Bestselling authors

"Raymond Chandler says, if you're stuck with a book have a guy burst through a door with a gun. I don't do guns, but I was writing this funeral scene and they were in the chapel, so I had the door burst open. And really, almost literally, in came Vera"

I do not write character studies or atmospheric stories contemplating the nature of good and evil. I write foot-to-the-floor page-turners that race from start to finish, featuring whipsawing plot twists and surprise endings. (A recent review suggested that readers should send me their chiropractic bills.)

In 1983, William Blatty-author of The Exorcist-sued the New York Times.1 His lawsuit alleged that the Times had incorrectly excluded his latest novel, Legion (a sequel to The Exorcist), from its bestseller list-the coveted ranking that purports to show the books that have sold the most copies that week in the United States.  Read more

Author Val McDermid has said Agatha Christie's estate has threatened legal action against her publisher for promoting her as the "queen of crime".

That phrase is trademarked by the descendants of Christie, who created Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

IN 1978, BILL GROSE, editor-in-chief at Dell, decided to make a star of a young author from San Francisco. Grose was a thumper of novelizations from popular film and television, a fan of media tie-ins, a man with his finger in the air to feel the direction of the wind.  Read more