18/04/2013 Meet the Author

Now, it is time for this week's Meet The Author, Nick Higham is at

a busy London Book Fair. David Baldacci is one of America's most

successful thriller writers. His 25 book Secretary of State far have

sold more than 110 million coppice around the world. This is the

London Book Fair. David Baldacci's latest novel The Hit is getting a

lot of publicity on the stand of his British publishers. People come

here to buy and sell foreign rights. It's a place to do business. You

don't seen many authors here. This is where we came to meet David

Baldacci. David Baldacci, this is a side of the publishing industry I

suppose most people don't see. Is it one that you, as an author, are

comfortable with? I am. I love book fairs. I have been here a few times,

Frankfurt and the one in the States it is a great place to meet

publishers and quality time with them. Meet authors that you haven't

seen in a while. I love being surrounded by book lovers. If you

are not happy here as a book lover you are in in the wrong place. This

is a fantastic energy. You have sold three million coppice in the

states. People say that the price for e-books is low. Publishers, are

getting squeezed and so are authors? It's probably one of the

greatest opportunities we have in publishing right now electronic

readers. We are content providers, content is King. What we do, there

are lots of different ways to read books. We have huge companies like

Apple who sold 20 million iPads at Christmas. 20 million more people

who never downloaded a book on anything. If you capture 10%, 20%

of that audience, millions of new readers. This is an opportunity we

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 43 seconds

book with conspiresies and someone getting shot or someone getting

blown up, it seems to me, every 15 to 20 pages. How far are you

playing to readers' expectations. How far do you say - this is what I

have to give? I try not to be run to a formula. I give myself

challenges. This book is about two damaged people. When I created Will

and Jessica it was like they had body armour over them they couldn't

feel anything, they were killers. I tried to chip away until I could

see humanity underneath. When the bombs are going out you have to

realise these are human beings doing it. At the end of the day

what toll it took on them much I looked at it from a psychological

point of view, I write the hard scenes but the stuff about them

finding out who they are. The rest is cream on top of the cake. These

two different people were trying to understand if they could survive as

normal people or will they be killers for hire, shoot and move on.

Shoot and move on. At the end of the day, who were they? One of the

cilt criticisms levelled at books is that they encourage a culture of

violence. Exciting and desensitise people to the consequences of what

they do. Is that a criticism that you accept or that you recognise?

People can be desensitised. I see the video games that kids play.

They look so real it's unimaginable. When I write my books I feel a

certain responsibility. If I have some type of bomb in there that can

cause mass damage I fudge details so they will never be able to work

it out in the real world. When people do bad things there are

consequences and punishment for. It I don't want to ever write when

someone does something really bad, people are killed, there are no

consequences or repercussions actions have consequences. I never

do anything that happened out in the real world and actions have

consequences. I do feel. I sometimes pull back from pushing

control. The second amendment say you have the right to bear arms.

Sensible gun control, background checks we know that people who have

mental illness can't have guns. If you want to own a gun, that is fine

fine much you have to be trained. If you want to drive a car you need

training. If you buy a gun you have to by a -- buy a gun department

where it is locked away and be a responsible gun owner. If someone

uses your gun and you didn't do that you will have serious

consequences you might go to jail. Let's have consequences on people.

If they want to own guns they have to do it properly. How likely do

you think the United States are to do it? Almost zero. The Senate

passed the background checks, the problem is it has to clear the

House of Representatives. A lot of people in the Republican side don't

agree with that. I don't know if they will get the majority through.

If they can, terrific, at least on background checks. I'm pessimistic

about it Newtown affected everybody. I saw Republicans coming out of the