Doug Johnstone

Eurocrime, Crimesquad, Sea Minor – they say yes!

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Latest round up of reviews for Hit & Run – and it’s a collection of doozies:

I think Amanda C M Gillies wins the prize for the most enthusiastic review of any book EVER. Here she is over at Eurocrime raving about Hit & Run. The review begins: “Following on from last year’s truly awesome Smokeheads, Doug Johnstone has done it again.” Then ends with: “If you like your crime fiction black, then you are going to love this book. I have a feeling that I have just read my top book for 2012. Extremely highly recommended.” I love you Amanda C M Gillies, even though I’ve never met you!

Another cracking review over at Crimesquad by the mysterious M.M., who reckons it’s “an excellent, ‘read it all in one gulp’ kinda book.” Damn straight. M.M., whoever you are, I love you too!

Nigel Bird goes nuts for the book over at his Sea Minor blog. He says: “It’s a kind of Hard-Boiled ‘Crime And Punishment’ for the post-ecstasy generation, the love-child of a Dostoevsky/James M Cain/ Allan Guthrie triangle.” Boof! I have met Nigel before. I love him.

It’s all about the love, people.

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged amanda gillies, crimesquad, doug johnstone, eurocrime, hit & run, nigel bird, sea minor | Leave a comment

John Peel approved, apparently

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Friday tune time.

So, there’s been some amusement in the mainstream media that amongst John Peel’s amazing record collection there lurks stuff like Abba and A-Ha. Two examples of pop music genius. Why the fuck shouldn’t Peel love that stuff? It wasn’t all Throbbing Gristle and Leatherface, you know.

Anyway, Abba are one of my favourite bands of all time. If you don’t like Abba, there’s something wrong with you inside. Here is one of dozens of classics. Could’ve gone for ‘Dancing Queen’ or ‘The Winner Takes It All’, but everyone always picks them. So here’s ‘SOS’. Funny story, I was once in a band called Cheesegrater and we covered this in a Mudhoney style. Not that funny, I guess, you mibbes had to be there.

Anyway, enjoy!

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged abba, friday tune, john peel, sos | 2 Comments

Hit & Run press round-up

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

So there’s been a flurry of reviews and features on Hit & Run in the last week or so. Here we go:

Nerd of Noir gives the book a massive thumbs up in his inimitable style over at Spinetingler.

Here’s a feature by Nick Mitchell on the scotsman.com website about the whole Amazon #1 bestseller thing.

I get a quick fix of Tony Black’s questions over at Pulp Pusher.

A great review from Lisa Glass at the excellent Vulpes Libris blog, although Lisa didn’t like some of the dog violence. Ignoring the fact that, actually, dogs come out rather well in the book. But I won’t spoil that for you.

Theresa Munoz gives the book a lovely write up in The Herald.

All good! If you see any other mentions in the press, gimme a heads-up, eh?

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged doug johnstone, hit & run, lisa glass, nerd of noir, nick mitchell, pulp pusher, quick fix, scotsman.com, spine tingler, the herald, theresa munoz, tony black, vulpes libris | Leave a comment

Friday tune: Warning, Great Pop Alert!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

So, it turned out Nicola Roberts was the talented one in Girls Aloud. Her solo album last year was pop genius. So there. Here is a stripped down version of ‘I’ from the album. It is fantastic. So there. Pop music. I love it.

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged i, nicola roberts | Leave a comment

Trailer for HIT & RUN

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

OK, so last week me and Ewan Morrison went out driving around Edinburgh, pretending to crash the car and filming it. It was rather surreal, especially when a car went past thinking we really had hit someone. I got soaked lying on that wet road, I tell yah. A writer’s life, huh?

Ewan is not only a great writer but a skilled film and TV director, and the result is this rather fine trailer for Hit & Run.

Not bad for zero budget, huh?

The music is an old Northern Alliance instrumental tune called ‘Casiopolis’ because we made it entirely using noddy Casiotone keyboards. I think it was released on a Fence Christmas compilation under a different name, if anyone cares about that stuff.

If anyone has any useful ideas for ways of using this to promote the book, lemme know.

Happy car-crashing, people!

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged book trailer, casiopolis, doug johnstone, edinburgh, ewan morrison, hit & run, northern alliance, salisbury crags | 1 Comment

The Amazon effect

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Well that was a surreal weekend. On Sunday, my novel Hit & Run was made Amazon UK’s Kindle Daily Deal, with a price drop from £6.86 to 99p for 24 hours only. It was flagged up on the Kindle homepage. As a result, the book quickly rocketed up the charts from a placing around #38,000 up to the teens, then single figures, then number 2 for a while behind Fifty Shades of Grey.

Then number 1. The top selling Kindle book, and fiction book, and crime book etc. Where it stayed until about halfway through Monday. Which is the really weird thing. Dunno how Amazon’s algorithms work, but H&R was still number 1 twelve hours after returning to the higher price. Even now, 36 hours after the offer finished, it is:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#4 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Mystery
#1 in Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Mystery
#3 in Books > Fiction

Naturally, I am chuffed to fuck about the whole thing, but it’s also a little freaky, to say the least. This is the same book it was on Saturday, the same one I slaved over draft after draft, edit after edit, and now, suddenly, through no action of my own, it’s reached a massively wider readership.

And not just that. The paper version of the book has gone up in the rankings. As have both the Kindle and the paper versions of previous novel Smokeheads. In fact, Smokeheads was number 1 in the Movers & Shakers chart for a while.

Like I say, surreal. Freaky. Weird as all hell. Good, though. I’m actually kind of speechless about the whole thing. So I guess I’ll leave it there for now.

Except to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who bought, read, spread the word, reviewed or said nice things about the book.

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged amazon uk, doug johnstone, hit & run, kindle, smokeheads | 4 Comments

Friday tune – Errors

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Since being at Fence’s Eye o’ the Dug last weekend in St Andrews, I have been unable to listen to anything all week but Errors. They headlined on the Saturday night and were AWESOME.

To be honest, their recorded output, though great, doesn’t really match their hardcore majesty as a live band, but here’s a tune anyway, it’s still cracking. Get yer dance on.

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged errors, pleasure palaces | Leave a comment

Hit & Run is Amazon’s Kindle Deal of the Day THIS SUNDAY

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

My Kindle got stolen recently. For all you folks lucky enough to not have been robbed, Hit & Run is gonna be cheap as chips (99p, I think) for ONE DAY ONLY on Sunday 22nd April.

Here’s a link.

Get it while you can, folks. And spread the word.

If you already bought the Kindle version of Hit & Run at a higher price, I AM DEEPLY SORRY. I really am. But I don’t make these daft rules. I’ll buy you a pint if I see you, how about that?

While I’m here, I have a favour to ask. If you’ve already read Hit & Run and liked it, and if you have a spare couple of minutes, it would greatly help if you could write a wee customer review on Amazon. I have it on good authority that these things matter.

Much appreciated, so it is.

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged amazon, deal of the day, doug johnstone, hit & run, kindle | 4 Comments

Reading Matters vs Subtle Melodrama

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

I’m not really pitching these two FANTASTIC book blogs against each other in some terrible war of words, it’s just that they just both reviewed Hit & Run recently and I haven’t posted about it yet.

So, here is Kim Forrester’s amazing review over at Reading Matters. She claims to have read it in one sitting – wow! Thanks for the review, Kim!

And over at Subtle Melodrama, Bethany said loads of great things about the book, and only broke off from reading it to get fillings at the dentist. That’s dedication.

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged doug johnstone, hit & run, reading matters, subtle melodrama | Leave a comment