Following up a Number 1 Bestseller

About thirty years ago, I took a writing course. Amongst the basic questions I had to answer was, "What do you hope to achieve as a writer?" Arrogant as ever, I wrote, "I want to write a bestselling novel."

It wasn't merely arrogant, it was completely off the wall. At that time, I'd never actually written a full novel, and for years afterwards, I continued to turn out essays, articles and short stories.

Earlier this week, however, I did it. I had a book at number one in an Amazon chart.

There's some licence with the term "bestselling" because I wasn't selling The Handshaker over the weekend, I was giving it away. It's a part of the Amazon KDP Select program, whereby the book is exclusive to Amazon for a period of 90 days and during that time, the author is permitted to make the book free for five days.

For a comparative unknown like me, it's a useful exercise in raising visibility. Over the weekend The Handshaker took almost 1,000 downloads. It was even downloaded by readers in Germany and Italy.

And on Sunday, The Handshaker came in at number one in the UK free hard boiled thriller chart.

The promotion only ended two days ago, and it's too early to say whether it has had the desired effect, but the book continues to sell, and as I write (Wednesday morning) it is now in the Kindle UK paid thriller chart, sitting at number 75, and it's also at number 83, in the same UK chart for books.

Can I maintain the momentum? Well, I hope so, but there is another secret to bestselling books. Write another one.

And that's exactly what I'm doing.

The Executioner sees Alex Croft in trouble again, but this time someone is lopping the heads off the good people of Scarbeck. A direct sequel to The Handshaker, The Executioner will see the reappearance of many of the same characters on both sides of good/evil fence, and one or two will disappear forever. It will ask the same basic question as The Handshaker did. How far can a master hypnotist take his skills? Tinged with paranormal overtones, littered with cryptic clues, The Executioner will tax Croft's courage and tenacity once more. Will he come through?

Well I don't know do I? I've only just started writing it.

The Executioner is a good six months, perhaps a year away from publication, but watch this space for further news.

In the meantime, The Handshaker is available for the Kindle from Amazon UK, and Amazon Worldwide.

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The Handshaker: he takes them, he uses them, he murders them.