Stephen Leather

Stephen Leather (b. 1956) is a British thriller author currently published by Hodder & Stoughton. He has sold more than two million books in more than ten languages^[3] and has written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series.^[4][5][6] His books have made him one of the top selling Amazon Kindle authors and in 2011 he was the second bestselling UK author worldwide on Kindle.^[7]

Leather was born in Manchester on September 25, 1956. He grew up in Sale and Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and attended Manchester Grammar School.^[8] He attended Bath University where he obtained a BSc in Biochemistry in 1978.^[1]

Prior to being a published author, Leather worked as a journalist for approximately ten years. He worked on newspapers such a Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mirror, The Times, The Daily Mail, and The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for Imperial Chemical Industries, shoveled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue.

Leather began writing when he was in college; however, he stated that he "never managed to get beyond a few pages,"^[9] and did not begin writing full time until 1992. He began writing fiction, and his first novel was published from the "slush pile" at HarperCollins.^[5] His first novel, The Payoff, was written while he was still employed at the Daily Mirror. His second novel, The Fireman, was written while he was working as the business editor of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.^[9][10]

Leather frequently travels to do research for his novels and has lived in England, the Far East, the United States, and Ireland. Many of his novels are set in the countries where he has traveled.^[11] In 2004, he spent time in Durham prison and Belmarsh prison in England to conduct research for his book Hard Landing. His books are also the second most read by prisoners in the U.K. next to author John Grisham.^[12][13]

Leather became successful in the Kindle market in 2010. In late 2010, Amazon opened an eBook store on Amazon UK just prior to Christmas. Leather anticipated people purchasing eBooks that Christmas but that they would be looking for "bargain books." He sold his books at the minimum price for independent writers (approximately $.99 USD) in order to get his books in the top ten. He then went to popular social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter to market his books.^[7]

In 2011 Leather was the second bestselling UK author on the Amazon Kindle worldwide, beaten only by Lee Child.^[14] In all Leather sold 500,000 eBooks in 2011 and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the Top 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world.^[15] In early 2012, Leather's book The Basement topped the Kindle chart for sales in both the U.S. and the U.K.^[16]

Leather has come under criticism for his online marketing techniques. In August 2012, journalist Nick Cohen said that Leather had created phony Twitter accounts in the name of another writer and then used those accounts to praise Leather's own books. Cohen also said that in July Leather had boasted to other mystery writers that he generally promoted his books in a similar manner: "As soon as my book is out I'm on Facebook and Twitter several times a day talking about it. I'll go on to several forums, the well-known forums, and post there under my name and under various other names and various other characters. You build up this whole network of characters who talk about your books and sometimes have conversations with yourself."^[17][18]

• Pay Off (1987)
• The Fireman
• Hungry Ghost
• The Chinaman
• The Vets
• The Long Shot
• The Birthday Girl
• The Double Tap
• The Solitary Man
• The Tunnel Rats (1997)
• The Bombmaker (1999)
• The Stretch (2000)
• Tango One (2002)
• The Eyewitness (2003)
• Hard Landing (2004) ISBN 978-0340831762
• Soft Target (2005) ISBN 978-0340834077
• Private Dancer (2005 - originally only available as a download, Leather has self-published this work)
• Confessions Of A Bangkok Private Eye (2006)
• Cold Kill (2006) ISBN 978-0340834107
• Hot Blood (2007) ISBN 978-0340921678
• Dead Men (2008) ISBN 978-0753180884
• Live Fire (2009) ISBN 978-0340921739
• Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon" (2009) - another self-published book
• Nightfall (2010) ISBN 978-1444700626
• Rough Justice (2010)
• Midnight (2011) ISBN 978-1444700664
• Fair Game (2011) ISBN 978-0340924969
• Nightmare (2012) ISBN 978-1444700701
• False Friends (2012) ISBN 978-0340924990

• Official website
• Jack Nightingale website

Template:Persondata