Quick profits are being put in front of the long-term gains that come from nurturing and developing talent. My instinctive reaction to this annihilation of the mid-list is to blame the publishers. Yet, it seems reasonable to estimate that dozens (maybe hundreds) are disappearing every year – judging by persistent industry chatter, not to mention occasional unsettling revelations, such as the fact that many writers have been moved to take legal action against publishers trying to escape their contract commitments. Publishers don't announce it, and the last thing most writers want to do is broadcast the fact they can no longer get published. It's impossible even to keep track of which authors have dropped off the radar. The squeeze on mid-list authors has been a big story in publishing for years now. He's been reduced to trying to change their mind with a Facebook group and blog – hence the typically gloriously sweary quote above. Shortly after he wrote it (and his editor said he liked it) Williams's publisher told him they won't be putting out the fourth Royston Blake novel, Wrongun. Williams would have been able to keep on writing while readers caught up with the series, and hopefully one day, probably several books down the line, he would have had the breakthrough he deserves. Until recently, that would have been a fairly typical career path for a mid-list author.

It was followed by Fags and Lager and King of the Road – both of which also received equally favourable reviews, but sold in smaller quantities. He was first brought to life in 2004 by Charlie Williams, who published the story of Royston's struggle to maintain his position as the hardest man in Mangel in the novel Deadfolk.ĭeadfolk rightly received a handful of very good reviews and sold a respectable number of copies. For those that don't know, Royston Blake is – or was – the head doorman of Hoppers wine bar and bistro in Mangel, one of the finest literary depictions of a crap town I have ever encountered.

First grave on the right book