The Hobcast Book Show

The Hobcast Book Show had the delightful opportunity to attend the book launch for The Confession by Hobeck Books author, Maureen Myant in Glasgow this week. Believe it or not, it's the first time we've attended a physical book launch since we launched the company. The novel is a fantastically twisty noirish thriller with a great premise: Julie Campbell's decaying body is discovered with a note - confessing to five murders. The issue is, none of the victims is dead - yet ...  It's a great novel, full of human frailty and vanity, and demonstrating Maureen's depth of understanding of people drawn from a career as a clinical psychologist. So, join us as we take you to the book launch itself, and a special tour of one of the key locations for The Confession.

Also this week, we discuss how a computer glitch at Amazon has created issues for us at Hobeck Books, and how Harper Collins is the latest publisher to report a significant drop in sales.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Confession-Maureen-Myant-ebook/dp/B0BKGV6N88

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We've met many remarkable people over the past three years since we decided to set up Hobeck Books, but few are as inspiring as our guest this week, Cat Yaffe. We discovered each other online, and then met in person at Crimefest '22 in Bristol last May. It was Cat's first public foray during her battle with breast cancer, and as she explains to us, the period since that first meeting has been a process of regaining her confidence - both mental and physical. Cat is the author of the DI Ziggy Thorne series, with her latest novel When We Deceive, due out in March next year. As Cat tells us, she's dealt with multiple setbacks while she's pursued her writing dream, but has approached it all with the same fierce determination that drove her to build a successful digital marketing business. This is an inspiring interview.

Also this week, we discuss the latest changes at Twitter since Elon Musk's takeover, and we look at the six titles up for the infamous award for weirdest book title of the year.

Home - Catherine Yaffe

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Kate Mosse is one of the UK's most celebrated authors. Her Languedoc Trilogy of novels which began with the multi-million selling Labyrinth brought her worldwide recognition, but she was a hugely influential figure in publishing before that, co-founding The Women's Prize for Fiction, now entering its 28th year and recognised as one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. Kate is no stranger to non-fiction either, joining us on The Hobcast Book Show during a break in promoting her latest book, Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built The World. This is a fascinating interview with one of the most influential authors of our time.

Also, this week, Adrian and Rebecca discuss how economic factors are hitting the big tech players like Amazon and Facebook, and how that could impact on the publishing industry.

https://www.katemosse.co.uk/

Labyrinth (katemosse.co.uk)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Warrior-Queens-Quiet-Revolutionaries-Women-ebook/dp/B0B252P4TJ

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There's nothing more satisfying than attending a literary event and making connections with fellow travelers in the publishing industry. We met Greg Mosse at the recent Fatal Shore event in Shoreham near Brighton and immediately established a great rapport. Greg's contributions to two panels that day were full of insight and wisdom about what makes a great story, and Rebecca and I made copious notes as he spoke. We're delighted Greg could join us on The Hobcast Book Show, and we're sure you'll learn a great deal too. Greg is a playwright, theatre director, and novelist, with his first novel, The Coming Darkness released by Moonflower Publishing next month. He also describes himself as am "encourager of writers," and runs a brilliant project with the Criterion Theatre in London to discover new writing talent. 

Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca discuss how 'Super Thursday' was not quite the bonanza that independent bookshops hoped, and Rebecca reflects on how starting a new diet can have unexpected consequences.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coming-Darkness-Greg-Mosse/dp/1919618759

Greg Mosse

Moonflower Publishing - A commercial publisher with an indie heart (moonflowerbooks.co.uk)

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It's a bit of a departure for us on The Hobcast Bookshow as we delve into the world of comics and graphic storytelling. Charles Martin set up Literati Press in 2010 with aim of creating a home for Oklohoma's burgeoning comic book artists and writers. He admits it took several years and many mistakes before he and his team found their true path as a business, but this is a story of creative perseverance and determination. Charles is joined by artist Jerry Bennett, who has developed a huge following and has been with Literati Press since the beginning. It's a fascinating insight into the art of comic book creation - how do you marry so few words with images to convey the story?

Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca report back from the wonderful Fatal Shore crime day in Shoreham near Brighton, and discuss further worrying news from the U.S that book sales are falling.

Literati Press Comics & Novels (literatipressok.com)

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Regular listeners to The Hobcast Bookshow will know that the art of audiobook narration is something close to Adrian's heart. He's not shy in sharing his views on what a narrator needs from an author to make the process easier, but is he speaking for others? Our guest this week is Greg Patmore, a British actor and hugely experienced and successful audiobook narrator. What are the challenges he faces in the booth? How does he deal with authors who want their characters to appear exactly as they hear them in their heads? How does he find the stamina and energy to tackle a book that's hundreds of thousands of words long? It's a fascinating insight into the craft of audio storytelling.

Also this week, as Waterstones announce their computer system issues are fixed, we reflect on the impact the problems have created for UK publishers, and the comments by Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books that publishing is fast heading towards industry-wide burn out as the pressures on publishers build day by day.

Actor - Musician - Voice Artist (gregpatmore.actor)

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Our guests this week on The Hobcast Bookshow are Bob and Carol Bridgestock. The husband-and-wife writing team have established themselves as two of the UK's best police procedural authors - writing under the pen name, R C Bridgestock. Bob draws heavily on his experiences as detective, retiring at the rank of Detective Superintendent in West Yorkshire Police. Carol was a civilian employee of WYP, and she takes responsibility for adding the emotional heart of their stories. In recent years, they've also worked as advisers to film and TV companies, most notably the award-winning BBC drama, Happy Valley, set in Calderdale, an area that Bob policed throughout his career. It's a fascinating interview, and one we thoroughly enjoyed.

Also this week, we discuss what the impact of the recent 'mini budget' might be on our business, and discuss how Richard Osman has unwittingly been in a spot of bother with other crime authors this week.

http://www.rcbridgestock.com/

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Eastenders, Emmerdale, Eldorado, Pobol Y Cwm, The Bill, Vera and Casualty. If you check out our guest Rob Gittins' credit list on IMDB you will be dazzled by the scale and variety of it. A winner of multiple awards for his work both on TV and radio, Rob is also the author of seven novels. His latest, I'm Not There is published by us at Hobeck Books this week. It's a brilliant novel that deals with the impact of childhood trauma and loss, and how that can impact lives many years later. As Rob tells us, through his career in serial television he's understood the importance of laying the foundations for stories that pay off sometimes years later. This is an interview you will not want to miss, as Rob reveals some of the secrets behind some of the biggest shows in UK television, and the thinking that goes into the storylines.

Also this week, we discuss a major concession from Amazon towards the independent publishing community, and we lament the passing of a true great, Hillary Mantel.

Rob Gittins

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Im-Not-There-Rob-Gittins-ebook/dp/B0BD2J8ZYQ

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The events of the past week overshadow this episode of The Hobcast Book Show. We conducted our interview with our guest, Catherine Yardley, the day before the passing of Her Majesty the Queen on Thursday 8th September, but recorded the rest of the podcast on Saturday 10th, not long after our new king, Charles III, was officially proclaimed our new monarch. For this reason, the show has a different feel to previous episodes. There's no intro or outro music, or publishing news. Instead, we reflect on the events of the past few days and our own brief encounters with Her Majesty and the wider Royal family.

As mentioned earlier, we speak to Catherine Yardley who recently published her first novel, Embers. She's currently writing a crime/thriller, and draws extensively on her experience as an actor and director to breathe life into her characters. Her advice to all authors is - book yourself on an acting course! 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Catherine-Yardley/e/B09VMY2HBB

https://t.co/9XJM2iJ32N

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Our guest this week on The Hobcast Book Show has an amazing story to tell. Several, in fact. Amy Le escaped from Vietnam as the war ended with the collapse of the South. She was just a few months old. Taken in by the United States, they fought hard to establish a new life, with Amy's mother pushing her daughter hard to achieve a better life through education and hard work. When her mother passed away a few years ago, Amy embarked on an emotional journey to research and tell her mother's remarkable story of love, strength and perseverance in a trilogy of books. Amy has turned that new passion for writing into a business: Quill Hawk Publishing - and over the next few years she aims to assist dozens of writers from diverse backgrounds to find their voice and an audience for their work. It's a great interview.

Also this week, we ask is it really true that half the books released in the U.S sell only 12 copies? And we reflect on a fascinating BBC report revealing the hidden practices used by big publishers to influence the sales charts.

https://www.amy-m-le.com

Quill Hawk Publishing | Facebook

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