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| Unusual venue for a book signing, but author Nick Louth is full of admiration for Boyes' imaginative approach to retailing |
WILL the coronavirus spread to the Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham areas?
"Undoubtedly yes," says Nick Louth who was in the Boyes store in Cleethorpes on Saturday to sign copies of his books.
Nick is a professional thriller-writer so what insights could he possibly have on epidemics and pandemics?
Before turning to penning novels, the LSE graduate worked as a foreign correspondent for the Reuters news agency, reporting from international health conferences on how governments and business leaders, plus other agencies, responded to the threats posed by disease .
Indeed, it was attendance at a conference on malaria which gave him the germ (ha!) for his best-selling first book, Bite.
Of coronavirus, he notes that, as recently as 20 years ago, it probably would not have been identified as a new disease - just as a different strain of flu.
Although governments around the world are doing their best to contain it, Nick believes it inevitable that its global spread will continue.
And, as long it is causing mortalities, anxiety - and sometimes panic - will escalate.
"I fear things will get worse before they get better,"he predicts.
"That means stock markets will continue to tumble.
"They will probably reach their floor when the New York Stock Exchange is closed in order to restrict spread of the infection."
Turning to other matters, Nick says he misses the buzz of his past life, working in the newsroom at Reuters, but he was keen to take on the challenge of freelance financial journalism, regularly contributing to prestigious titles such as the Financial Times and Investors Chronicle.
But he always wanted to be a thriller-writer and has not looked back since ditching journalism for fiction and writing Bite which has enjoyed fabulous sales not just in the UK but all over the world.
He says he is "brimful of ideas" for new books, not least featuring his fictional creation, Det Ch Insp Craig Gillard.
The deterctive reappears in Nick's latest novel, The Body in The Snow published in January.
How lucrative is writing thrillers?
Bite made a lot of money. For a single month, July in 2014, it was actually the UK's best selling book, even outstripping J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.
The more recent books have not (yet) hit the same heady sales heights, but, between them, they have generated more than enough to pay the bills.
"I would say it's a thin living," says Nick coyly.
The term, 'thin', depends, of course on perspective and is open to interpretation.
What he would love, of course, is for a TV or film production to adapt one of his books for the screen - something that would lift his profile to a new dimension.
For an exciting time, there was, indeed, interest from a TV company, but, alas, the deal was never closed, so Nick must keep on waiting and hoping.
Historically, most of his sales have been via Kindle and similar devices, but industry evidence indicates that, after an initial surge, the sale of titles on ebooks has now plateau'd.
"They're convenient, but ebooks tend to be forgotten unlike their paperback or hardback counterparts,"he says.
Nick pays tribute to his publishers, Canelo, who, as a relatively small company, are more responsive to the needs (and royalty requirements) of their authors than some larger companies.
He is also impressed with the Boyes chain in accommodating authors who want to mount in-store book signings, even though books amount to a miniscule percentage of product sales.
"It shows imagination and initiative by their management,"he says.
"The fact that they allow authors to sign their books at such a prominent location - near the door - is further to their credit."
Nick, who lives in Louth (where else with his surname?), is also full of praise for his wife, Louise.
"She's very much part of the operation," he says. "She's in charge of the marketing of my books and manages my website.
"What is more, she went out of her way to drive me to Cleethorpes on a horrible wet morning!"
More information about the author and his books at: www.nicklouth.com
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| Despite the rainy morning, there was a steady stream of customers eager to meet the author and to buy signed copies |
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