Indie
Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month Raelee Chapman speaks to Fran Pickering
the indie author of the popular Josie Clark East-West fusion murder mysteries.
Josie is an English expat sleuth living in Tokyo where these mysteries are set.
What
made you choose Japan as the setting for your East-West fusion murder
mysteries?
I wanted to share my
love of Japan with others in a way that would be interesting and non-academic.
What
was the inspiration for your first novel The
Cherry Blossom Murder?
The inspiration
originally came from the unique and spectacular all-female Takarazuka Revue. It’s
one of the biggest theatre companies in the country and yet it’s hardly known
outside Japan. The Takarazuka star actresses have large and enthusiastic fan
clubs with their own arcane rules, and the story in The Cherry Blossom Murder is set inside one of them. It begins when
Josie Clark, expat Londoner and fan club member, finds a body under the cherry blossom on the Flower Path that runs past the stage door. Writing
about Takarazuka enabled me to give readers a glimpse behind the scenes of a
remarkable Japanese phenomenon, and also to show the ordinary lives of the
fans.
Did
you always intend for The Cherry Blossom
Murder to be the first in a series?
It became a series
because there was so much scope to write about different aspects of Japan - so
far I’ve covered haiku, karaoke and, in my work-in-progress, the bullet trains.
Your
mystery series is self-published what led you to go down this path as opposed
to a traditional publishing route?
I chose to self-publish
because I could see the publishing landscape had completely changed in the last
few years. Self-publishing gets easier all the time and offers great
opportunities to new authors. The traditional publishing route isn‘t very
attractive - you spend months going cap-in-hand to agents or waiting in
publishers’ slush piles. I didn’t want to do that. I publish with Amazon - KDP
for eBooks and Createspace for printed books - because they offer the most
complete service and access to the largest market. It’s hard at first because
you have to learn a whole set of new skills, like design and formatting but it’s
really worthwhile. I love being an indie author. I’m in complete control of
when my books are published, what their covers look like - I use a professional
cover designer - and how they’re marketed. And I don't have to share my
royalties with anyone else. I find beta readers among my friends, some of whom
have publishing backgrounds. They help me improve the story. I use a
professional copy editor.
The Cherry Blossom
Murder
reached the quarter finals in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award; were you
surprised by this success and did it help bolster sales on Amazon?
I was surprised to do
so well with my first book. The main help to sales has been the Publishers Weekly review which I won as a prize for reaching the quarter finals. I got a good review, so that gave my book a boost - people trust a review from a big name like Publishers Weekly, and I can quote it in
my marketing. I would love to enter other books for the award, but sadly Amazon
have discontinued it this year.
How
do you reach out and connect with your readership?
I’m very active on
social media. I have a website where I share information about my books, and a blog, where
I write about Japanese events in London. I am on Twitter as well: @franpickering.
How
would you describe your target readership?
Anyone who is
interested in Japan and wants to learn more about it in a fun and non-academic
way.
Do
you have any plans to translate your novels? Into Asian languages? Into Japanese?
I would love to have
my novels translated, especially into Japanese so that my Japanese friends
could read them, but I don't have any specific plans at the moment.
Can
you tell us a little about your work-in-progress?
The new novel is set
mainly in Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, where Josie has been sent to
work, commuting back to Tokyo on the bullet train to see her boyfriend, Dave,
at weekends. When a body is found on the train, at first Josie thinks it’s got
nothing to do with her, but the victim turns out to be a colleague and Josie soon
discovers that there’s a lot of plotting and deception going on beneath the
surface at her new office.
You have a Josie Clark prequel novella for purchase. Did you write this
following a request from a reader? Do comments from readers influence your writing
plans?
I wrote the short
prequel, The Tokyo Karaoke Murder,
because people who read the first book didn’t want to wait long for the second
one to come out, so I gave them a novella to fill the gap. I definitely listen
to what readers say in planning future books - I give bigger roles to popular
characters like Mr. Tanaka, and I make sure Josie and Dave’s relationship has
plenty of twists and turns as that’s what keeps people interested.
Are you a full time
writer?
No,
but while I’m working on a book I set myself daily word count targets so that I
don't let things slide. You can always find the time to write if you’re
committed to it.
Are
there any disadvantages to being an indie author in terms of doing book tours or
getting adequate press coverage or placing physical copies of your books in
shops?
I sell my books
online so I don’t try to get physical copies into bookshops. I decided at
the start that online was the most effective way to sell books and I think that
was the right decision for me. With bookshops you have to give a big discount
and supply the books yourself, so there is very little profit in it. I’d rather
stick with Amazon, where my books are sold and delivered to the customer within
days without my having to do anything. Plus I sell a lot of eBooks, which are
cheap to produce and delivered instantly. Instead of press coverage I try to
get online coverage through book blogs and Japan-related blogs. It’s all about
doing things in a way that works in the digital world in which we all now live.
New Indie Correspondent
Many
thanks to Raelee Chapman for all her hard work on Indie Spotlight over the past year. Raelee is now passing the baton to Siobhan
Daiko, the self-published author of The Orchid Tree. Siobhan’s first post, in June, will introduce
herself, and her novel.
