Mark Edwards (British writer)

Last updated

Mark Edwards
Mark Edwards signing a copy of No Place to Run.jpg
Edwards in 2022
Born1970
Kent, England
Known for Fiction writer
Website markedwardsauthor.com

Mark Edwards (born 1970) is an English London-based, best-selling fiction writer. His books have sold over four million copies and been translated into 12 languages. Edwards has written over a dozen thrillers since his 2013 solo debut, The Magpies, and his 2022 novel No Place to Run made it into the top ten Kindle chart. [1] He has co-authored six books with Louise Voss.

Contents

Early years

Edwards was born in Kent, England, on 4 November 1970. He grew up in Hastings, East Sussex, where he attended Rye College. He graduated from Staffordshire University in 1993, with a degree in sociology. While pursuing a career as a writer, Edwards worked for the civil service and did customer service for a rail franchise, and eventually a London-based book publisher. He also had a stint as an English teacher in Tokyo, Japan, while pursuing his first publishing deal. [2]

Career

In 1999, Edwards appeared in the BBC documentary Close Up: First Writes, which followed three writers, including Jake Arnott, at the start of their writing careers. In 2011, he self-published two novels co-authored with Louise Voss, Killing Cupid and Catch Your Death. This led to a four-book deal with HarperCollins. In 2013, Edwards published his debut solo novel, The Magpies, which reached number one and led to a deal with Thomas & Mercer, part of Amazon Publishing. [1] His 2019 novel Here to Stay received positive reviews, including one from critic Natasha Cooper, who said, "Mark Edwards has sold millions of copies of his domestic suspense novels. On the evidence of Here to Stay, his latest, it is not hard to see why." [3]

Self publishing

When Amazon launched its ebook reader, the Kindle, in Britain in 2010, Edwards joined an emerging group of writers who had success self-publishing their work. Edwards and Voss released their first novel, Killing Cupid, on Kindle Direct Publishing, which eventually climbed to the top 100 on the Kindle charts. That same year, the pair published Catch your Death. This earned them TV appearances and a four-book deal with HarperCollins. [2] During an interview with The Guardian in 2013, Edwards said self-publishing on Amazon can be advantageous for emerging writers who don't yet have publishers but are ready to seek out a wider audience. [4] In 2024, Penguin Michael Joseph (PMJ) bought Edwards' thriller The Wasp Trap, the author's first solo traditional publishing deal. [5]

Influences

Edwards has said he is a fan of American authors such as Stephen King, who have shaped the kind of stories he likes to tell: "Extraordinary, often scary, things happening to ordinary people." The works of both Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay influenced Edwards when he wrote No Place to Run. [6]

Personal life

Edwards lives in Wolverhampton with his wife and their children. [7]

Novels

with Louise Voss

Solo

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Neil Schulman</span> American novelist (1953–2019)

Joseph Neil Schulman was an American novelist who wrote Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza which both received the Prometheus Award, a libertarian science fiction award. His third novel, Escape from Heaven, was also a finalist for the 2002 Prometheus Award. His fourth and last novel, The Fractal Man, was a finalist for the 2019 Prometheus Award.

A vanity press or vanity publisher, sometimes also subsidy publisher, is a book printer that is paid by authors to self-publish their books. A vanity press charges fees in advance and does not contribute to the development of the book. It has been described as a scam, though, as the book does get printed, it does not necessarily rise to the level of fraud. The term vanity press is derogatory, so it is not used by the printers. Some self-publishing businesses prefer to market themselves as an independent press, and some authors who are self-publishing through CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle prefer to market themselves as indie authors instead of as self-publishing authors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Horowitz</span> English novelist and screenwriter (born 1955)

Anthony John Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the Alex Rider series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spies for MI6, The Power of Five series, and The Diamond Brothers series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Leather</span> British author (born 1956)

Stephen Leather is a British thriller author whose works are published by Hodder & Stoughton. He has written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock, and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. He is one of the top selling Amazon Kindle authors, the second bestselling UK author worldwide on Kindle in 2011.

John Maddox Roberts was an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction including the SPQR series and Hannibal's Children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Goldberg</span> American writer

Lee Goldberg is an American author, screenwriter, publisher and producer known for his bestselling novels Lost Hills and True Fiction and his work on a wide variety of TV crime series, including Diagnosis: Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Martial Law, She-Wolf of London, SeaQuest, 1-800-Missing, The Glades and Monk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Clifford Faust</span> American author

Joe Clifford Faust is an American author best known for his seven science fiction novels which were primarily written during the 1980s and 1990s, including A Death of Honor, The Company Man, the Angel's Luck Trilogy, and the satirical Pembroke Hall novels. His novels are known for their tightly controlled plots and their sense of humor.

Pronoun was a New York–based company that provided free book publishing, marketing, and analytics services to authors. Pronoun was launched in 2015.

Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using print on demand technology. It may also apply to albums, pamphlets, brochures, games, video content, artwork, and zines. Web fiction is also a major medium for self-publishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Locke (author)</span> American writer

John Locke is a writer and novelist who was the eighth author—and first self-published author—to sell over one million eBooks on Amazon.com. Locke is a New York Times best-selling author, and is best known for his Donovan Creed thriller series and Emmett Love Western series. His works are self-published worldwide. In the U.S., Locke's books are released through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Locke's books have been translated into over 29 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ComiXology</span> Online comic distribution platform

Iconology Inc., d/b/a ComiXology, was a cloud-based digital distribution platform for comics owned by Amazon, with over 200 million comic downloads as of September 2013. At its height it offered a selection of more than 100,000 comic books, graphic novels, and manga across Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, Windows 10, and the Internet. In 2023, the ComiXology app was officially retired and the material was made available exclusively on the Amazon Kindle app.

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon.com's e-book publishing platform launched in November 2007, concurrently with the first Amazon Kindle device. Originally called Digital Text Platform, the platform allows authors and publishers to publish their books to the Amazon Kindle Store.

Amazon Publishing is Amazon's book publishing unit launched in 2009. It is composed of 15 imprints including AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, and Topple Books.

<i>Silo</i> (series) SciFi books and stories by Hugh Howey (2011–2015)

Silo is a dystopian series of post-apocalyptic science fiction books by American writer Hugh Howey. The series started in 2011 with the short story "Wool", which was later published together with four sequel novellas as a novel with the same name. Along with Wool, the series consists of Shift, Dust, three short stories, and Wool: The Graphic Novel. The series has also been adapted as a comic book and an Apple TV+ television series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Howey</span> American writer

Hugh C. Howey is an American writer, known best for the science fiction series Silo, part of which he published independently through Amazon.com's Kindle Direct Publishing system; he later signed distribution deals, with large publishing houses in different countries, but maintains the publishing rights and all e-book publishing.

Kerry Wilkinson is a British author and sports journalist born in Bath, Somerset.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen McQuestion</span> American novelist

Karen McQuestion is an American fiction writer who has written books for adults, children and teens. Most of her books include elements of humor or fantasy. Her books have sold over a million copies and translation rights to her books have sold for Germany, Turkey, South Korea, and Poland. McQuestion lives in Hartland, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Weir</span> American novelist (born 1972)

Andrew Taylor Weir is an American novelist. His 2011 novel The Martian was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. He received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016 and his 2021 novel Project Hail Mary was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Abbott</span> British author

Rachel Abbott is an English author of psychological thrillers. A self-publisher, her first seven novels have combined to sell over three million copies, and have all been bestsellers on Amazon's Kindle store. In 2015, she was named the 14th bestselling author over the last five years on Amazon's Kindle in the UK.

<i>Magpie Murders</i> Novel by Anthony Horowitz

Magpie Murders is a 2016 mystery novel by British author Anthony Horowitz and the first novel in the Susan Ryeland series. The story focuses on the murder of a mystery author and uses a story within a story format.

References

  1. 1 2 Frasier, Katie. "Thomas & Mercer nets three-book deal with 'king of suspense' Edwards". bookseller.com. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  2. 1 2 Brodbeck, Sam (13 June 2017). "Publishers rejected me, but I went on to earn six-figures selling 1,000 books a day" . telegraph. Retrieved 13 June 2017.[ better source needed ]
  3. Cooper, Natasha. "September 2019 Crime Round-up". literaryreview. Literary Review. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  4. "Mark Edwards: 'Traditional or self-publishing, the great thing is we have options now'". The Guardian. 25 June 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  5. Heloise, Wood (29 May 2024). "Penguin Michael Joseph lures Mark Edwards with traditional publishing deal". thebookseller. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
  6. Salvalggio, Karin (21 June 2022). "Mark Edwards: Proverbial needle, proverbial haystack". bookanista. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  7. "My Writing Life: No Place to Run by Mark Edwards". writing.ie. 27 June 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2022.