The success of Murder Squad
Having a book published is only half the battle that the crime writer has to fight in order to gain recognition and sales. There are three to four hundred crime novels published every year and the competition is tough. You may have a brilliant book on the shelves but word of mouth and a little advertising from the publisher - sometimes so little as to be non-existent - are not enough to promote a book or the author. In recent years crime writers have banded together in order to overcome this obstacle.
It all began in 2000 when Margaret Murphy was thinking of ideas for building her own profile. She thought that one lone voice may well be drowned out by the roar of publicity machines working furiously for more famous names so she contacted some writing friends in the Northern Chapter of the CWA to see if they would be interested in forming a group - a unified literary force - to break the mould. They were and they banded together as The Murder Squad with the slogan 'Crime fiction to die for...' Very soon libraries, festivals and bookshops became interested in booking the group for presentations and workshops. As a ready-made package they were virtually an overnight success. There are seven members of Murder Squad: John Baker, Chaz Brenchley, Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards, Margaret Murphy, Stuart Pawson and Cath Staincliffe. Each member, an accomplished crime novelist, has his or her own individual style ensuring variety at every presentation. It is a unique and popular way of bringing the work of exciting new crime writers to the attention of the reading public. Their website is: www.murdersquad.co.uk
The success of Murder Squad inspired other writers to form similar groups. Now it's hard to keep tabs on them all as their numbers grow. There's a list over on the speakers page which is as up to date as we can make it.