Matt Hilton Thrills: Hodder and Stoughton

Showing posts with label Hodder and Stoughton. Show all posts

Monday, 9 September 2013

#6 in the Kindle best seller charts - Dead Men's Dust

I mentioned a week or so ago that my UK publisher, Hodder and Stoughton, had decided to put out the ebook of Dead Men's Dust at the special low price of 99p (on Amazon.co.uk) and i thought great stuff. I should get a few extra readers from this.

What I didn't expect was for the book to soar up the charts to the number 6 best seller position, and number 3 in the best selling thriller books, just behind stellar author Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel Never Go Back. Briefly it even knocked Gillian Flynn and Peter Robinson out of contention for the top spot, and nipped at the heels of JK Rowling.

Was I stunned? You betcha!

Now this isn't about the money. I won't see anything from any of those sales. But what it means to me is the exposure that the best-selling chart position will bring, and surely this will mean that more and more people will become aware of the Joe Hunter books as a result. I'm over the moon. I'd love to see Hunter get more recognition, and hope this is just the little boost he needed.

If you are a Joe Hunter reader/fan (and if not why would you be here?) please help him continue his onward march. If you know someone who hasn't tried a Hunter book yet, maybe they don't want to commit to a full priced book, then tell them this is a great opportunity while the price has been slashed. If every one told even one friend, then that's double the exposure.

I thank you friends for the continued support. Without you, I wouldn't be in this happy position now. And neither would Joe Hunter.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002V092LA/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_qCElsb0MW3SBE

Friday, 21 October 2011

Six of the Best - Joe Hunter short stories

Coming in January next year is a collection of brand new never-seen-before Joe Hunter short stories that will be released by Hodder and Stoughton as an ebook via Amazon Kindle. Before anyone asks, no I'm not getting on the bandwagon of authors who are now releasing short stories onto Kindle as a way of making an extra buck (though admittedly it's not bad recompense) but that I wanted to share these stories with Joe's fans - old and new - in a wider format.

Regular followers of my books and blogs etc know that I'm a voracious writer, and that when I'm not penning the latest Joe Hunter book I can't allow my writing fingers to settle and often come up with short stories or flash fiction. I share some of these stories here at the blog, or put them out into the world under pen names, but there are some I've held on to for some time - plus some brand new stories scripted for this collection - that deserve a wider audience. The collection will go out under the title "SIX OF THE BEST".

No, it's not a spanking book, though there might be a few sore butts after Joe's done kicking them.

The title comes from the lead story, and yes, there are six stories in total, so it's a double-header really.

Included in the collection are:

1. Six of the Best
2. Homecoming
3. Sand Dance
4. UV Ray
5. Instant Justice
6. The Other Side of the Street

plus there will be sample chapters from the upcoming Joe Hunter 7 - No Going Back - to whet your appetite.

Some may wonder about the process of writing short stories versus novels, so here's my take on it:

The long and the short of it is this:

I’m one of those authors that simply love to write and the medium isn’t as important as putting words on paper. Therefore I’ll write in any style that suits the story I’m attempting to narrate. Often it will be suited to a full novel, but as regularly a story can be told in much fewer words, and its as likely for me to come up with a Joe Hunter story as a flash piece or short story as it is a full novel. Writing a novel takes many hours of slogging away at the keyboard, but that doesn’t mean that a short piece is any less a feat of endurance. With a short the rules of structure still apply, but in this case there is less room for error, so it has to be that more concise. Words cannot be wasted yet characterisation, setting, plot and – for a Joe Hunter story – pace are still essential to the telling of the tale. In other words, penning an effective short isn’t an easy get out, in fact they can be more troublesome than writing a full novel where you have more ground to establish the finer details.

So why do it?

The reason I write short stories is because they challenge me. I’ve written more than a dozen novels so I know I’ve got what it takes to deliver a full book. The novels are my bread and butter, my “must do’s”. However, with the short stories it’s different. I tend to write these as a form of enjoyment, and have fun with them along the way. It’s not unknown for me to pen shorts in different genres that include noir, crime, thriller, horror and sci-fi, but one thing that binds them all is that there’s a hefty dose of humour running throughout. That doesn’t mean to say that they’re laugh out loud funny, but that they have a quirk or turn of phrase, and I have fun coming up with a particular emphasis on a sting or twist in the tale. Often the story begins with a single word or phrase. Take the lead story from my collection “Six of the Best”: It’s an old English term that describes a form of corporal punishment. I couldn’t resist the idea of someone receiving their just desserts, I just had to find a way of incorporating the phrase into the narrative, without it becoming obvious from the get go. My Joe Hunter books are known for their fast-paced action, and with the Hunter short stories this remains true, where the phrases that influenced them help determine the forms of action. With this collection of stories I believe I’ve achieved what I set out to do. That is to deliver the same fast-paced action Joe Hunter’s readers have come to expect, while also being true to myself and having fun along the way. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did writing them.

The collection - Six of the Best - will be available from January 5th 2012 (and for pre-order soon) and will be very competitively priced, and initially will go out in the Amazon Kindle format. Further news about other formats will be made available as I receive it.

Monday, 8 August 2011

Dead Men's Harvest - Joe Hunter 6

Dead Men's Harvest - Joe Hunter 6 - is only a little over a week from hard back publication on 18th August 2011 by Hodder and Stoughton. I will be officially launching the book on Saturday 20th August at Waterstone's Carlisle branch, Scotch Street, Carlisle, Cumbria, UK at 11:00 am if anyone can make it along (I'll be in store for five hours so plenty time). This is your opportunity to have your books personalised.

Joe Hunter VS Prisoner 1854
The Harvestman is back, and he's got a bone to pick...

Thursday, 3 February 2011

Joe Hunter 5 Live!

There has been a little confusion over the publication date of Joe Hunter 5 - Blood and Ashes - and with it a little to-ing and fro-ing as I've attempted to re-juggle the date and the events surrounding it.

As you might recall it was originally slated for release today, but marketing decisions put back publication until the 17th February. Well, it appears that other marketing decisions have been made and the publication shoved forward again until TODAY.

Yes. Blood and Ashes is now available on general sale throughout the UK!!

So, all you good people who have been waiting for Joe's next high-octane thriller, it's out there now just waiting for you to go grab a copy.

Sorry about the confusion, but it was a situation totally out of my hands. Because I was under the impression it was still a full fortnight away, I have booked a venue for the book launch, and it will still go ahead on Thursday 17th February as planned. For anyone coming along it starts 7 pm at The Merienda, Treasury Court, Carlisle.

OUT NOW IN THE UK
Hardback edition from Hodder and Stoughton

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

New Year, New Books, Old Haunts.

Hi folks,

it's been a week or two since I last said anything here, but like everyone else I've been up to my eyes with the Holidays. If I haven't already said so personally, then I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

I've been writing. No surprises there then? I am an author and that's what I'm supposed to do, I guess. But it has been a funny few months, between delivering book seven in the Joe Hunter series, and before starting the eighth. I've been pottering around, really, doing 'other stuff' with my writing, but nothing that I can show you or even tell you about....yet. I did do my little Joe Hunter Christmas poem, and hope you enjoyed it. Otherwise, there's nothing much that I can put my finger on as far as my writing's concerned. I often find November and December are limbo months for authors, or maybe it's just me. I have been working on another project, but this was just a personal exercise, and it may never see publication, so I feel there's not much to tell.

Still, there is some good stuff coming up soon.

In two days time (6th January) the paperback edition of CUT AND RUN hits the stands in the UK.

And in just under a month's time on the 3rd of February 2011, the fifth Joe Hunter book - BLOOD AND ASHES - will be published in hardback in the UK (Hodder and Stoughton).

For those of you interested, or who intend attending if/when it happens, I'm looking to hold an official launch for Blood and Ashes, but haven't as yet fixed a date/location, but worry not, I'll keep you all informed. It will be on or around the publication date.

I've a couple events coming up in the next few months:

For those of you attending the York Festival of Writing, I'm attending for the full duration this time, from the 24th through to the 27th of March. Please come along and say, hi, and I look forward to meeting you all there.

Also, a regular fixture on my calendar is CRIMEFEST, and this year it will be at its usual venue again (the Bristol Marriott) from 19th through to 22nd of May, and I'll be there. Again, I'd love to meet anyone who read my books and look forward to saying hello. It's a great convention and I urge readers, writers or aspiring authors to come along. You'll be glad you did.