BY day he writes about local sport, but by night Neil Bonnar has a much more “thrilling” persona.

For The Bolton News head of sport has just published his first novel — a crime thriller with a full cast of spies, assassins, scientists and gangsters.

Two Minds To Die centres on Marcus Fieldman, who meets a man who thinks and acts exactly like him — his mind clone.

Immediately he finds his life in danger as he becomes a threat to the criminal activities of one of the most powerful men in the government.

To stay alive he must take on a ruthless organisation and, in doing so, discovers an old family secret that lies at the heart of the mystery.

Neil, aged 48, who lives in Radcliffe with his wife Judith, aged 44, his 17-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and his son, Andrew, aged 15, took three years to write the novel.

It was three months before he even put pen to paper — a big change to a man used to writing against a daily deadline.

A keen reader of crime thrillers, Neil was struck by the idea of writing one himself after being encouraged by his wife — who was a fan of the much tamer stories he would make up for their children when they were younger.

However, when it came to getting the book published, Neil found that even as a professional writer, the hurdles were demoralising.

“Traditional publishers have the double whammy of self-publishing and the global recession to contend with,” he says.

“Many publishers have gone out of business and those who are left have really pared back.

“They are completely focused on only publishing what they know will sell, which is existing bestsellers and books by celebrities. For newcomers, it’s a one in a million chance.

“The traditional publishing route is a very time consuming and costly exercise. I got ignored and gave up.”

Disheartened, Neil was ready to give up on the idea of publishing the book, until his wife enrolled him on a writing course which sparked his interest again.

And at the end of the course, he entered an international competition organised by the Association of Children’s Writers.

More than 6,000 entries were submitted, but when Neil was awarded second place he decided to reconsider scrapping Two Minds To Die. Further inspired by the success of The Bolton News’ Wanderers Legends book, which he was involved in creating, Neil decided he would go down the non-traditional e-book route. To his surprise, complete strangers started to download the book and send him positive feedback.

“It’s fantastic that people are taking the time and effort to download and read it,” he says. “People are giving responses on social networking sites that have absolutely blown me away.

“These are people I don’t know and they come on saying the nicest things.”

Neil used Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service to make the book available to download for £1.03.

For authors to make their ebook available on Amazon they must first format the book into Kindle format, which Neil admits can be tricky for writers who are not technically minded, although there are plenty of inexpensive services available which will do this for the author. They must also design a cover and write a blurb to advertise it.

Then the author should decide on the price of the book. For books at £2.99 and under, Amazon offer royalties of 35 per cent, while for those priced at £3 and over they offer 70 per cent.

Books are available to buy as soon as the uploading process is complete. If the book receives enough downloads, it could be printed and stocked in Bolton bookshops.

Neil says people should not be intimidated by the idea of publishing a book.

“If people have a desire to write and have people read it, I would strongly recommend that they go down that route,” he said.

Two Minds To Die is available from Amazon now at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Minds-to-Die-ebook/dp/B007Y3OAAC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337893050&sr=8-1

or by visiting neil bonnarbooks.com