Visit my website at www.rowmark.co.uk for details of all my crime novels

The top genres among e-book owners are crime and thriller (47%),  with science fiction (25%), literature (23%) and romance (23%) says Aptara's third annual e-book survey of more than 1,300 book publishers from the trade, education, professional and corporate markets. That's certainly good news for crime writers like me. I have seen a massive rise in my e book sales with no decline in paperback sales either, so doubly good news. The survey reveals that one in five publishers is now generating more than 10% of their revenues from e-books, with the vast majority of book publishers (85%), across all market segments, producing print and e-book versions of their titles including my own publisher Severn House, who have released Footsteps on the Shore , the sixth in the DI Andy Horton crime series , recently in paperback and e book available on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk . Amazon.com was still listed as the biggest generator of sales by 56% of trade publishers...

Read an e Book Week 6 - 12 March 2011 is  here again and although the purpose of Read an E Book Week is the same as when it was first devised, i.e. to encourage people to read e books this year also sees it celebrating the fortieth anniversary since the first e book was created. Amazing? Yes. You can read all about it on the Read an E Book Week web site. For Read an e Book Week  visitors to my web site will be able to download Chapter One of Dead Man's Wharf which is published in mass market paperback on 11 March. It is already available in hardcover, as an e book, on Kindle and as an unbridged audio book. Horton and Cantelli are called to a nursing home where an elderly resident, suffering from dementia, claims she's been attacked by an intruder. Horton is ready to dismiss it as senile ramblings until he discovers that her room-mate has died, the dead woman's belongings are missing and her son, convicted for armed robbery, has been found dead in his cell. So...

Yesterday, for World Book Day, I was asked to comment on whether the e book will be the death of the printed book and the importance of reading and our libraries. I was happy to comment on both.  First up I was on the radio on BBC Radio Solent talking to the lovely Julian Clegg and then I appeared in an article in The News alongside fellow author, saga writer Dee Williams. I believe the printed book will survive.  When television came along people said it would be the death of the radio and cinema and yet all three are still avidly listened to and watched today.  When computers came people said it would be the end of paper, yet computers have created an even greater need for paper.  Sales of e books will grow and then probably reach a plateau and contrary to belief it is not just the young who are buying e readers, but the majority of buyers of e readers are the 55 + age group. However a survey carried out for World Book Day revealed both adults a...

Good news for authors.  The Digital Economy Bill has been rushed through the Commons before Parliament closes for the general election and one of the clauses is that Public Lending Rights (PLR) has been extended to e books and audio books. This means that authors will eventually get a small payment every time their e book or audio book is borrowed from a public libary in the UK and Ireland.  At present the PLR on books is 6.5p per loan up to a maximum of £6,000 per annum so even J.K. Rowling only gets 6K.  Still, that can hardly concern her, it's just small chnage.  But the PLR is certainly welcomed by many authors. Public Lending Right registrar, Jim Parker said work on redrafting legislation would begin after the election. He says, “The collection of data on e-books will be quite different with issues around ISBNs, and with audiobooks we will have two new groups of rightsholders—not just the authors, but also the narrators and producers.” Mmmm,...

Most authors don't mind how their work is read just as long as it is read. And, of course, they get paid for it, somewhere along the line.  Sales of e books are growing and will continue to grow as new devices come to the market, and that's great. All my crime novels are available as e books as well as in printed format, the more formats the merrier, I say. Deadly Waters and The Suffocating Sea are also available as audio books and MP3 downloads - a huge growth market. Then there is large print , again a growing market as the population ages and more people become visually impaired (although the e book could help with its ability to increase font size). Hardback is for those who want a special book to cherish and for the library market where books need to be durable.  And there are two types of paperback, trade paperback - a larger size which is popular in America and usually of better quality -and the cheaper mass mar...

To mark Read an E-Book week, (March 8-14) Summersdale Publishing, my e book publisher, through my official web site http://www.rowmark.co.uk/ is offering a free download of my Inspector Horton marine mystery Tide of Death . Tide of Death is the first in the marine mystery series and is published in paperback as well as an e book, it was chosen by Amazon as one of the best crime fiction reads of 2006. Since then one of my thrillers, In Cold Daylight , was shortlisted for the World Book Day Prize 2008 and my third Inspector Horton Marine Mystery, The Suffocating Sea , has been selected by The Book Depository as the Best of British Crime Fiction. Read an E-Book Week was first recognised in 2004. It is a not-for-profit week set aside to inform the public about the pleasures and advantages of reading electronically. Authors, publishers, vendors, the media and readers world-wide join in the promotional week to promote electronic reading. My books have been available in digital format for so...

I’ve just received from my publisher my copies of the Large Print version of Deadly Waters, which is now on sale. It looks really good and I hope it enables people who are visually impaired (sadly a growing number) to enjoy this marine mystery crime novel. Deadly Waters is already available as a talking book and in hardback and trade paperback and will shortly be published as a mass market paperback with a new jacket cover in April 2009. This and all my marine mystery crime and thriller novels are available as e books. The mass market version of Deadly Waters in the UK is the normal paperback size rather than the large paperback size and I know that it will please many of my readers who have already bought the mass market versions of Tide of Death , In Cold Daylight and In For The Kill . It will retail at £6.99 and is available for pre order from bookshops and on line. The Suffocating Sea , the third DI Andy Horton Marine Mystery, will be available in the large paperback version in...

That is the question that is being asked today and is a headline in a very good article in The Independent because today Waterstone's is offering Sony's e-book reader for pre-order from its stores. While Borders UK became the first UK retailer to start selling the rival iLiad e-book in May, the Waterstone's launch of the Sony Reader is cheaper at £199. (Borders iLiad is £399.) But will consumers buy an e book reader at this price when they bulk at buying a book for £2.99? The article lists the pro and cons of e readers citing such things as being heavy and clunky to carry around, expensive and won't survive being dropped on the floor or in the pool like books. People also like passing on books to friends and buying them as presents. Of course the gadget lovers and bookworms will love e readers, and they'll take up less space around the home (but book lovers love to see shelves of books so the e reader will appeal to non book lovers - why then invest in an e book re...

I've added a couple of new things on the blog today on the right hand side bar. Deadly Waters is out in audio format as a download and as a CD and in cassette form. You can click on the photograph of the cover on the right hand side of this blog, which will take you to http://www.audible.co.uk/ where you can listen to an excerpt of it being read by Gordon Griffin. I've also just returned from a meeting with my audio book publisher who is going to bring out Tide of Death, In Cold Daylight and In For The Kill in audio book later this year, which is great news. I'll keep you posted on this. And for those who prefer to read books in the electronic format then my novels and business books are available as e books. If you visit http://www.ebooks.com/ you can search under my name, or click on the link to the right to find my books.