Until the end of last week, I had no idea I was one of the bestselling authors in Europe in 2009, let alone the bestselling UK author. It came as a real, pleasant shock. After years in the career doldrums, I'm still getting used to the novelty of seeing the word "bestseller" next to my name.
I had known that my crime series about Dr David Hunter, an emotionally damaged forensic anthropologist, was doing well. The books have been translated into 27 languages, and appeared on bestseller charts in several of those countries. In the last 12 months, I've done interviews and readings in the Netherlands and Sweden, and been forced to turn down almost as many invitations again.
But the biggest surprise has been with Germany. Over there, the books have sold in their millions. I had no idea of the scale of things until I went over last year to give readings. These are normally sedate affairs where empty chairs outnumber the audience. So I was unprepared to find myself – a British author who doesn't speak German – selling out several-hundred-seat venues in Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf.
In Cologne, I was casually told on the way to the hall (yes, an actual hall) that 900 tickets had been sold. Afterwards, as I sat for almost an hour signing books, ticket stubs and photographs, it took me a while to realise that the man standing beside me was a security guard. My own security guard. How did that happen?
German journalists often ask if I'm recognised in my home city of Sheffield. Well, no: not that I'd want to be. A few days before I heard the news about the European ranking I was at a funeral, along with people I'd not seen for a few years. "Still writing?" one of them asked. "Managing to keep your head above water?"
I said I was. Which is as it should be. I didn't exactly become a writer to be a celebrity.
The obvious question I'm asked now is why the books have been such a success, especially in Germany. The honest answer is that I don't know. I wanted to write tense, involving thrillers with engaging characters, but then any crime writer would say that. I could point to good editors, marketing and translators, who all contribute. But I think it's mainly indefinable. Call it being in the right place, with the right idea, at the right time. It's fantastic, of course, and what every writer hopes will happen. It's just a little strange when it does.
Simon Beckett's latest novel, Whispers of the Dead (Bantam Books), is out now
