After selling his book shops, Reid concentrated on his own writing career, although he now also spends a lot of time working as Chief Judge for three of America's largest literary competitions: The Tom Howard Poetry Contest for All Styles and Genres; The Margaret Reid Prize for Traditional Verse; The Tom Howard Short Story, Essay and Prose Contest.

As a fiction writer, Reid first achieved fame for a series of detective novels, all featuring a police sergeant called Tom Howard, who made his debut in "The Health Farm Murders" and followed up with "The Beach-Front Murders" and "The Rim of Heaven". Although these three novels all delighted the critics, it was Reid's next book, "The Last Generation", a series of inter-related short stories, that brought him universal praise from all sections of the media. The book was even selected as Best Novel of the Year by the influential "Sunday Telegraph" newspaper. However, Reid's next books, "All Possible Avenues", "Howard's Price" and "A Way of Life" divided the critics, receiving ecstatic praise in some quarters, lukewarm reviews in others.

To retrieve his reputation in all quarters, Reid wrote "Dead Lucky" for a Rupert Murdoch publishing subsidiary, Angus and Robertson. This book was a huge success with both critics and readers. Unfortunately, like all the other titles quoted above, it is now out of print, although a new edition of "The Health Farm Murders" is planned for 2010.

In recent years, Reid has written little fiction, but concentrated on books of movie history and criticism. His current project is "Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD: A Classic Movie Fan's Guide" which is scheduled for publication in both America and Europe in late June 2008.

Reid has also edited five books of poetry and has published an anthology of his own work entitled "Anyone for Love?"

A  life-long Bible scholar, Reid commenced translating the New Testament some years agao when new versions such as the Jerusalem Bible and the Living Bible and the Amplified Bible first appeared. "I had high hopes that at least one or two of these new Bibles would correct ALL the problems inherent in the older versions like the King James, the RSV, the Knox and the Confraternity, but with two or three notable exceptions, this has not been the case."

Reid agrees with most Christian ministers that the present Bible is too bulky, but feels the Reformers threw away the wrong books. To correct this imbalance, Reid is translating a series of 124-page selections. The first, "Bible Wisdom for Modern Times: Selections from the Orthodox Old Testament" was published in 2007. For 2008, Reid has already published "More Bible Wisdom for Modern Times: Selections from the Early New Testament."