Is crime fiction set for a surge in sales? Many publishers think so, which is fine by me

I read an article at the weekend that said "Crime often spikes when the economy splutters, but does demand for crime fiction surge as well? Publishers hope so."  So do crime authors.

The article went on to detail how several publishing houses are launching mystery imprints in hopes of gaining a toehold in the thriving crime-fiction market.

Crime has always been a popular genre, and it encompasses such a wide variety from cozy crime to hard boiled, historic to contemporary, detective to private eye and everything in between. Mysteries and thrillers accounted for nearly 30% of fiction sales in 2010, a study by industry analyst Bowker found. Mystery became the top-selling genre in 2010, up five spots from the previous year, according to Simba Information, which tracks the publishing industry.

Even Amazon are entering the crime fiction field as a publisher with its Thomas & Mercer line of thrillers publishing in digital, print and audio.  But then that comes as no great surprise, Amazon have a toehold in everything and like Google seem intent on conquering the World.

Other publishers such as Little, Brown has rolled out the suspense imprint Mulholland to "capitalize on the strong mystery market."

Then there is my own publisher, Severn House, which has a fantastic range of crime fiction and crime authors, (I would say that, wouldn't I?) but they do and they have been publishing crime for a very long time with considerable success in the UK and in the USA. Long may they continue to do so.

They'll be publishing the trade paperback version of my latest DI Horton, Footsteps on the Shore in September, and soon (although I don't know when exactly, the e book version of Footsteps on the Shore.) In January 2012 they'll also be publishing the new DI Andy Horton, A Killing Coast, number seven in the series.

You can read about all the DI Andy Horton Marine Mystery series of crime novels, my thrillers and the latest news on my web site.



So if crime fiction is set for an upsurge in sales that's fine by me. Long may it last.

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