The Accidental Author: How Kerry Wilkinson conquered the Kindle charts

Why do you think the Jessica Daniel books have been so successful?

It is largely word of mouth – a lot of people like the books and have happily told their friends and family. When I was writing, I only set out to try to create something I would like. I’m not that worried about other people’s opinions, certainly within the industry, because I constantly ask myself the question: “Would I read this?” or “Does this make sense for me?”. That doesn’t mean I ignore others, especially now I’m working with a publisher, but I trust myself more. I look at things from my own – a reader’s – point of view, not from a publishing one.

Crime fiction seems quite a leap from sports journalism – what drove you to crime?

I just wrote what was in my head. I don’t even read crime fiction very often, so the genre isn’t that familiar. Perhaps that is part of it? I didn’t try to force myself to do something that was unnatural or work towards some grand marketing plan – I just wrote. Yes it’s a crime book, but people come back to read the sequels because of the characters, not the crimes.

Why did you choose to self-publish rather than go with a traditional

publisher?

Because I wasn’t fussed. I have a great career and I never wrote because I expected any of this to happen – I wrote because I wanted to. I had no inclination to send to publishers because I wasn’t bothered about “being published”. I only self-published because I figured I may as well and only started thinking about ways to make my files as good as they could be when I was in iTunes’ top 20 and I realized people wanted to read it.

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Continue reading in Publishing Talk Magazine issue #01.