Welcome to the new Turning Points blog series

In this very first edition, I am thrilled to have an interview with artist turned crime fiction author, Paddy Magrane, to share with you.

Paddy published his highly-acclaimed first book, DISORDER - the first of a three-part series known as ‘The Sam Keddie Thrillers’, in 2015.

 

Read on to find out more about his journey to becoming a published author, what happened when he was taken on by J.K. Rowling’s agent and his top tips for aspiring authors.

Please tell us a bit about you Paddy and your book series

I’m a thriller writer, journalist, copywriter and part-time psychotherapist. It’s a bit of a mouthful but being freelance often means having a few strings to your bow!

It’s fair to say fiction is my passion.

I’m the author of two conspiracy thrillers, DISORDER and DENIAL, which are published by Fahrenheit Press. They feature a psychotherapist called Sam Keddie, whose job brings him into contact with both the powerful and the disenfranchised. Their secrets, imparted to him during therapy, often prove very dangerous.

At what stage in your life did you decide to become an author? Or has it been a life-long dream?

I actually wanted to be an artist!

I went to art school at the beginning of the 90s, studied fine art and graduated with a first. I moved to New York for a brief period to work on my paintings, then came home to studios in Notting Hill and Bermondsey.

Like writing, painting is a solitary business, but there’s something particularly isolating about being an artist. So one day, I hung up my brushes and got a job at a design agency as an account handler. It wasn’t perfect, but the contact with other people was a real pleasure after my garret years, and when I moved across the office floor into the creative department to become a copywriter, I felt much more complete.

Was there a particular turning point in your life, when things started to happen for you in regards to your dream of being an author?

I had lots of near misses with my fiction. The nearest was when I was taken on by The Blair Partnership, J.K. Rowling’s agent. I was convinced my book would be sold and turned into a movie and I’d be off to Hollywood!

As it turned out, the Hogwarts magic failed to materialise and I ended up self-publishing. In a way, this was an initial turning point because I was finally putting my work out there for public scrutiny. The book was received well but I found the job of marketing as well as creating hard.

I’d joined Twitter, which I found an incredibly effective way of building a supportive network of fellow writers, as well as a readership. But the biggest gift Twitter gave me was a publisher.

I noticed Fahrenheit Press because their Twitter feed was loud, sweary, chest-beating and massively over confident, which I’m not. I submitted my book to them thinking they’d never take me on but it turned out their boss man, Chris McVeigh, had already read and enjoyed Disorder. I signed within a month. That was a major league turning point!

Have your own life/work experiences shaped the development of your storylines or characters?

I’m a psychotherapist just like my protagonist, Sam Keddie. But I practice in sleepy Axminster and, to the best of my knowledge, none of my clients is involved in big government cover-ups.

Fiction writing has always been about taking an element of my identity or experience and expanding on it. The first book was set in Syria, where I’d been on holiday, and the location inspired my first book, DISORDER. But I moved that portion of the book to Marrakesh after the Arab Spring in Syria turned into full-blown civil war and it no longer seemed appropriate or tasteful to set a novel there.

What marketing tactics seem to be particularly effective? How did you become #1 on Kindle?

Crime reviewers are an incredibly important part of the marketing process and making contact with them on Twitter has been really useful for me. Getting a positive five-star review from an influential critic is worth its weight in gold.

It’s also worth asking readers to review your books too. Money-off offers are also massively useful.

When my publisher gave DISORDER away for free over a single weekend, it climbed the charts steadily before hitting the number one spot in crime fiction. Once you’ve reached that slot, Amazon is much more proactive plugging it to readers.

What would be your top tip for any aspiring authors reading this?

In the end, you can be a fantastic networker and shameless plugger, but unless your product is amazing, it’ll never gain traction.

My advice is to write hard, rewrite harder, then get a really good editor to look at it. That is the single most important thing I’ve learned. You need another set of eyes to make your book the best it can be.

What are your favourite books (asides from your own!)?

Robert Harris is a maestro. He’s able to extract tension and thrills from very surprising places. The election of a new Pope doesn’t sound that interesting, yet his last book, CONCLAVE, turned the process into one laced with intrigue, double-crossing, deceit and thrills.

I love Michael Robotham, whose thrillers are gripping but beautifully written, as well as Thomas Harris, whose protagonist, Hannibal Lector, is one of the all-time great villains – fiendishly dark, yet strangely lovable.

On the rare occasion that I’m not reading crime or thrillers, I love John Updike and T.C. Boyle. They are two of the finest writers on the planet. Each sentence is like a perfectly constructed piece of architecture.

What’s next for you? When is the next book out and what else do you have in the pipeline for 2017 and beyond?

I’m fine-tuning the third in my series, TRAUMA, before sending it off to my editor.

I’m planning to release it this year. I’m also involved in a literary festival in my village. I launched Shute Festival with my co-director, Sam Knights, last year and it was a great success. This year, our speakers include the crime writer, Sophie Hannah, and the biographer of the last four Prime Ministers, Sir Anthony Seldon. You can find out more at www.shutefest.org.uk.

Where can we find out more about you?

My twitter feed is @paddymagrane and you can also find out more at www.paddymagrane.com. Please drop by!