Stephen's long and successful business career brings organisation and expertise to our enterprise; while his love of getting people outdoors is forever an inspiration for the great books we publish.

This fourth blog examines harsh realities, the difficult and endlessly frustrating process of bringing the book to publication, and why the publishing deal is no longer in force. ly/3ZvpdFq Two interviews are available this week, from Curtis Brown Creative and The Bearded Bookseller.A tense and interesting thriller, I genuinely enjoyed the twists and turns in this well-executed novel. He is a freelance editor for The Literary Consultancy and teaches their self-editing online courses. I’d spent four years working on Dive on-and-off at that point, so it was hard not to take the rejection personally. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. I’ll be recording some podcasts with Chloe Timms and Yvonne Battle Felton, and I hope to attend one of the book festivals like Crimefest or Harrogate.

Because there’s a lot yet to say about my relationship with the publisher and where the wheels came off. Stephen King has a great quote in On Writing that I can relate to: “Writing is not life, but sometimes, it can be a way back to life. Dive is a gripping crime thriller about the murky world of Metropolitan Police divers and the River Thames, London’s deadliest crime scene.Agents should pitch to the right publishers for the manuscript in question, and you put your faith in their knowledge of the market. It’s also a great dissolvent of motive in that evidence will quickly wash away with the tide, and that adds an element of jeopardy for the characters. I was excited by the potential of this murkier world of policing that puts the Thames at the heart of the action. It's worth doing a deeper dive on the landscape of public development money, and I'll be publishing more detailed thoughts about that on my blog tomorrow, but you can catch up with my first by heading to - https://lnkd. When I signed up for my first course in 2019, I had a layman’s knowledge of the publishing industry.

It struck me that divers are neglected characters in crime fiction, yet they have one of the diciest jobs in the Met. It’s gratifying when someone reads it and totally invests in the world and the characters, and they can see the same potential I saw listening to divers and their stories. I have a playlist of movie soundtracks, although I do only put it on when I’m editing or have hit a snag and need inspiration.

I wrote without knowing what I was doing, relying on instinct, trusting the first draft would brute-force its way into being. Joffe Books, Jon Barton and I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to everyone who helped with the launch of DIVE. I personally love being rewarded for my attention with those recurring details, but I also want to attract new readers.