Going the independent way

> Best-selling author Dean Crawford self-published his action adventure and science fiction books on Amazon and other digital platforms, with incredible success

DEAN CRAWFORD ( below) did not always want to be a writer. As a teenager, he wanted to be a fighter-pilot in the RAF, but this dream was abruptly ended by the discovery that he was colour blind.

Crawford then took inspiration from his uncle, a painter named Christopher Jarvis. “He was doing a job that he loved to do rather than one he had to do,” recalls the writer. “This was 1995 and we’d just come out of a recession, and I decided I was going to become a bestselling author – it only took me 15 years.” Crawford, inspired by the work of Wilbur Smith, started writing epic adventures in his teens and spent years honing his craft. He also tried his hand at screenplays while maintaining a full-time job as a graphic designer. “I did that for a decade and a half. I was spending all my spare time writing and even had to learn to type at the start,” he recalls. Such puritanism eventually paid off but not before Crawford had an epiphany. “Around 2005, I stopped writing for six months and decided to think about the industry a bit. “Like music, there are trends and certain things go in and out of fashion. “For the first time, I tailored my work to fit the market and wrote a novel in the vein of Dan Brown’s stuff.”

It was a move that paid off. The writer got signed up by a London agent and, in 2010, the book went to auction. The outcome was a threebook deal worth £350,000 (RM1.9 million) with Simon & Schuster.

“All three books were Sunday Times bestsellers and it changed the course of my life.”

After the initial three books – Covenant, Immortal and Apocalypse – the publishing giants bought another two of Crawford’s books for a six-figure sum.

But they didn’t sell as well due to a shift in the industry away from action, and towards dark psychological thrillers such as Gone Girl.

Worried about the future, Crawford considered his options.

In 2013, recognising the growing potential of digital publishing, he founded his own publishing label, Fictum, and to date, has written 19 independent novels.

His ‘indie’ titles have repeatedly reached the Top #100 Paid at Amazon.com and peaked at #17, the front page of all Amazon’s books.

These titles have been a mixture of science-fiction ( Old Ironsides, Titan, Predator), and action adventure ( The Nemesis Origin, The Fusion Cage, The Genesis Cypher).

While it’s a risky move, he is evangelical about the merits of selfpublishing.

“For authors, struggling under contracts with publishing houses, independent publishing is a real opportunity for them, not a second best alternative,” he said.

“They should self-publish on Amazon and other digital platforms. It’s their material, and the 70% royalty rate offered by digital vendors dwarfs the 12.5% of a typical publishing contract.”

He takes pride in writing commercial fiction and says he was happiest the moment he started earning £35,000 (RM190,239) a year, and knew his family’s future was secure, independent of a publisher.

He even designs his own covers and has come to think of himself as a reluctant entrepreneur; a kind of novelist auteur.

“I have never suffered the writer’s block and I have more ideas than time to write them.”

And with those final words, he’s off.

After all, he’s in the middle of writing a novel and he is living proof that perseverance pays off. – The Independent