If you experience any problems, feel free to email me.


That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

Iain
P.S. If you have read any of my books, please leave a review on Amazon. I’m always interested to hear your views and it helps we authors to get noticed.

Any comments, issues or questions, feel free to contact me:

Email: admin@iain-cameron.com

Website: www.iain-cameron.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IainCameronAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IainsBooks

Newsletter June 2016

DI Henderson Box Set

Early next month you should see this little beauty appearing on my Amazon page. It’s a box set of all four DI Angus Henderson titles, available as a single Kindle download for a yet-to-be announced price. Why am I telling you this when you’ve probably read at least one of my books? The reason is simple, I’d like you to find out about these things first. Also, you might know someone who hasn’t read any of my books and would appreciate the heads-up.

 

 

New Book

I’m currently working hard on the new book. I can reveal it will be called Red, Red Wine and not surprisingly, it’s got something to do with wine. No, DI Henderson is not being admitted into the Priory Clinic or joining Alcoholics Anonymous, but on the trail of a gang of ruthless wine fakers who are making millions selling rare bottles with everyday plonk inside. You will also find the DI’s relationship with Rachel has moved on, and he goes back to his roots when he travels to the Highlands to see his parents. The new book will be published at the end of September.

My Website

If you haven’t visited my website lately, it’s had a spring-clean! The changes were made to improve clarity as some items of text were being obscured by the background picture and I wanted to publicise the on-going free book offer. If you haven’t taken a look in the last few weeks, you might have missed the following blog posts:

– Inappropriate Books Causing Mental Illness in Children

– Harry Potter Lifts Bloomsbury

– Undercover Police Work

My blog can be found here

Plot Ideas

The question I’m asked most often is where do plot ideas come from?

They can come from a variety of sources including: articles in newspapers, television programmes, conversations with friends, situations you’re involved in etc. What matters is how you deal with them. If I come across a good idea, I write it down and if particularly good, try and develop it into a more detailed story. I then leave it on my computer until I’m ready to write. If it can’t be developed into a book, it’s either binned or incorporated into another story as a sub-plot.

If you write books or would like to write, build a similar process into your daily routine and you will soon have a rich fund of stories to call upon and put an end once and for all to the dreaded writer’s block.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

Iain

P.S. If you have read any of my books, please leave a review on Amazon. I’m always interested to hear your views and it helps we authors to get noticed.

Any comments, issues or questions, feel free to contact me:

Email: admin@iain-cameron.com

Website: www.iain-cameron.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IainCameronAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IainsBooks