Page 42 - Publishers_Weekly

INDIE SUCCESS
®

“That constant back-and-forth with ambitious writing plans
allows me to tighten the story Ian Andrew (by this time next year he
as I go,” Andrew says. “I also anticipates having the fourth
like my details and write almost Wright & Tran novel published
visually, so I have to be cautious and the fifth nearly completed),
that I don’t slow the story down Andrew plans on further build-
too much because of that.” ing out BRE.
Andrew, who has worked as Now for the kangaroo in the
an intelligence officer special- room (hey, he’s in Australia):
izing in antisubmarine warfare, what will he make of this
is also mindful to give readers BookLife victory? Well, first he’ll
the grit and adventure they may finish processing the shock of
associate with upper-level mil- the win.
itary operations. But, most of “Not in the slightest did I think
this stuff is pure fiction. I’d win,” Andrew says. “I simply
“The majority of real intelligence gathering work thought the fact that the competition included a
is boring, but with a novel you get to leave out all [critique] from the professional reviewers of
of the humdrum and concentrate on the exciting Publishers Weekly was too good to miss. As each
highlights,” Andrew says. “I think being able to round went by and I continued to progress, I became
use appropriate language and having a handle on more excited, yet was just happy to have gotten
the equipment and techniques helps set up believ- as far as I did. I am honestly not sure what the
able scenarios.” reality will bring, but I would like to think a major
Writing under a pseudonym from the rural south- opportunity would be for increased exposure of
west of Western Australia, Andrew self-published my novels to a much wider audience.”
Face Value, the first of the Wright & Tran series, in Less unclear is what he’ll do with the $5,000 writ-
2015, followed by the second in the series, Flight ing stipend. “Part of it will go on a gift for my wife,
Path, in 2016, and the third, Fall Guys, last spring. Jacki, and part of it will go on a signet ring for me,”
“I went indie in 2014 after I finished my first novel, he says. “I think it’s important there are some tactile,
A Time to Every Purpose, [which was] cross-genre, material things that I can look to and that will remind
not easy to pigeonhole, and had a religious twist to me of the award. Most of it will be plowed back into
it,” explains the 52-year-old writer. “Also, I wasn’t the business of writing and will probably fund a
20 years old and didn’t have the luxury of waiting promotional trip back to the U.K. in April.”
for a decade or more to be ‘discovered.’ After the On a broader note, Andrew is hopeful that this
fifth rejection letter, I decided to go it alone. When achievement will give a boost to fellow indie crime
it featured as an Amazon bestseller in not only its authors—and perhaps the self-publishing category
genre, but overall in the top 100 Amazon lists, I felt as a whole. “[Indie] crime thrillers are already an
quite vindicated.” amazingly strong genre, so I don’t believe that it
needs much in the way of help; however, in the
Help an Author Out wider indie author world, a high-profile award like
Andrew also feels a calling to help other authors this—backed by an industry powerhouse like
get their work out there. He’s been running Book Publishers Weekly, with almost 150 years of history
Reality Experience, a publishing-on-demand service behind it—can’t do anything but strengthen the
since 2015. indie author brand,” he says. “I honestly do not
“Having learnt by trial and error how to inde- see that indies and traditional pathways should
pendently publish a novel, I thought it would be be pitted against one another. I see it simply that
good to run some training courses for other authors indie offers a new way, new opportunities, and
wishing to do the same,” Andrew says. “After a added diversity for the world of books.” ■
lot of the training sessions, authors said thanks,
but then asked if I could publish it for them. That Nicole Audrey Spector is a writer whose work has
brought about the Book Reality Experience.” Along appeared in the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and Vogue.

40 BOOKLIFE, JANUARY 22, 2018