Allan Guthrie is an award-winning Scottish crime writer.
TWO-WAY SPLIT was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and went on to win the Theakstons Crime Novel Of The Year. He is the author of four other novels: KISS HER GOODBYE (nominated for an Edgar), HARD MAN, SAVAGE NIGHT and SLAMMER and three novellas: KILL CLOCK , KILLING MUM and BYE BYE BABY.
When he’s not writing, he’s a literary agent with Jenny Brown Associates.
His website is here and you’ll find him on Twitter here and on Amazon here.
How digital are you generally?
Do you use online banking? Online grocery shopping? TripAdvisor for researching holidays? Amazon? Goodreads?
Online banking: no. Grocery shopping: yes. TripAdvisor: used it only last night. Amazon: yes, also Book Depository and other online bookstores, but I buy from bricks-and-mortar stores too. I’m on Goodreads but it’s hard to participate properly there since 90% (or more) of the books I read are still in manuscript form.
Do you use Facebook and/or Twitter? Do you have a blog?
If so, why? If not, why not?
Facebook, no. Twitter, yes. Blog, yes. My feeling is that there’s no point being on Facebook for the sake of it, and because I’m so time-poor these days, I couldn’t do justice to it. So I’d rather not be on it than be half-assed about it.
The blog is dedicated to ebook crime fiction, something that’s a bit of an obsession of mine. I have another one called “ebooks that sell” which I set up before the crime fiction blog, but it’s suffered as a result of the relative success of the newer blog.
In your online networking, how much time do you spend talking to other authors/publishers and how much with readers/fans?
And what benefits do you get from this?
That’s hard to quantify, since almost all authors are readers, and a huge number of readers want to be authors. Often I don’t know that the reader I’m talking to is an author until some time after we’ve been chatting. I do know that I spoke to a number of readers on discussion forums when I launched BYE BYE BABY, though, and I expect some of them weren’t authors (although, again, some were).
I’m not aware of having any fans. It’s a strange bit of increasingly widely used nomenclature. ‘Fan’ tends to be used pretty loosely as a synonym for ‘reader; too. But I’ve never heard anyone say they’re a fan of mine. Some folk are kind enough to say they really enjoy my books, but I’m yet to be asked to sign my underpants.
Do you enjoy interacting with your readers?
Yes | No | Sometimes | I don’t have any readers :(
Sometimes
Do you respond to reviews, good and bad?
Good only | Bad only | Both | Neither | I don’t get reviewed :(
Good only
Have you ever actively marketed to a target demographic based on the genre of your writing or the theme of a particular book?
If so, how? If not, why not?
In the genre sense, yes. Pretty much always. Interestingly with my novella BYE BYE BABY it wasn’t until I widened the demographic to encompass all ebook readers that my sales took off. I’ve never targeted a potential audience based on theme.
Do you have a particular reader in mind when writing?
If so, how and where would you find them online?
Depends on the book. I’ve written a couple of books for readers with a reading age of 8+, for instance. Beyond that, mostly no.
But I do have a police thriller in the pipeline, and my guess is that potential readers will be pretty easy to find since it’s a very popular sub-genre with some very big writers in the field.
Other sub-genres, like noir, are much more niche. I’m hoping that having had a top ten Kindle success with a police novella might be helpful, since Amazon has well over 30,000 email addresses of customers who bought that book and therefore might be interested in a new one along similar lines. But pounding the ebook forums for a while worked before and I’ll no doubt do that again too.
How satisfied are you with your current publisher’s marketing efforts on your behalf (if relevant?)
Overjoyed | Underwhelmed | What marketing efforts? | Other
I’ve sub-licensed my digital rights from my publisher, so I’ll be publishing them myself.
What’s the Grand Marketing Plan for your next book?
And to what extent do you believe that the onus is on you to market yourself and/or your book?
The plan is bigger than one book, since I’ve inherited five of my backlist, plus a novella, and I’ll shortly have two new novels to consider, and very likely another brand new novella.
I really want to try to build on the momentum that’s come my way with the two existing novellas. I tried pretty much everything to get traction with those, and I’m hoping this time round the marketing will be a little less scattershot.
I’m a little hamstrung by rights issues, so that in itself will reduce my options. But first and foremost, the ‘plan’ involves getting great covers designed, making sure the formatting’s excellent, and selling the books at a reasonable price. Then it’s a matter of trying to make sure as many people know about the books as possible.
Discoverability is pretty tough, but there are a number of key people (bloggers, reviewers, etc) and websites I know from previous experience will be very helpful in generating word of mouth. I have a list of around 150 of those kind folks, and they’ll all be getting review copies of everything I write from now on.
To what extent do you buy into the concept that as an author you are a brand?
Totally | Not at all | I just want to write! | Other
Totally
Do you have any experiences of doing your own marketing, digitally or otherwise, that you could share with other authors?
Not from my own marketing, but I’ve observed it often enough with others: what works for one book won’t necessarily work for another.
Recent Comments