The Hobcast Book Show

We're all storytellers at heart in the fiction publishing world, right? Our guest this week, thriller author Amer Anwar's personal story though is truly astonishing. Brought up in Southall in West London, Amer always assumed that someone from his background could never become a writer, until he won the coveted CWA Debut Dagger award for the opening 3000 words of a novel he'd begun writing at a creative writing workshop. Agents immediately clamoured for his signature. The only issue was, those 3000 words were all he had to offer. It would take him a further five years to finish that novel. His agent stuck by him, but couldn't find a traditional publisher to take it. So Amer published it himself, using every trick he could think of to promote the novel. It paid off, and that first book, Brothers in Blood, was picked out by both The Guardian and The Times newspapers as one of their books of the year. This is an interview you will not want to miss.

Also this week, Rebecca reflects on a busy day at the London Book Fair, and there's news of Hobeck Books new approach to judging submissions...

Amer Anwar | Author | Writing and Random Stuff

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Our guest this week, Lucy Hooft, wins our unofficial award for being our most remote guest yet. She joined us from the tiny coastal town of Luderitz in Namibia, where it rains just 17 days a year on average, and a shopping trip can involve a 260-mile round trip for the basics. But adventure and challenges are no stranger to Lucy and her husband Daniel. They met in the Georgia, and the Caucasus provide the inspiration for Lucy's first thriller The King's Pawn which was published by Burning Chair Publishing last week. Lucy has worked for the British Government in many exciting and challenging countries, but together with Daniel is now involved in Kelp Blue, a company focusing on harnessing the benefits of Giant Kelp forests - which could play a major role in solving many of the world's environmental issues. Writing is all part of the mix for Lucy, who describes herself as a "juggler". She has to be with three young children to look after whilst launching a new school in the local area.

Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca reflect on a tough week both in the Hobeck office and outside, and yet more issues with the Amazon beast ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kings-Pawn-Sarah-Black/dp/1912946300

Spy Fiction | Lucy Hooft

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We've mentioned it many times on the show, but audiobooks are becoming an ever more important arm of publishing. Double-digit growth year-on-year, a trend accelerated by the pandemic. But how does a narrator connect with their audience most effectively? This week's guest on The Hobcast Book Show is Dian Perry. An American in London, Dian dreamed of becoming a character voice artist. Now with over twenty years of experience and success, she's the author of Voiceover Narration: Creating Performances from the Inside Out. As Dian explains in this fascinating interview, creating a real connection with listeners requires a different approach. It's not just about reading the words in the right order, or having a pleasant voice - it takes so much more than that.

Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca reflect on yet more evidence that the lack of raw materials is changing the publishing industry, and Adrian shares his excitement about an upcoming auction of personal items owned by a certain British actor.

Visit Dian's website: https://www.dianperry.com

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This week, The Hobcast Book Show speaks to Alison Morgan on the eve of the publication of the second of her Quirk Files Series novel, Throttled. What are the challenges to overcome second time around? How has she avoided the pitfalls of sequel syndrome? And what obstacles has Alison faced narrating the first novel in the series, Over Her Dead Body? Adrian and Rebecca also discuss the exciting news that Mark Wightman's debut Hobeck novel Waking The Tiger has been long-listed for the prestigious McIlvaney prize for best Scottish Crime novel, and reveal the challenges and opportunities that accolade has brought Hobeck Books this week.

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One half of The Hobcast Book Show team is a submarine obsessive. So imagine Adrian's delight when he learned that our guest this week, Russian author Valeriya Salt, shares that passion. Her debut novel, Dive Beyond Eternity, is a sci-fi adventure partly set on a German wartime Type 23 U-Boat which is discovered undamaged on the floor of the North Sea fifty years after the war ends. It's an intriguing premise, as the sub contains secret Nazi technology that threatens the future of the world. As Valeriya explains, her interest in submarines runs in the family - her mother served in Russia's Black Sea fleet. But how has Valeriya dealt with the challenges of writing a novel in English, her second language?

Also this week, we report on more efforts by the Society of Authors to hold the mega-tech companies to account over the use of copyrighted material in AI systems, and we celebrate the success of fellow UK indie publishers, Blue Moose Books.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dive-Beyond-Eternity-Sci-fi-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0CB78M7NM

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