Meet the author Steven Dunne at Waterstones in Derby

Steven will be signing copies of his latest thriller, The Unquiet Grave, just two days after it is published in July.

You can catch him at Waterstones in St Peter’s Street, Derby, on Saturday July 6th from 11am to 3pm. Steven will be happy to chat to you about his work and to sign any copies of his book.

Details of the event can also be found on Waterstones’ website here or by ringing the shop on 01332 296997.

Writing a novel

The question Steven gets asked most often is: how do you write a novel and get it published?

There’s no easy answer and all novelists have their own way of working, but in the series of articles below, Steven talks about the challenges and pitfalls he faced as he sought to get his first novel, Reaper, published.

You can also listen to this 20 minute interview with Radio Derby where Steven talks about how he works.

Writing a novel, Part 1: inspiration, agents, frustration, self-publishing

Writing a novel, Part 2: expert help, a website, cover design, costs, a publisher

Writing a novel, Part 3: selling, the media, quality, bookstores, signings

Writing a novel, Part 4: selling, positive reviews, be creative, Harper Collins

Writing a novel – Part 4: selling, positive reviews, be creative, Harper Collins

Having successfully self-published my novel Reaper and sold the majority of the 2,000 print run by early 2008, it seemed only a matter of time before my efforts caught the eye of a major publisher.

I had managed to persuade Waterstone’s, on the back of decent in-store sales, to stock Reaper in around 20 stores nationally and had engineered successful signings in five of those stores.

Writing a novel – Part 3: selling, the media, quality, bookstores, signings

“Writing your book is the easy part. Selling the book is when the hard work starts,” is a summary of the advice I had read and heard before I finally finished my debut novel REAPER and sent it off to the publishers.

Well if this is the hard part, bring it on.

After six years on and off, tapping on a keyboard, my life became a round of networking old and new contacts in publishing, retail and media – almost overnight.

Writing a novel – Part 2: expert help, a website, cover design, costs, a publisher

After beating your head against a brick wall trying to find an agent or publisher to take on your manuscript you have to make a decision.

Having no contacts in the industry and not being a celebrity, I decided fairly quickly that to get noticed I would have to try and break the traditional mould.

Writing a novel – Part 1: inspiration, agents, frustration and self publishing

As an avid thriller reader, since discovering Silence of the Lambs in the eighties, I began to be aware around ten years ago that I was finding fewer and fewer interesting and exciting books and I began to drift away from the genre.

Not a serious problem as I have an abiding interest in American literature of the Mailer, Vidal and Heller vintage. But I enjoyed books about crime and serial killers and it was frustrating to be offered novels with big reputations which bored me.

I began to see an increasingly formulaic approach taken by authors and publishers.

The Unquiet Grave

Tags

brookes, unquiet

The wait is over! The fourth novel in the DI Brook series was published in hardback and Kindle on July 4th.  You can order the book from Amazon by clicking on this link or you can find it in most good bookshops.

You can also buy an unabridged audio version here.

The Cold Case crime department of Derby Constabulary feels like a morgue to DI Damen Brook.

As a maverick cop, his bosses think it’s the best place for him. But Brook isn’t going to go down without a fight.