Liver-Flavored Toothpaste Can Work
In my last post I talked about Jeffrey Deaver’s idea that writers produce products in the same way that say, Colgate, produces toothpaste and that professional working writers don’t write about non-commercial subjects. Like say, a children’s book with a sympathetic pedophile protagonist in the same way that Colgate doesn’t market liver-flavored toothpaste. It might be the best novel ever written or the most authentic liver-flavored toothpaste ever. But the disgust factor will override any literary or prophylactic benefits without any of the usual joys associated with prophylaxis. Nevertheless it’s all about knowing your market. Just as Liver-Fresh Toothpaste might work well in the pet market, The Nice Man in the Raincoat might be a real hit in a certain...
It Pays to be Inflexible – It Pays to be Flexible
I’m currently writing a novel based on the collapse of an Australian company. Virtually overnight, the business went from being worth around $300 million to being practically worthless. When I started, I wasn’t particularly interested in business per se, but as I’ve interviewed survivors of this corporate disaster the project has grown on me somewhat. It’s more than a story about numbers. Why would I even embark on the major commitment of writing a novel on a subject that I wasn’t interested in? Well, I’d already had that experience writing Air and Space Disasters of the World. Again, it wasn’t a subject that I would have chosen as a top ten from a wish list, but New Holland wanted me to write it and I figured, ‘What the hell.’ As it happens, it...
Grand Visions
This book is about big thinking and big dreaming. Grand Visions features humankind’s best; from buildings and monuments to cities and ships. All the visions were chosen because they were conceived, designed and executed by one person or one group of people; represented a significant investment and came at a high cost to the people involved, and demonstrated a significant originality and investion. All visions have broken new ground. This is the must have almanac to the best known icons of the world. Released: July 2010 Download sample chapter (PDF) Buy from...
Where’s Michael?
Did Michael Jackson really pass on? Or is he alive inside this book? See if you can find him along with several other famous characters who seem to have ‘disappeared’. With scenes from Thriller, We Are The World, Neverland, hair on fire on stage, plastic surgery at the hospital, find the silver glove and the fake nose and watch Michael’s appearance change throughout this book. Released: April 2010 Download sample chapter (PDF) Buy on Amazon
Where’s Elvis?
Look through this pictorial book of astoundingly intricate drawings and a lot of tongue in cheek, to find Elvis in all sorts of locations and amongst all kinds of weird and wonderful characters. Find the people who have faked their way from ordinary stardom to super-stardom, or even to becoming icons! And check out the ones whose ‘after life’ expectations didn’t lead to the ‘after life’ cash-in they were expecting. Released: August 2009 Download sample chapter (PDF) Buy on...
Xavier
Bestselling author of a bazillion books, including Where's Bin Laden, Assassination and Who's Rejecting Who. 
