Anyone who’s read my bio either on my main
website or my Amazon profile will know that I have a ‘secret’ occupation in
public service. My employers have had a hold over my life and I have had to
have my occupation as a writer approved by them: it was approved on the
condition that –
1: I spent no more than 16 hours per month
doing it, and
2: I did not divulge what my main
occupation was, as to do so might result in me selling more books.
In a recent review, condition 1 was removed
– I had been ignoring it for several years, anyway. That left number 2.
As of midnight tonight (GMT on 8 February
2013) I cease to be employed by them. I can now reveal that ‘them’ is the
Metropolitan Police Service. I have completed 30 years service and it’s time
for me to go, so I thought I would try this: now that I have revealed my
secret, will it result in a glut of e-book sales? I very much doubt it, but it
would be nice if it did.
The links to my e-books are here.
Go on, prove that my employer was justly
concerned: buy them in their thousands.
(If I sell even one I’d be surprised).
16 minutes later: no sales ... tick ... tock
ReplyDeleteOMG! I've been trying to guess what your job was and it just didn't occur to me that you were a police officer!
ReplyDeleteThat is actually very cool and good to know as I'll need someone with police experience to annoy with stupid questions when I write my new crime novel in the summer ... :-)
And how cheeky of them to tell you how much time you could spend on writing in your own time! Bit of a liability that!
For me it's the end of an era. A new chapter of our lives is beginning... Congratulations on getting away with it! xx
ReplyDelete(From Theresa! xx)
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, the above two entries were by my wife!
ReplyDeleteCan I say, as a reader, it wouldn't affect my decision to buy a book. It doesn't do anything for me at all. I don't get the thinking behind their rules. Congrats on your new life phase! Hope you do sell thousands. Would never have guessed you were a cop, thought you worked at the dole or something!
ReplyDeleteMost people didn't believe I was a police officer, even in the days when I was wandering around the streets in full uniform! And did you think I worked AT the dole, or was ON the dole?
ReplyDeleteThe thing the bosses were worried about was that I might have ingratiated myself on others in my cop role, and they would have felt duty bound to buy my books. They have to be whiter than white in the eyes of the public.
Only a few weeks ago the Mail ran this story - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254716/Police-jobs-Officers-face-new-curbs-moonlighting-figure-soars-nearly-20-year.html#axzz2KU2z40CY - I was one of those 23,000! My very small earnings (which barely covered the costs of my paper printing ink for the copies I proofed at home) had to be registered with my force as a business interest. Many others of the 23,000 don't actually have second jobs: regulation insist that they register any business interest, including those of their immediate families, in case there is a conflict of interests.
AT! Lol
ReplyDelete