BLACK Country crime author Angela Marsons has now sold 2,000,000 ebooks.

The 49-year-old was "totally blown away" to have reached the milestone, just two years after releasing her debut thriller, Silent Scream.

Angela could only dream of her books flying off the virtual shelves when she was struggling to make ends meet after being made redundant.

The former security manager at Merry Hill shopping centre admits she hit "rock bottom" as she and her partner Julie were forced to sell their belongings and borrow from family members to pay the mortgage on their Quarry Bank home.

To make matters worse, Angela’s dreams of becoming an author were crushed when she parted ways from a top London literary agency.

The feedback from traditional publishers on her crime thriller series was always the same - some worried about the Black Country setting, others that readers wouldn’t warm to her formidable, no-nonsense lead character, Detective Kim Stone.

With her confidence shattered, Angela, who pens all her first drafts by hand, couldn’t even pick up a pencil to write.

In October 2014, Angela received an email from Keshini Naidoo, the reader she had worked with at the literary agency who was now commissioning editor at a digital publisher, Bookouture, asking if she would be interested in publishing with them.

Angela said: "It was a lifeline for me – I didn’t have any expectations about what I’d sell, I thought maybe five hundred copies, but I just wanted to see what readers thought. I wanted them to enjoy it."

Silent Scream has gone on to sell more than 900,000 copies and was the number one Amazon bestseller in the UK for over a month.

Her follow up novels, Evil Games, Lost Girls and Play Dead have all hit the Amazon top ten and the latest book in the series, Blood Lines, shot straight to the top spot on pre-orders alone.

As for the financial benefits of becoming an international bestseller almost overnight, Angela says it is still sinking in.

"The dream for me was always to write for a living, and I just feel so privileged to do that now.

"Every time I get a royalty payment, I have to pinch myself – it seems like lottery money to me.

"Never could I have imagined selling two million books. I am so lucky to work with such a talented team of people at Bookouture.

"From the wizard that is Oliver Rhodes to the supremely talented editor Keshini Naidoo and the unstoppable publicity manager that is Kim Nash - not only did they make all my dreams come true, they made new dreams and aspirations and then propelled me towards them, demonstrating a faith in me that I could only ever dream of.

"The last two years have been a journey of awe and discovery which continues to excite me every day. I remain truly thankful to the bloggers, reviewers and readers that have passionately supported both me and Kim Stone."

The massive ebook success of the Kim Stone books led to a major print deal for Angela’s first three novels with Bonnier Publishing Fiction, bringing the series to a whole new audience through bookstores and supermarkets in the UK and worldwide.

As for what is next for Detective Kim Stone, Angela says that she’s full of ideas for the next books – and certainly won’t be killing her off any time soon.

"I started writing because I felt like I had a story to tell. Kim Stone was the character for me who just wouldn’t go away, and I feel like I’m just at the start of her journey – there’s still plenty more to be revealed about her past as well as the next cases."