The Hobcast Book Show

It's a debate that has raged among authors for decades. Write in one genre or literary area, or try as many as possible? Our guest on  The Hobcast Book Show, Liverpudlian author Dave McCluskey has tackled quite a number over the past 11 years. Horror may be his mainstay, but he's also written romance, graphic novels, historical crime fiction and children's books too. As he tells Rebecca and Adrian...

It's one of the aspects that frustrates us most at Hobeck Books . When it comes to awards, most of the odds are stacked in the favour of the big publishing houses and traditionally published authors. There are exceptions of course, but it was this situation that motivated our guest this week Pauline Barclay to launch the Chill Awards five and a half years ago. Only open to independent authors or s...

Every writer dreams of being a published author. It's tough enough when you're based in a country like the UK with hundreds of agents and dozens of publishers to target, but when your own country has almost no fiction publishing scene - it's far harder. That was the challenge Awais Khan faced. At 25, with two degrees to his name, he followed his heart and signed up for the renowned Faber Writing A...

Two billion books sold and 102 years after the publication of her first novel, we bring you this Agatha Christie special edition of  The Hobcast Book Show.  Adrian and Rebecca return to the place they first met, Exeter University to meet Annie Price, who curates the Agatha Christie archive within the university's special collections department.  As we discover, the collection charts the relationsh...

If you ever search for a crime novel on the UK Amazon store, the chances are you'll soon see an ad for Rachel McLean 's books. In the space of three years, the Birmingham based author's two crime series have established an army of fans, and her titles regularly hit the number one spot. Rachel was also awarded the coveted Kindle Storyteller Award for 2021. So what does she put her success down to?...

Lewis Hastings was our second signing for Hobeck Books back in 2020, and together we're about to publish his fifth Jack Cade thriller -  The Chemist . The novel features the return of an old foe for Cade and those he cares for most, as they face their greatest danger yet. So how does Lewis create such wonderfully twisted and memorable villains? And how much of his career in law-enforcement play a...

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 ov...

Over the past 12 months of  The Hobcast Book Show,  we've spoken to a number of debut authors, but we've never spoken to them on publication day itself, until now. Andy Hill, writing as A J Hill, celebrated the release of  Dead Drift   by speaking to us. We first met Andy at the Harrogate Crime Festival last summer, and he'd just been signed by Spellbound Books for an initial three book deal for h...

We had a shock this week at  Hobeck Books . The rumours of rising production costs are very true as we were quoted a 20% higher price for the same print run we last ordered less than three months ago. So can you make indie publishing work? Yes, but as Dan Morgan, (writing as Morgan Greene ), says in the second part of his revealing interview with us, it's tough and takes a lot of nerve. Also this...

We're proud to be indie publishers at  www.hobeck.net It's an exciting movement to be part of, but as we explore every week here on  The Hobcast Book Show the reality of running a start-up publishing house is far tougher than some would have you believe. That's also been the experience of our guest, Dan Morgan, a Welsh author of Scandi-noir novels under the pen name  Morgan Greene . Dan has built...

You've trained for years to achieve your ambition to become a doctor, but what happens when a mental health crisis forces you to leave the profession? That's exactly what happened to our guest Mairi Chong, who was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in the weeks after giving birth to her son. The effects were so severe she had to leave the job she loved as a GP, and rebuild her life again, coming to t...

We've been lucky enough to speak to some spectacularly successful indie authors in the past year, like Simon McCleave and Jason Dalgleish, we can now add Daniel Hurst to that list. In just two years since he specialised in writing psychological thrillers and suspense novels, he's sold enough books to both give up his day job and employ his wife full-time to support him. As Daniel explains to Adria...

It's Episode 50! Adrian and Rebecca have taken  The Hobeck Book Show  on the road again to see in the new year with a visit to Oxford. The city of dreaming spires was the perfect place to look back on a momentous 2021, and set new goals and dreams for 2022. In this episode we hear again from some of the wonderful guests we've hosted in the past year, and we look ahead to what's in store for Hobeck...

This week we compare notes with husband-and-wife book selling team, Dan and Leanne Fridd about the pleasures and pressures of working together in the world of books. They run the superb independent bookshop, Bookbugs and Dragon Tales in Norwich, UK, and as they tell The Hobcast Bookshow , they're determined to create a unique experience where customers of all ages can relax and discover the joy of...

We have a confession to make at The Hobcast Book Show. Our plans unravelled following a medical drama, so we had to launch an appeal for a guest this week at the last minute. Kindly, the brilliant Sarah Manvel stepped in, creating a literary podcast blind date for this week's show. Sarah is a writer and critic, and author of the hilarious semi-fictional account of dates that have gone horribly wro...

Our latest Hobeck Books release, Silenced by Jennie Ensor, is potentially one of our most controversial. How controversial depends on your position on the debate about who is entitled to write about characters from a range of backgrounds and cultures. The novel tackles the impact of gang culture in North London, the horror of knife crime and the way communities live in fear of helping the police....

It's been a brutal 18 months for independent bookshops. Feeling the ever tightening squeeze of a certain large online retailer, the Covid pandemic forced many to shut their doors for months, if not for ever. But is the outlook for the UK's independent bookshops so bleak? Not according to our guests on the Hobcast Bookshow this week: Jules Button owns the Woodbridge Emporium in Suffolk, whilst Kris...

We all remember the jealousies and rivalries of our school years. The gossip swirls, rumours grow and take a life of their own - no one is immune. Add a musical genius from a sheltered background, suffocated by a protective mother's love, and you have the ingredients for Lin Le Versha 's superb debut novel, Blood Notes ,  set in a fictional sixth form college in Suffolk. Lin tells Rebecca and Adri...

We all have things we'd rather forget from our childhoods, but what if a whole community chooses to bury a dark secret? That's the theme of Linda Huber's brilliant and dark psychological thriller for Hobeck Books .  Pact of Silence   is a departure from her first bestseller for us,  Daria's Daughter,  and as Linda reveals in this wide-ranging interview, the scenes and themes of her new novel have...

As we promise in the opening of every Hobcast Book Show - we speak to the people who make Hobeck Books possible, including editors. Helen Gray has worked with two of our authors, Malcolm Hollingdrake and Harry Fisher on their crime series, and in this interview, we learn how she uses her experience and judgement to build strong working relationships with the authors she works with. Also this week,...

5000 words, a competition, and a measure of luck launched Abir Mukherjee's glittering literary career five years ago. With  The Shadows of Men , the fifth novel in his Wyndham and Bannerjee historical crime fiction series due out on November 12th, Abir has cemented himself as one of the genre's best authors. His books have sold over 250 thousand copies and been translated into 15 languages. As he...

Hallowe'en approaches. No better time then to release some spine-tingling spooky fiction as we did at Hobeck Books this week. Judi Daykin's Wayland Babes is a wonderful collection of five inter-related ghost tales based on the legend of the Babes in the Wood, set in Norfolk's Wayland Woods. Adrian and Rebecca joined Judi on location to discover more about the inspiration behind the book. Also this...

Is there one thread that binds us all? A link through history that explains the human experience? These are some of the themes tackled by Hobeck author Olly Jarvis in his brilliant new thriller,  The Genesis Inquiry .  Described by Stephen Fry as a 'compulsively readable legal thriller', the novel introduces care-worn barrister Ella Blake, who's hired to investigate the disappearance of a brillian...

The line between marketing and publicity is often a blurred one. Everyone in publishing, whether traditional or independent will have experience of marketing, but publicity is a different game altogether. Securing coverage in newspapers, interviews with broadcasters, and reviews from influencers is an art in itself, and one that our guest Angela McMahon excels in. Angela runs Flow Communications ,...

Every so often we receive a submission at Hobeck Books that blow our minds. Harry Fisher's  Be Sure Your Sins was one of those. Set in Leith, home of Ian Rankin's Rebus novels, Harry introduces us to no-nonsense copper, DS Mel Cooper in the first of a new series. Harry reveals how a close-knit team of family and friends has helped him shape his work and launch his writing career. Also this week, R...