A NORTH Fife farmer, who juggles agriculture with writing, is “over the moon” that he has secured a major publishing deal after years of his books being rejected.
James Oswald, who has now had rights for his Inspector McLean crime mysteries books sold in three continents, will be launching the titles at a book signing in Waterstone’s, Dundee, on Thursday.
James, of Fliskmillan Farm, nearNewburgh, conjures up plot lines for his Inspector McLean mysteries while tendingHighland cattle and Romney sheep on Norman’s Law overlooking the River Tay.
At night, he retires to a static caravan with his four dogs to write the Edinburgh-set supernatural crime novels that have defied expectations.
As reported by The Courier last year, James considered quitting fiction to focus solely on the farm after his books fell flat with mainstream publishing houses.
Experts were forced to reconsider after the same books, self-published by James on Amazon, took the Kindle e-book market by storm in the UK and USA.
Almost 350,000 readers have downloaded Natural Causes and the Book of Souls and publishers at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair were queuing up to bid.
Now rights have been sold in Germany, Canada, Italy, Brazil and Serbia and James has signed a three-book deal for UK rights with Penguin.
The farmer told The Courier: “It’s hard to take it all in. It’s all happened incredibly quickly. I didn’t even have an agent. That’s the power of e-book publishing.
“It’s a wonderful vindication of what I’ve been doing for the last few years.”
Book signings will take place at Waterstone’s in Dundee on Thursday at 6.30pm; at Waterstone’s Dunfermline on Friday at noon; at Waterstone’s Kirkcaldy on May 25 at 12.30pm and at Waterstone’s in St Andrews on June 8, time to be confirmed.
He said he had chosen Dundee Waterstone’s for the first launch because his good friend Russell McLean himself a crime author works there.
James revealed he has already written a third Inspector McLean novel theHangman’s Song which he hopes will come out next year.
James has spent recent weeks lambing. In fact during this interview, he has had very little sleep having delivered two sets of twins during the early hours.
He is still living in his caravan and is waiting for Fife Council to give him permission to build a house.
He added: “One thing that securing this book deal has done is that it means I might actually now be able to afford to build a house!”
malexander@thecourier.co.uk