Newsy Stuff

Excellent article in today’s (3 November) Guardian about Hard Case Crime and whether or not they can solve the mystery of digital publishing. Whilst I am not going to get into a discussion about this I can only say that they publish some bloody good books! I am really pleased that they did not hit the dust when Dorchester decided to pull the plug on publishing paperbacks and that they have found themselves new a new publisher here in the UK. At least now it will be easier for me to get my hands on the books. The covers are divine and the stories even better. If you have not read any of them, where have you been?

According to Galleycat Janet Evanovich is looking for some co-authors. The full article can be found here including how to submit!

Brad Pitt is according to the Hollywood Reporter to team up once again with director Andrew Dominik in the film version of George V Higgins comic crime comedy Cogan’s Trade. Dominik directed Pitt in the film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Pitt will also produce.

According to the Bookseller the Ian Fleming Estate are to sell the James Bond e-books directly themselves bypassing Penguin. The books are to be published by Ian Fleming Publications. The full article can be found in the Bookseller. Could this be opening a can of worms?

Crime Thrillers on Book-Video

We recently informed you about a book video for Roger Ellory’s current crime thriller ‘Saints of New York’, so we are delighted to inform you that London based Foyles is involved in a project featuring crime thrillers on Book Video.

The Book Video Awards is a joint initiative run by Random House and The Bookseller Magazine. Now in its third year, the objective of the Awards is to enable talented young film directors to make high quality video trailers for great books. Students from the National Film and Television School are invited to submit proposals to create a 90 second trailer for a book from a selection presented by Random House. The winners each receive £5,000 to create their videos which are then used to promote the books online for example on author and fan sites, YouTube and retailers. Videos from previous years have also been used in adverts, on TV news and as enhancements for ebooks.

The theme for this year is Crime & Thriller and the winners will be creating videos for the following books: -

Blood's A Rover, James Ellroy
Hypothermia, Arnaldur Indridason
Blood Harvest, SJ Bolton
The Snowman, Jo Nesbo

The videos will be made over the summer and will go live on the Foyles website in September when the public are invited to vote for their favourite. An awards night will be held in October at which the winner of the public vote will be announced.

"Random House are delighted to be working with the National Film and Television School for a third time on the Book Video Awards. We have a fantastic choice of books this year on the theme of Crime and Thriller, which have generated some outstanding proposals from the students. Foyles are a great fit as retail partner for the awards and we look forward to working with them on a range of innovative online and in-store promotions."
Ros Lawler, Head of Ecommerce

"Foyles is delighted to be promoting the link between books and film in such a dynamic and interesting way. We look forward to hosting the voting process and are sure that our customers will enjoy viewing the dramatic trailers."
Becky Jones Foyles E-commerce Manager.

"This is a great opportunity for students and graduates of the NFTS to make really impressive pieces of work. Seeing the trailers it is hard to remember that they are not cut together from pre-existing films, but created entirely from scratch. All of the teams selected to make trailers this year are extremely talented, indeed one director has already won a student Oscar – we look forward to seeing what they come up with for these gripping books.”
Nik Powell, Director, National Film and Television School

Read More Here

And click here to view and vote for your favourite,

More information about Foyles push into the Crime and Thriller World – click here

Special thanks to The Booksellers’ Ashley Baugh and from Foyles Ecommerce Becky Jones Foyles for informing Shots Ezine about this interesting project, because we have a passion for crime and thriller fiction!

Newsy Stuff

The shortlist for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year has been announced. The authors to make the shortlist are –
In the Dark by Mark Billingham
The Surrogate by Tania Carver
A Simple Act of Violence by R J Ellory
The Crossing Place by Elly Griffiths
Dead Tomorrow by Peter James
Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway
Doors Open by Ian Rankin
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

The shortlist of eight books was whittled down from twenty. Voting is now open to all.

According to the Bookseller, Harvill Secker have launched a sight for international writing. The site www.International writing.co.uk will focus on Harvill Secker titles and include books published by other Random House imprints. However the publisher has said it aimed to be as wide-ranging as possible. More information can be found here.


Channel 4 have commissioned Top Boy an East London based crime thriller about a gang of youths based in Hackney.

Top Boy has been written by Ronan Bennett who is best known for the film Public Enemies and TV dramas The Hamburg Cell and Fields of Gold. More information can be found here.

Newsy Stuff

According to the Bookseller Harper Collins have bought the book that inspired Agatha Christie to write her best-selling play The Mousetrap. The book Someone to Love Us by Terence O’Neill was picked up from Harper Collins writer website authonomy. More information can be found here.

Not content with being a best selling author James Patterson is now branching out into comics. According to Patterson first up for release will be a five-part comic series based on the writer's best-selling young-adult novel Witch & Wizard. More information can be found here. Patterson has gone into partnership to create comic books and graphic novels with IDW Publishing.

With fans and fellow writers still mourning the death of Dick Francis, Penguin (via The Bookseller) have indicated that they will be celebrating the life of the author with the publication of his latest book Crossfire in September.