Character Building.

For many authors, one of the hardest things to do is build convincing characters. In the world of commercial thriller fiction, where by default a novelist is asked to take the reader out of the ordinary world, it can be extremely tough to create characters that can be both believable and inspiring at the same time. Make your character too tough or invincible, and many readers will complain that they're not believable; make them too vulnerable, and you're stepping out of your genre altogether.

It's a tough call to make, to find a narrow spectrum of attributes that enables your hero to be tenacious, resilient and resourceful without becoming so unassailable as to insult the reader's intelligence. The simple fact is that no one author is ever going to please all of their readers all of the time: my own debut novel, Covenant, has a review on one website that lovingly praises the realism and well developed character of Ethan Warner, my main protagonist, whilst right next to it sits another review complaining of a lack of character development for.... Ethan Warner.

I've been thinking a lot about character building as a result of these apparently contradictory opinions. It's easy to put it down to the readers' differing personal tastes, but I've come to the conclusion that something must be wrong to provoke any such wildly differing opinions on any one piece of work, and in my case at least I think it boils down not to a novel's characters themselves but how those characters fit the novel in question.

I've been watching a lot of TV dramas lately, those with two main protagonists. Shows like Rizzoli and Isles ( adapted from Tess Gerritson's novels ) really show how it should be done: both the leads are experts, but in totally different fields. Both are unrealistically talented, yet it doesn't matter because their skills perfectly fit the world they inhabit and their attitudes, friendship and banter keep the viewer coming back for more. Another hit show currently running, The Walking Dead, does much the same thing but within a more serious world of survival and hardship. What these shows have in common is that the characters, friend or foe, are in constant conflict with each other, and conflict is what makes thriller fiction tick. But it's not the conflict of 1940's movies, with a moustachioed mastermind villain and the upstanding British agent in pursuit - it's real, day to day conflict of character that we all know ourselves from school or work or whatever, amplified to cater to the audience demand for something out of the ordinary, to be entertained by characters facing things that, most likely, we will never have to face.

Commercial fiction works much like these kind of shows, with characters placed in high-risk situations or careers whom we then follow. While keeping a viewer entertained for an hour is perhaps a bit easier than keeping a reader hooked for 400 or more pages, the same rules apply. If your lead character's nature perfectly complements the world they inhabit, then everything else will become more believable to the reader. Heroic or cowardly, humurous or droll, strong or weak or troubled or upbeat, the character must fit their world perfectly or somebody, somewhere, will find fault. The less that do, the more likely your next work will find success in a tough marketplace.

The International Crime Fiction Convention: Bristol.

Good news from the CrimeFest convention: I'll be appearing on two panels along with several other authors.

On Thursday, 24 May 13:30 - 14:20 : "They're All Out To Get You - It's a Conspiracy!"

Dean Crawford

Chris Ewan

Adrian Magson

Emlyn Rees

Participating moderator: Tom Harper

and on Friday, 25 May 10:10 - 11:00 : "Historical Crime Fiction: Stepping Back in Time - How Do You Choose Your Time and Place?"

Dean Crawford

Antony Hays

Rebecca Jenkins

Dolores Gordon-Smith

Participating moderator: Roz Southey

I'll be at the convention for all three days, and as it's my first I'm quite excited to be there and meet other authors ( which includes a number of VERY big names! ). If you're in the area or are a big fan of crime writing and want to attend, get yourself signed up and come on down to Bristol!

IMMORTAL

It's coming: due for UK publication on May 10th, 2012. Tell everybody. Then tell them again...

Forthcoming titles in 2012.

Happy New Year to all those who pass by my blog!

2011 was a hell of a year for me, and this coming year seems like it could be even bigger! Lots that I'd like to post about but can't right now as I don't want to be counting my chickens before they've hatched, but I can reveal the following:

My agent, Luigi Bonomi, has negotiated with my publishers, Simon & Schuster, who have agreed to publish two more novels in the Ethan Warner series, bringing the total so far to five books! This year, I'll be working on books 4 & 5 in the series, having completed the third at the end of 2011.

The second novel in the series, currently titled "Immortal", is to hit the shelves on May 10th 2012. The third, currently under the working title of "Continuum", will be published November 10th 2012.

I'll also be appearing at both the International Crime Fiction Convention (CrimeFest) in Bristol on 24th-27th May, and at the Theakston's Old Peculiar Harrogate International Crime Festival on 19th - 22nd July. No word on whether I'll be on any panels, but will post here should anything interesting come up.

In addition I'm currently working up a synopsis for a Young Adult series based around similar science to the Ethan Warner books, on the advice of my agent. YA is a rapidly growing market and there's huge potential there, provided I can produce the goods. It's going to be a heavy work-load for this year, but every moment is going to be worth it. Who says writers have it easy?

Simon & Schuster Christmas recommendation!

If anybody visiting my blog were in any doubt about what thriller to buy this Christmas, here's the recommendation of Simon & Schuster's Editorial Director of Fiction, Maxine Hitchcock!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGR9zPqgjiA

Merry Christmas!

Being published.

It's been just over a year since my debut novel, "Covenant", was bought by Simon & Schuster after a fiercely fought auction that lasted over a week. The manuscript was sent to nine publishers by my agent on Thursday September 9th, 2010 - I'll never forget the date because it was also the day I was made redundant from my job of 12 years. So much has changed since then, all of it for the better in my case, but for the benefit of those who may not have followed my long ( LONG ) journey from hopeful, aspiring author to happily published and best-selling novelist, here's the heavily abridged version:

Started writing in 1994, after realising I would not be allowed to train in the RAF as a pilot due to my eyesight not being absolutely perfect.

Wrote two historical epics, Frontier and Man 'o' War, spending five years on them. Multiple submissions - no takers.

1999, began writing screenplays. Completed four of them, over six years. Multiple submissions - no takers.

2005: Wrote a contemporary black comedy novel, 'Four Fridays'. Multiple submissions - no takers.

2007: Wrote "Genesis", a converted screenplay from 1999 ( originally titled "The Nemesis Origin" ). Multiple submissions - one taker. Rejected as full MS after 4 month wait.

2007-2009: Re-wrote "Genesis", twice. Multiple submissions each time - no takers.

2010: Completed fourth version of "Genesis". Submitted to ten literary agencies. Eight rejections, two takers. Asked by one agent to re-write an entire third of the novel to suit the market. Agreed. Was signed to Luigi Bonomi Associates as a result of willingness to edit the novel.

Sept 2010: World rights to now re-titled novel "Covenant" sold to Simon & Schuster in a major deal for three books.

The reason that I'm posting this now is because, of late, I've heard a number of heart-rending tales of disappointment from aspiring authors who, for one reason or another, have been unable to gain a contract. Some have come achingly close to doing so, only to have success snatched away at the last moment. The heart-ache and frustration that this causes hopeful authors is undeniable, and having been there myself before now I do feel qualified to comment on such disappointments. I'm one of the lucky ones who got through and achieved the unthinkable, a major publishing deal that changed my future. However, it took me sixteen years to find myself in the right place at the right time, and good enough at writing to be signed up. I suppose my point to all this is that, despite all of the joy and delight of making it through, all that really changes is the next step on the author's journey.

There are many published authors whose book sales dwindle ( for far too many reasons to go into here ), who find themselves back to square one. The market is incredibly tough, and I've come to learn a great deal about that in the last few months. The sale of EVERY single copy counts, and can be the difference between success and obscurity. Margins are down, the rise of digital publishing is changing the market at an incredible pace, and publishers and agents are all struggling to keep up with and adapt to the changing environment. Things are changing fast and nobody really knows how it's all going to end up, so gambling tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds on unknown names isn't on the gameplan of many publishers right now. Agents are struggling to gain deals for authors on their own books, let alone newcomers. If it was hard to get published before, it's even harder now, but that doesn't mean the situation is hopeless at all.

The bottom line is that both agents and publishers would love to have to struggle to choose which authors to represent and buy because they were all so good. The harsh reality is that most of the work sent to them is rejected because it isn't quite right for the market yet, either in terms of quality or content, not because it's rubbish. My advice is to remember that writing is a hobby. It is something that we all do because we can't NOT do it. We'd get bored or frustrated if, for some reason, we couldn't write. Getting published is not just about being the best writer anybody in the industry has seen that year: it's about the right time, the right place, the right subject, the right tone, the right people seeing the work and the right publisher having the cash and the business plan to find a place on their books for your much treasured manuscript. It's a business, and if they're not sure, you're not going to get through. It doesn't mean you're not good enough, it means that now's not the right time for what might have been the perfect debut last year, or might be in three years' time.

But if you persevere, if you don't quit and stick with it for long enough, sooner or later the odds come down. The market shifts in your favour. The economic downturn ends. The digital revolution becomes everyday technology. Your novel now looks like it could be next year's BIG THING. And suddenly, unbelievably quickly, everything you've just read becomes a thing of the past.

Don't let rejection get you down. Keep writing because you want to, not because you want to be the next Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling. You don't want to be anybody's 'next', you want to be the first 'YOU'. Enjoy your hobby, don't endure it, and you'll get through eventually. Fifteen months ago, I was exactly where every other aspiring author was. Hopeful and determined, yet often disappointed and disillusioned. Letting 'failure' get me down was my only mistake, because in writing there is no failure, only the next step. Covenant peaked at #26 in the Sunday Times Bestseller list and is selling fabulously worldwide. It happens. Stick with it, just like I did.

Happy Christmas!

Matt Hilton takes a new direction.

Fellow thriller writer Matt Hilton, author of the Joe Hunter series, has taken a bold new step into the world of self-publishing via e-books and Amazon with his new label Sempre Vigile Press. HIs first novel in this venture, Dominion, is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006GT3NPI

Why not head on over and grab yourself a copy? As a successful and internationally published author, you'd be crazy not to if horror is your thing!

COVENANT #1 in Bookseller's Fiction Heatseeker list!

I'm delighted to announce that having hit the Bookseller's Fiction Heatseeker list at Number 3 after only a few days' worth of sales, COVEVANT has now soared into the Number 1 spot!

The list is for 'rising stars' who have yet to chart in the official Bookseller's Top 50. As COVENANT has only been on the UK's shelves for fourteen days it's a huge achievement and I'm absolutely thrilled with how well my debut novel is doing!

There will be much celebrating tonight!! :o)

Get in!!

In awesome news received this afternoon, COVENANT has hit No.26 in the Sunday Times Paperback bestseller chart! It's a fabulous result for me, made all the more exciting by the fact that above me in the list are Christmas specials, celebrity books and global best-selling authors such as Clive Cussler, Lee Child, David Baldacci and Michael Connelly. Even Peter James is only a few places ahead. All of these authors have huge fan bases and long back-lists of titles - yet COVENANT is my debut!!

Simon & Schuster have done a fabulous job of launching me in the UK, and I'm incredibly fortunate to find myself so high on the bestseller lists so early in my career.

It is possible that I may drink some alcohol this evening :o)

UK Publication day!

It's finally here! COVENANT hits the shelves across the UK in all major bookstores and most supermarkets. Fingers crossed that the launch of my debut novel in my home country will set me off to a good start, paving the way for the Ethan Warner series of books.

Best wishes to all my followers and fellow bloggers, and if you've been waiting for your copy of COVENANT, or you've bought it, I hope that you enjoy it!

I'd also like to thank my agent Luigi Bonomi, without whom I wouldn't be typing these words, and my publishers Simon & Schuster and Touchstone USA, who have done so much to promote my debut novel. Today, I'm pretty sure I'm the happiest author on the planet :o)

Win a signed copy of COVENANT!

Covenant has been named CBS Action Channel's Book of the Month!! As well as running adverts on their Sky channel, CBS Action are giving readers the chance to win a signed copy of my novel. Details below, and watch out for those adverts on the TV!!

http://www.cbsaction.co.uk/competitions.php?feature=42

UK Publication week!

It's here! Finally, after what feels like several decades, COVENANT is due for release in the UK this Thursday. After great launches in both Australia and the United States, this is still the 'big' one for me, my debut novel on my home turf.

Watch out for it in all major stores and supermarkets, as it's going to be everywhere! It's the WHSmith TRavel Read of the Week; a WHS Great Read Guaranteed promotion title; A Tesco 'Books We Love' title; Amazon are running a promotional e-mail campaign, and Sainsbury's and Asda are promoting it as a 'chart' title.

Finally, I'd like to thank everybody who has followed my blog since it began about five years ago, long before I had an agent or publisher, and was writing in my spare time ( when I had any! ). I know many of my followers are aspiring authors themselves, and I'll mention again that my debut's publication just proves that it CAN happen to you, just like it happened to me. Stick with it.

Great review for COVENANT in Sydney Morning Herald!

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/bones-of-idea-are-out-of-this-world-20111022-1mdaf.html

Another good review to join the list, keep them coming! :o)

Reviews for COVENANT from the USA and Canada!

Had some great reviews appearing after Covenant's launch today in the USA and Canada, really exciting to see such positive responses from well respected newspapers and bloggers.

This one from the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204524604576608973562717798.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

And this one from blogger Luanne in Canada:

http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/covenant-dean-crawford.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

My first sales news update!

Great news from Australia! My editor revealed to me in a phonecall today that COVENANT is selling at a tremendous rate - some 3,000 copies gone already. More importantly, the rate of sale is not tailing off ( at least not yet ) which is incredibly promising. COVENANT, I am reliably informed, is currently the best-selling debut novel in the country.

It's great news to hear, and bodes well for the novel's future releases in both the United States ( October 18th ) and the UK ( November 10th ). Can't wait to see how it performs in those markets, especially when the promotional campaigns kick off!

In other news, my second novel, ELIXIR, is entering its final phase, with edits nearing completion. Apparently, I have only minor changes to make to the MS before it goes to print, which is nice to know. Cover art is just around the corner, as is the possibility of a title change, to IMMORTAL. Any thoughts, anyone, on which seems like the best title...? Bearing in mind that it needs to have the greatest impact, and immediately reveal something of the novel's content?

Writing injury!!

It's been a tough five weeks for me. I tore a muscle in my left shoulder, right where the nerve travels between the rhomboids and down into the arm. Incredibly painful. At one point I was on doctor-prescribed anti-inflammatories, Diazapan and Co-Dydamol at the same time - to no effect. My physio, who has done sterling work on the damage, has said that most likely writing in awkward positions on a laptop computer caused the muscle to become stressed, setting me up for the injury. The ironic thing is that I keep fit with both running and regular bodybuilding - I currently do chest-flies with 20kg dumbells in each hand and have never hurt myself. So what caused this final, epic muscular disaster....? Towel-drying my hair after a shower. Won't be doing that again ( using a towel to dry my hair, not showering, obviously ).

Over that time, I've also moved house, a stressful experience in itself.

The bottom line is that I haven't been able to write a word for those five weeks, due to the pain. This is probably the longest in fifteen years of writing that I've been away from a manuscript that I've been working on. With deadlines in effect, this is far more of an issue now than ever in the past. Fortunately, I've gotten far enough ahead of schedule to still have plenty of time to complete Book 3 in the Ethan Warner series before Jan 31st 2012, but it's still a hell of a set-back and it's been driving me up the wall ( along with said pain and resulting lack of sleep ).

Happily, I'm on the mend now and with a proper desk and fancy chair installed in my own office in our new house ( courtesy of my parents, bless them ), I finally have everything I need to work as a professional author. I can't wait to get stuck back into my work, as CONTINUUM was progressing really well before disaster struck!

So, for those reading this, be aware: RSI can affect all muscles, not just those in the hands. If you're a laptop user who likes sitting writing in armchairs , as I did, or at a desk that's not quite right for you, then get something more appropriate sorted. Believe me, it's really not something you want happening to you.

Early reviews for COVENANT

Had some early reviews appear recently on-line, from bloggers sent Advance Review Copies of COVENANT. Am happy to say that it's looking good so far!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10303780-covenant

Publicity meeting.

I had a meeting yesterday with the team at Simon & Schuster, along with my agent Luigi Bonomi. They detailed the global campaign planned for COVENANT, and it is utterly awesome. I learned a huge amount about how the campaign is designed to produce 'tail-off', maintaining a book's prominent placing on the shelves, along with all sorts of details involving the television adverts, posters, on-line and supermarket promotions. The list was immense, and apparently regarded as one of the biggest and best debut launch campaigns ever seen ( in Australia ).

The team at S&S and Touchstone USA have done an incredible job of giving my fledgling debut career the best possible start, and it's unbelievably exciting to see everything coming together and how every little detail is carefully considered.

Perhaps the most amazing news I heard was that, despite the Australia campaign not actually launching in full until next week, COVENANT has sold around 1,000 copies just six days after hitting the shelves! I don't believe that word of mouth could have achieved such widespread sales success, and can only put it down to the incredible efforts made by my publisher and their respective teams over the past few months to produce the perfect cover, style and impact for my debut novel.

They even let me take some cake home for my other half - how nice is that?!

Fingers crossed for more good news soon!

Australia competition!

For any and all readers in Australia, where COVENANT launches tomorrow, there's a competition in place to win a 50" plasma TV, X-Box Kinect, controllers, games and other prizes in the bundle. If that sounds like something you'd like, then just copy and paste the following link!

www.findthecovenant.com

Author interview!

I was recently asked to give an interview for Shearer's Bookshop: the link is below.

http://shearersbooks.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-dean-crawford.html