Roz Southey and Chris Nickson

The long-term health of the crime fiction genre depends on a number of things, including the willingness of publishers to bring out the work of new writers – and to keep publishing capable writers for more than a couple of novels. All too often, there is a tendency for new or newish writers to be picked up on, say, a two-book deal and then dumped thereafter if the figures don't look good. I understand the economic reasons for this, but short-term thinking has major downsides in most...