AWARD-winning novelist and literary agent, Allan Guthrie, has joined forces with serial entrepreneur and social media expert, Kyle MacRae, to create a new digital-only publishing company, Blasted Heath (http://blastedheath.com).
The Scottish company will launch on November 1st with five titles and will publish around 30 books per year, available in various eBook formats.
The opening line-up of Blasted Heath titles includes three crime novels by critically acclaimed writers, Ray Banks, Douglas Lindsay and Anthony Neil Smith, and two debut novels: a cyberthriller by Gary Carson and a novel for film lovers by movie critic Brian Pendreigh.
Co-founder, Allan Guthrie’s self-published digital edition of a novella, Bye Bye Baby, outsold his entire print backlist in only four months, becoming an Amazon top ten bestseller and opening his eyes to the possibilities of digital publishing.
Guthrie says: “There’s a fierce amount of talent on display and there’s a lot more to come. I firmly believe there’s never been a more exciting time to be a reader, a writer or a publisher.
“With the publishing industry becoming increasingly risk-averse, the rapid expansion of the ebook market is a wonderful opportunity for a creative and innovative publisher to break new ground.
“Blasted Heath combines my publishing experience with Kyle’s marketing background to create a new model of digital publisher that connects readers with writers and gets books in front of readers in exciting new ways.”
** Alongside digital downloads, Blasted Heath is launching with the Blasted Boxset, a physical product for the gift market that offers readers the five launch novels on a branded USB stick in a presentation pack.**
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Blasted Heath is launching on November 1st, 2011. Until then, the website is protected by a holding page with a promotional video. We can give you a private login on request.
Review copies of the books and a sample of the Blasted Boxset are available on request. The launch titles are: All The Young Warriors by Anthony Neil Smith, Dead Money by Ray Banks, Phase Four by Gary Carson, The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson by Douglas Lindsay, and The Man in the Seventh Row by Brian Pendreigh.
For print-ready and web-ready artwork, and full book details, please visit http://blastedheath.com/press/index.htm
Allan Guthrie and Kyle MacRae are available for interview.
All Blasted Heath ebooks are supplied in three file formats to ensure compatibility with all current ebook readers: PRC (for the Kindle), EPUB (for virtually all other ebook readers, including the Nook, Kobo, Sony etc), and PDF (compatible with virtually all smartphones and computers).
All Blasted Heath titles are free from digital rights management (DRM).
Allan Guthrie won the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year in 2007 with his debut novel, Two Way Spilt, and has published a further four crime novels, most recently Slammer, described by the Scotsman as “a book as inventive and groundbreaking as it is magnificently written.” He also has his own client list at Jenny Brown Associates, the largest literary agency in Scotland, and is a former commissioning editor for cult US crime publisher, PointBlank Press.
Kyle MacRae, a former journalist and technical author, launched Scoopt, the world’s first citizen journalism picture agency, in 2005 and sold it to Getty Images in 2007. He went on to create and run Blether Media, a dedicated social media marketing agency based in Glasgow.
Contact
Kyle MacRae
Blasted Heath
kyle@blastedheath.com
07799 346428.
MEDIA RELEASE posted by Blasted Heath. You too can post media releases (aka press releases) on allmediascotland.com. For more information, email here.
Contact: Kyle MacRae
Phone: 07799 346428
Email: kyle@blastedheath.com
Website: http://www.blastedheath.com
