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My guest today is Adam Croft. With more than a million books sold to date, he is is one of the most successful independently published authors in the world. His psychological thrillers include the hugely successful Her Last Tomorrow and Tell Me I’m Wrong, and his Knight & Culverhouse crime thriller series has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide. Adam’s Kempston Hardwick mystery books are being adapted as audio plays and he has just stepped into non-fiction with The Indie Author Mindset. Adam has been made an honorary Doctor of Arts by the University of Bedfordshire in recognition of his achievements and he runs a crime fiction podcast with fellow author Robert Daws.
For more head to AdamCroft.net or find Adam on Twitter or Facebook.
Adam’s podcast for crime fiction fans: Partner’s in Crime
IN THE INTRODUCTION
I recorded this introduction on 20th December 2018 when I wasn’t quite ready to set my 2019 goals. They will go up in a blog post next week and I will discuss them in February’s episode.
Also, I reveal another new novel! My supernatural thriller, THE LOST GIRLS, is out this month. Huzzah! If you are interested in my fiction, do visit sarah-painter.com and sign up for my reader newsletter.
I give thanks for the wonderful Patreon support.
I love the ‘community within a community’ that we’ve created over on Patreon and I really enjoy making the audio extras (which go up in the middle of every month).
Thank you so much to everyone supporting The Worried Writer in this way – it means so much to me.
To become a Worried Writer insider and to support the podcast head to The Worried Writer on Patreon.
THANK YOU!
LISTENER QUESTION
If you have a question you would like answered on the show
contact me via email or Twitter or leave a comment on this post.
IN THE INTERVIEW
On the pressures of success:
‘When I’m writing a book and when I finish it, the thing I always ask myself is is it better than the last one… So I think for me I’ve always had that pressure that I put on myself.’
‘I was an overnight success between my eight and ninth books, I guess, as it was my ninth book that really took off and did anymore than just paying the bills.’
On staying fresh:
‘It’s one of the reasons I dipped into non fiction and I write plays…
On self-doubt:
‘They all cause me trouble… I always thought that once I’d written more books I would get more confident at it… But I still get that sense of dread on release day. I still think this is the one where I will get found out… Those things don’t change, the only thing that’s changed is the amount of money that comes in from the books.’
On The Indie Author Mindset:
‘I get lots and lots of emails from authors asking for help and advice which is great and I’ll always help if I can, because when I started that help simply wasn’t there… I think we should all help each other. But one of the things that struck me was that a lot of the questions had their root in mindset…
On being professional:
‘It’s the attitude you have… You’re turning up, you’re getting the job done… You are focusing on the task.’
On writing life:
‘I wish I had a typical day, to be honest with you… I’m releasing normally four books a year so when I’m gearing up to a release, which is regularly, things change completely and I do a lot more of the marketing. I spend hours a day on Facebook ads and tweaking those.’
‘It moves in waves, but there’s not a typical day… I’m an author and I run the publishing company.’
Coping with overwhelm:
‘I’m currently working on a machine which turns 24-hour days into 43-hour ones, so that’s gonna help!’
If you can, outsourcing stuff is vital… It’s also focusing on what’s most important. Writing is what’s most important… There’s only one thing which is guaranteed to make you more money and secure your future as a writer is to get more books out.’
‘If you learn too much beforehand, things like Facebook advertising can seem like a really big and scary thing but it’s not… If you dive in and learn as you go along it seems much easier… Just crack on and do it.’
Thanks for listening!
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