Meet the Team

The Garansay Press has been in operation for just over three years now. We have just published our sixteenth book. So, I thought it was about time to properly introduce the team.

I am Katherine Pathak (far right of picture). I’m the author and head of media and marketing. I write the books, the blogs and the majority of the tweets. If you are communicating with any branch of The Garansay Press, you are likely to be interacting with me. My academic and work mini biog:

University of York, Institute of Education, University of London. Purchasing Assistant, Good Book Guide. Teaching History in several London schools. Full-time author.

Robert Currie (second left). Bob is the finance director at The Garansay Press. He is also a member of the editorial team. Now retired, he still finds himself book-keeping for several organisations and start-ups. Bob is our Mr ‘details’. Also my dad. Mini biog:

RBS manager and securities consultant (retired) Company Secretary (various)

Rakesh Pathak (centre of picture) Rakesh is one of our editorial team. A busy man in his other roles, his conscientious copy editing is invaluable in getting the best out of the final product. Mini biog:

University of Oxford, Institute of Education, University of London. Head of History. Author of IB textbook.

Susan Currie (left of picture) is our resident crime fan and aficionado of the genre. Sue is our most efficient copy editor and is expert at making sure my prose style remains tight and plot focussed. Mini biog:

Dean College of Nursing, Edinburgh. RBS (retired)

To find out more about The Garansay Press and our publications please follow us on Twitter @GaransayPress and like our Facebook pages: Facebook.com/GaransayPress Facebook.com/Katherine.Pathak

 

How the blurb is no longer enough

As my children get older and develop their own tastes and interests, it is fascinating to see how the younger generation like to access their entertainment. It is useful to me as a publisher and author to take note of these changes in viewing and reading habits.

What I have garnered is that consumers are no longer satisfied with a brief written description of a book, app or product to base their purchase upon. My son will expect to view a short video before he downloads an app, even if it’s free. The same now goes for books too.

Not only do we need to provide an extract from the novel, so readers can tell if the writing style is acceptable to them, it is also useful to produce a book trailer, which integrates a description of the themes and plot of the novel along with some kind of visual and audio stimulus. I have done this with all twelve of my books. With modern technology it is a fun and fairly straightforward process. But it is necessary for modern media platforms.

We are becoming more choosy about how we spend our money. So readers need as much information as possible to make a decision. The blurb is still crucially important but on its own it may no longer be quite enough.

How I used my book titles to create a strong author brand

I write two separate series of detective, mystery novels. When I set out to pen the second series, featuring my new main character; Scottish policewoman DCI Dani Bevan, I wanted all the titles of the books to share a common feature.
This decision wasn’t pre-planned. When I make a choice about my next title it is usually quite early on in the planning process. The title helps me to formulate and develop the storyline. I need to have it in my head as I write. With the Dani Bevan books, I knew that the first instalment was going to be called ‘Against A Dark Sky’ because I wanted to create the image of a mountain set against a dark, stormy background in the reader’s imagination. The plot revolves around a suspicious death which takes place on Ben Lomond, when the weather turns bad without warning during a hiking expedition.
Once I had this first title fixed, I was keen that all of Dani’s subsequent cases should follow a similar theme and that the ‘dark’ element should be retained in each new book. ‘On A Dark Sea’ was the follow-up novel. The title was a natural progression from the planning phase as the story begins with a young woman’s perilous journey across dangerous seas at night, in a small fishing boat.
The other titles then flowed quite naturally as the series continued. ‘A Dark Shadow Falls’, ‘Dark As Night’ and ‘The Dark Fear’ were the books which followed.
I didn’t really realise at the time, but by creating this ‘dark’ series of books, I was building a kind of title-based brand for the Dani Bevan novels. Because of the nature of the titles, it was clear to my readership whether they would be getting an Imogen and Hugh Croft Mystery or a DCI Dani Bevan police procedural. I’m an avid reader of crime novels myself and I like to know exactly what I’m getting from a book. An author’s brand plays an important part in re-enforcing this and making the genre clear to consumers.
My Dani Bevan books are slightly different from the Imogen and Hughs – they are ‘darker’ and although containing humour, they are more brutal in subject matter than their sister series. The titles reflect this perfectly and help to formulate the brand.
The next book in the DCI Dani Bevan collection already has a working title; ‘Girls Of The Dark’, which I am hoping to be able to release before Christmas.
So, if you are looking to establish a strong author brand, you would do well to consider the title of the book itself, which can be a very powerful tool for conveying just exactly what your series wants to say.

The change of season can give you ideas to kick start your writing.

I should really be concentrating on promotion. I’ve just released my eleventh novel, The Dark Fear. I’m still excited about its completion, don’t get me wrong, but the change in the season, as we slip from late summer into autumn, is giving me ideas. I’m sure it’s the same for all those who make their living in the creative sector. We need to follow inspiration from wherever it comes and at certain times of the year, it comes more readily than at others.
For me, the shortening of the days and the turning of the leaves from green to gold, encourages me to shift the tone of my stories slightly. For a mystery writer, the season in which you work has great significance. Summer suspense is full of the intensity created by long, hot days and characters throwing off the shackles of work. Winter perhaps lends itself best to the thriller author, providing the backdrop of dour weather and dark evenings. But to me, autumn is the preferable season. The landscape changes significantly; bonfires are lit and the temperature drops, so that the heavy boots and jackets come out. But it doesn’t have the stark bareness of mid-winter.
My plots change accordingly and I am finding that a new story is forcing its way into my mind. I wouldn’t wish to lose this moment of inspiration, so I will follow my urge to get back to the wordprocessor. They say that the most effective promotion is to keep writing more books. Lets hope that’s true, because it’s the part of the job I really enjoy the most. I will take the excuse given by the change of season to allow me to get back to it.

Professionalise all aspects of the job you’re doing. The end results will be better for it.

I read a very good blog this week by a fellow writer. He was bemoaning the fact that authors are now required to diversify in order to get their books to a wider audience. It was clear he didn’t want to have to claim that he did anything other than write books. I can certainly sympathise with his view. However, I suspect that I’m one of the people that this particular blogger was complaining about.
These days, I would say my job was not simply being an author, but also a publisher, a digital marketer and someone who has to turn their hand, quite frequently, to graphic design. I also edit and proof-read, alongside my very able team of editors and advisers. So I really can’t say that I’m just a writer, it would be disingenuous. Much of what I do on social media is marketing. It would be misleading to suggest otherwise.
The image of the hapless author, who has their mind almost permanently focussed on plots and characterisation, locked away in their spartan garret, head in the clouds and not fixed on the realities of the business side of writing is really now a thing of the past. Even if your novels are handled by a large publishing company, you will still be required to do your own marketing at the very least.
As time goes on, I find myself increasingly enjoying these other aspects of the job; particularly the cover design and the making of the promotional materials. Why should I pay for a so-called ‘professional’ when I can do the task myself and the more I do, the better I get at it. I think it’s important not to undervalue the new skills we are learning as authors in the digital world. I actually think I could give some traditional publishing companies a run for their money in terms of the editing and design I’ve produced. I see no reason to be coy about the new trade that we author-publishers are budding apprentices of.
If we take these various business roles seriously and treat them as a professional part of our job description then I believe that the end results will be better too. Don’t approach self-publishing as an amateur venture, give your hard work the credit it deserves. I reckon I could join a marketing department in any sector of industry now and have a reasonable amount to offer. I think that authors (and part-time working mums for that matter) have a tendency to trivialise the work they do. This is unwise. Be confident about producing a polished and professional end product and your work will be taken more seriously, which is something that every writer must surely desire.

When someone off the telly favourites your tweet.

I haven’t always been a confident user of that most fast paced platform of social media, Twitter. It’s taken me a little while, but I’m gradually getting into the swing of it. I use it primarily to discuss the books and television programmes that I have enjoyed and to let my readers know about new releases and special offers. What I have discovered to be one of the great perks of this medium, is that really quite frequently, somebody off the telly will respond to one of your tweets.
I’m sure this has happened to many other people. Nevertheless, I reserve the right to feel a little flutter of pleasure when it happens to me. This week, for some reason, I’ve had a particular flurry of celebrity ‘favouriting’; from producers and actors to reality TV contestants. For a stay at home mum of two, who happens to write crime novels, this isn’t bad going.
I’ve tried to analyse the reason for my recent Twitter success. The conclusions I’ve reached are pretty straightforward.
My tweets are generally supportive and positive. I’m usually only sharing my opinions about the stuff I enjoy and am enthusiastic about – and people like to be given praise. This concept goes without saying, surely? But actually, there’s so much negativity on Twitter that it would be easy to forget.
I believe that if you enjoy a book, tv drama or documentary then you should give it a good review somewhere, whether it’s on Amazon, Facebook or Twitter. This means that others will be encouraged to watch or read it too and the author or production team can provide more of the same. It’s a win win for the consumer.
If you do this regularly enough, you might also find yourself taking part in a pleasant little exchange with some person off the telly and believe me, it’s a bit of a thrill.

I’m a writer. I refuse to be judged by my appearance.

Having read an article by a Chicago Tribune journalist who was vilified by dozens of readers for having slightly unruly, curly hair, it got me thinking.

To be a novelist or a reporter in the written press used to be a fairly anonymous profession. You were judged upon your choice of words and not on the way you looked. But in this modern age of social media and technology, the world has become a much more visual place. All the handbooks tell me that my picture should adorn all of my online platforms, so that readers can relate to me and feel as if they know who I am. This is absolutely fair enough, I can see the logic and thankfully, I am in no way well known enough for people to feel that they have to knock me down a peg or two by criticising my appearance.

I suppose it would be very easy to use a false image to represent yourself. To do a kind of online ‘Banksy’, or the equivalent of a visual ‘nom de plume’. I’m not certain if such an approach would benefit a writer in their trade or not. But what I am sure of, is that I’ve not invited comment upon my appearance simply by using a photo to identify myself. Writing books has traditionally been a profession in which the stories should really speak for themselves. Are we seriously more likely to buy a thriller novel because the author looks dishy on the dust cover, or on their Amazon page? Maybe we would, but its part in the decision making process is so entirely subconscious that we aren’t even aware it has a bearing on our choices.

The possibility worries me, because where does that leave people with disabilities or facial disfigurements? Should their writing be judged on the way they appear on their Facebook or Twitter page?
The internet has opened up many new opportunities for writers, but our transformation into a more visual age has its downsides. The world can be a cruel and judgemental place at times. I just hope that by tying our image so closely to our work, us writers aren’t playing a role in perpetuating it.

Finding a way through the maze; e-marketing for beginners.

Most writers are more familiar with pencil and paper than they are with the internet, but amazingly enough, us bookish types are slowly getting the hang of this new technology revolution.
I’ve recently released my eighth novel and am forcing myself to concentrate on my digital marketing for a few days. This aspect of the job doesn’t come naturally to me. However, the more I find out about pay-per-click advertising campaigns and pinterest walls the more I begin to like it.
Adding new contacts through WordPress, Facebook or LinkedIn is a sociable process, especially for someone like me who once lived in Central London and enjoyed the non-stop socialising the city had to offer but now lives out in semi-rural Essex and has two children under ten. Folk who go into work each day might not appreciate the thrill of receiving a message from a fellow writer/publisher in the United States. It’s very exciting. And relatively easy to get involved in. Most of these sites are free to use and navigate novices through the joining process in a very straightforward way.
What I particularly enjoy are the social media platforms which encourage creativity and design. This suits writers and authors perfectly. For example, I have pinterest walls for photographs of places which have inspired my books. I’ve also created a step by step guide to the design of my covers. It’s informative and interesting and only obliquely related to book sales.
Don’t be afraid of trying it out. Writing the books is the difficult bit. The marketing and social media aspect is actually a lot of fun and if you give it enough time it really works.

Has the back page blurb gone out of fashion?

This statement is a lament rather than a question. I’ve looked at a great deal of fiction titles on Amazon today, either with  presents in mind or holiday reading. After examining the pages of a number of popular titles I was struck by how many authors had eschewed the book description section and added a stream of reviews instead. To be honest, I was perplexed. As a customer, what I wanted to see, most of all, was what the book was about. If I wish to read reviews, which I undoubtedly do, I will subsequently pan down to the customer review section.
I’m sure I can’t be unusual in this practice. When I am getting ready to publish a new book, the ‘blurb’ is the first thing I begin work on. It is the information that will encourage a reader to either take a look at a sample of the novel or simply move onto another title. I would consider this synopsis of the plot to be absolutely crucial to the marketing package.
Reviews are also important, but I’d really rather know what the story is all about first. I will recognize immediately if the tale is going to appeal to me or not. In addition to this, the ratings of other readers are very useful, but reviews from literary periodicals and newspapers I tend to ignore. They seem so generalized I’m never truly convinced they’ve actually read it, or if the acclaim relates to another novel by the same author, but not necessarily this one.
Bring back the back page blurb please. I, for one, can’t buy a book without it.

The Christmas period means something quite different now for authors and publishers

With less than four weeks to go until Christmas, what should an author’s marketing strategy be?

I’m busy with my own festive preparations right now and with completing the Christmas present shopping, but I am also aware that this is one of the busiest times of the year for sales of my books. So, how best to optimize this? As a consumer myself, I am very careful not to pay too much for books. On the High Street, prices for a new release paperback and certainly for hardbacks can be very high. I might seek inspiration from the shelves for gifts but then I tend to purchase online, where I will get a better deal. What this means, is that by the middle of December, it’s pretty much too late to order books as gifts for Christmas, unless you are prepared to pay a lot for postage and even then, it would still be a bit of a gamble whether it arrived in time. The final weeks and days are really for food, booze and local shopping for those last minute extras.
For authors like myself, who are exclusive to Amazon, this means that the Christmas shopping flurry is really over for the year by Christmas week, doesn’t it?
Well, not entirely. According to retail research over the past few years, our Christmas shopping habits have changed. The purchasing certainly doesn’t end just as soon as the carol concert from King’s College is broadcast on Christmas Eve. Indeed, Christmas Day and Boxing Day have now become important times for a surge in online retail activity. Think of all those amazon vouchers people receive in their stockings? In a quiet moment after the turkey has been eaten and the crackers pulled, folk may just be tempted to fire up their new tablet computers and start spending once again.
So Christmas now means something different for authors and publishers. We need to consider sales right across the holiday season. The weather has been fairly good in the UK recently, but even so, once the sun has gone down it is the perfect time of the year to curl up in front of a log-burner with a good book, whether it is a physical copy or an e-book version. The distinction is mattering less and less.
I keep my e book prices at under £2 and my paperback prices as low as possible to cover production costs and raise a reasonable profit. This is because consumers appreciate a bargain all year round and once all the hard work has been completed on the 25th December, perhaps someone will enjoy slumping in their favourite armchair and absorbing themselves in one of my books. I like the idea of that very much.