35-When Pre-orders drop, so does the series, interviewing Fiona Tarr
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1 hour and 6 minutes)
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You can listen above or on your favourite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.
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You can listen above or on your favourite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.
Show notes
Fiona Tarr discusses her transition from writing fantasy to crime fiction, the process of building a community of readers, and the strategies for exploiting her intellectual property. She shares insights into genre planning, community engagement, and the challenges and opportunities of self-publishing. The conversation covers the challenges and strategies of being an indie author, including the balance between writing and business, the use of Kickstarter and special editions, engagement with library events and public lending rights, challenges with Kindle Unlimited and wide distribution, navigating industry challenges, advice for emerging indie authors, and series completion and reader engagement.
Takeaways
Takeaways
- Genre Transition
- Building a Community
- Exploiting Intellectual Property Adapting to the evolving industry
- Understanding the market and reader preferences
- 00:00 Transition from Fantasy to Crime
- 03:52 Building a Community of Readers
- 07:21 Exploiting Intellectual Property
- 41:47 Series Completion and Reader Engagement
Connect with Fiona Tarr
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Fiona Tarr is a number-one bestselling Amazon author who has built a devoted, worldwide readership from her home in Noosa, Queensland.
In 2023 she launched the Opal Fields series, following Constable Jenny Williams through a remote opal-mining town inspired by Coober Pedy, and it changed everything. She has written full-time ever since. Since then, Fiona has built two ongoing crime series — Opal Fields and Dawn Grave — alongside the Foxy Mysteries spin-off, racking up tens of thousands of reader ratings. Website & Social Handles Website: fionatarr.com Instagram: @fionatarr Facebook: Fiona Tarr – Author (facebook.com/fionatarr.atime2write) YouTube: Fiona Tarr on YouTube |
Transcript of episode
Amra Pajalic (00:00)
My guest today is Fiona Tar. She's a number one selling Amazon author who has built a devoted worldwide readership from her home in Noosa, Queensland, and I'm one of her readership. She didn't start out writing crime, she started writing fantasy, biblical epic series, and then a long-remembered Outback Road Trip planted the seed for something new. And in 2023, she launched the Opal Field series.
following Constable Jenny Williams through a remote opal mining town inspired by Cuba Petey and it changed everything. She has written full-time ever since. She has two ongoing crime series, Opal Fields and Dawn Graves, and also the Foxy Mysteries spin-off, which I'm really excited about. So thank you so much for joining me today, Fiona. I've been so excited to talk to you.
Fiona (00:54)
Thanks
for having me, Amra.
Amra Pajalic (00:55)
Yeah, so I'm I'm a fan of Opal Fields. I'm actually listening And so I'm I'm finding it fascinating as a crime
mystery reader, you know, following a series and following a character. But also as a writer I'm really like you know interested in how it's all developing and and how you're crafting that world. I d I wanted to actually first start with that because you said it was a long remembered Outback trip. so how'd that come about?
Fiona (01:23)
Well, it's kind of like, it's back. I Foxy Mystery Series actually came before the Opal Fields series. So although people see it as a spin-off, it was first. So when I was first coming out of writing Fantasy, I went and wrote the Foxy Mystery Series. It went pretty well. It kind of gave me an idea that I really needed to shift towards the mystery genre. But in doing so, I got quite attached to Jenny, Constable Jenny.
Amra Pajalic (01:29)
That's true.
Fiona (01:46)
but she wasn't constable because in the Foxy Mystery series, she's a detective. So I decided to go back and yeah, exactly. So I went back and wrote her origin story. So the Opal Fields are actually a detective Jenny Williams origin story. And so because she was already a character that I was attracted to, I really liked her as a person. I really liked her as a detective. I wanted to go back and discover.
really for me, because I'm a discovery writer, discover who Jenny was and why she became a detective. And that's where the Opal Fields came from. And I went like, where am I going to set these series? And the outback seemed like the right spot to set her. And because I'd been to Coober Pedy for a family camping trip, it just seemed like the right spot because I knew the area well enough to be able to immerse myself in it.
Amra Pajalic (02:30)
Yeah, and like that's the what I love about it because I have not been to the Northern Territory. I think, you know, when everyone thinks of Australia, they think of the red earth, Northern Territory. Kuba Pete is fascinating because it's a mining town and it's so hot and people actually live under the ground and you bring that to life so well. I I love that part of it. And and that's also part of the in a sense because you've got a
Fiona (02:49)
Yep.
Thank you.
Amra Pajalic (02:56)
worldwide readership it's not just Australian readers who are following you you have got you know so many readers all over the world how's that been like them engaging with that part of it
Fiona (03:09)
Well, I mean I didn't set out to just write Australian crime fiction for Australia. I deliberately marketed it towards the American and UK market. I actually thought the UK market would pick it up more than the American market, but the American market is the second biggest market for me. I mean for a lot of writers who write international mystery and crime that's based in the UK or America, the US would probably make up a lot bigger percentage of that.
But about half my readership is Australian or just under. And about a quarter of it is US. And that turned out to be bigger than the UK market, which was a surprise to me. But maybe that's more to do with the size of the market than it is to do with the style of the writing. And also, I think because the Australian outback, although it's Aussie and I do it in a quintessentially Aussie fashion, it still appeals to people from the urban parts of, from the rural parts of America.
because they can still relate to the use the trucks, the hats, the boots, the rodeo, the whole feel for it. They can relate to that and there's plenty of mining and oil mining and rigging out in the central parts of the US as well.
Amra Pajalic (04:19)
Mm. And you are full time author now, and that
Is so amazing because there's not many people that can claim to be doing that, where this is all you do, the full-time business, and you're able to also talk about the market because you're publishing your own books, you're doing everything, and so you know what something that surprised you about this whole journey that you've gone through with self-publishing and creating your own business in a sense.
Fiona (04:51)
think
my advantage is I've been self-employed for a very long time. So coming from one business to another business to another business, I talk about my working in male-dominated industries. 90 % of that was industries that I was self-employed with. So I ran a wood-turning factory, I farmed, I had a retail business in water sports. So all of those kinds of things are very similar running businesses that you've got a product and you need to find out who you're going to sell it to.
make sure that product meets that market, but also you're building a community around that. So particularly with the water sports business we used to have and writing, there's so many similarities because it's about getting to know the people within that community and making sure that you're delivering what they want. And so I think that for me, there wasn't a major surprise about the business side of it. I think trying to find the right product for the market so that I knew that people would
be keen to buy it, keen to read it, keen to read the next one. That was the bit that was surprising and that's what took some time and that's why I'm full time now. But obviously all those other books that I've written, the fantasy, the biblical fantasy, the epic mythological fantasy, the historical fantasy, all the different things I tried that kind of didn't work for me. They actually do sell okay now, but they were difficult to market.
And what it comes down to when it comes to breaking into the self-publishing industry, it's you have to have a product that you can market and make some financial gain from in order to invest in more product.
Amra Pajalic (06:22)
Mm.
I think that's the hardest thing for us as as writers, because you know you're coming in it from that business sense and you're able to really articulate that really well. I'm coming into it as a writer and traditionally published also where everything was done for me, I was one of the chosen ones, la la la, and now I'm entering it and having to apply that business sense. and it's something that I'm really struggling with. How are are some of the ways that you have
have created that community and found readers.
Fiona (06:54)
So I think one of the things I needed to understand was that there's a bit of a system to writing as a self-published author. We can't rely on the big mega media that are traditionally published top five, know, Chris Hammer and a Dervler and all of those authors within the genre that I'm in. They have a publicity machine pushing along behind them. know, their entire schedule is set out for them. They've got all these events that they need to go to.
As an independent author, you can't rely on that. So you need to kind of build a smaller community that you can rely on to, in my case, I've got advanced readers. I can always rely on those to pick up any last minute typos that would normally be picked up by traditional publishing proofreaders that I'm not paying. My advanced reader team are gold. I have quite a few in there that are ex-teachers or people that are very close on their detail.
They'll pick up any last minute typos that myself and my editors might have missed. And they'll also be the first to review the product before it even goes live as an ebook. They're often jumping straight into Goodreads or they're jumping into the paperback when it goes live on Amazon. So I think part of it is also creating that system where it does become a bit of a system. You don't want to get bogged down with that because you don't want it to drain your creativity. But understanding that there's a process.
to going through to publishing your books. You you've got your beta readers, you've got your advanced readers, your advanced readers are, you know, doing a little bit of the promoting for you. They are the community, they're the people that kind of guide you about how well you're writing and whether you're, you know, waffling off in the wrong direction or whether you need to come back or, you know, and I think the biggest compliment you can get is your latest book is your best book. You know, if every time you send out to your advanced reader team, they go, oh my God, I think this is the best book you've ever written. You go like, yes.
Like, so I think, I think that having that community around you, they're doing what the traditional industry would normally be doing for you. They're helping you along the way and they're doing it willingly. Just all they get is a book free early, you know, and they're willing to give themselves and their time for that. And I think as an author or an independent author, you have to respect that and building that community means that it's a two way street. You know, you're giving to them, but they're also giving to you and recognizing that is really important.
Amra Pajalic (09:11)
Yeah, and one thing that I was struck by, you know, 'cause you keep referring to it as product, which I I actually am gonna try and do that from now on. That really kind of takes that emotion out of it where it just becomes, you know, about the marketing because you know, the writing is when we've got our soul into it, but then once it's finished you do need to get that emotion out of it and think of it as a product. So was your decision to move from fantasy and the
biblical epic series into crime made because you could see possible you know potential for sales.
Fiona (09:45)
Yeah, for sure. when I first started indie publishing, was off the original entry point of 2007, but I started writing in 2007 when everyone was first hitting Kindle with this, know, Kindle came out, nobody knew what it was, and I went, oh, this is a good opportunity. It took me ages to write that first book. And the book I first wrote was a bit of a cathartic experience for me because I'd come from working with social services, I'd come from working with disadvantaged communities.
the church, the councils, the government funding, and I was a little bit disillusioned. So the biblical fantasy that I wrote basically tore apart what I was going through and I chucked it into that series. So that series was not saleable in itself. And it took me, was part of the writing process. A lot of writers will write and not publish, and they will just keep writing until they think they've got the right thing. But for me, I needed to put it out into the marketplace to see what.
feedback I was getting, whether it was the writing that was bad, the content that was bad, the style that was bad, what was going on with it. And I let the audience tell me I'd failed or achieved something. And so when I did the Foxy Mystery series, my advanced reader team was small, but they were positive about that series. And that's when I first started to get an indication that I was on the right track, not just for what was written to market, but for how I wrote in a way that would be marketable.
So I often say to people, it's not about writing to market, it's about writing to market your way. So you're not actually just meeting, you're not reading a book and going, I need to write something like this, because you're gonna try and write something that isn't really your style of writing. For me, it was a case of me learning how to write something that was me, but also that would meet the market. And that's when I knew kind of Jenny would be that person, Jenny would be that book, the Opal Field series would be that book. But yeah, I...
deliberately stopped writing for really for about six months and studied the marker and went, how can I write something that I can write it my way emotionally express what I want to express, but in a way that's marketable and tangible for me to get and make a living out of this. And that's when the Opal Field series was born. So it was deliberate. Yeah.
Amra Pajalic (11:56)
I I love how you're talking about that where it's like you can't just write something cynically that you don't care about and that you're not passionate about. You still need to have that that that is your interest and and that is something that you want to do. But you can think strategically in terms of genre. and I think many of us who are indie publishing, we have are trying different genres because we like reading all sorts of things.
and we experiment and try and and send things out into the world and see what happens.
Fiona (12:24)
Yeah, and I think it's the thing about being an indie is a lot of people say, I don't get bored if I just write the same thing over and over again, but you're not writing the same thing over and over again. If you are, then you're doing it wrong because each book should be, you know, it might be about the same characters, but each book should be an evolution of that character's life. It should be another experience that is thrown at them that they weren't expecting that.
they have to now deal with, they have to be growing constantly through the series of a book. So if you feel like your character is getting stale or you feel like your storylines are getting stale, they are. Because you need to kind of go, well, where do we go through from here? How do I make this exciting for me to write? And if it's exciting for me to write, then it should be an evolution of your character or your world that you've built, whether it be fantasy or reality.
Amra Pajalic (12:58)
Mm.
Fiona (13:13)
You're still building a world, you're still building a community within your story. And the temptation to keep changing genres is really people trying to find their stride. It's not so much that they need to change the genre, they might just need to change what's going on within the genre. I I've changed genres because I realized that I was writing fantasy, but I was writing it more like a mystery.
Amra Pajalic (13:35)
Yes.
Fiona (13:36)
So my fantasies are mysteries. I went, it took me a little while to realize that my fantasy stories were actually mysteries or missions, so to speak. And then I realized that I was better off doing that in my real world setting so that I could actually draw on things that were around me rather than just make them up. Because some people are brilliant at making up things from scratch and other people are better at drawing from the world around them. And for me, I'm one of those people who can
spot things and draw lines and join dots that maybe other people aren't doing, but I'm not great at creating from scratch. And that's why I realised fantasy was the wrong genre, because it's world building. It's not taking a world that you already know and building on top of it. And that's where I realised that I was in the wrong genre.
Amra Pajalic (14:24)
Yeah, that's one thing that I really got out of the Opal Fields and following Jenny's journey. How in each book there is a depth of characterisation and that
growth occurring. and you are actually, I think, finishing and then and you're you've got an there's a character that we have met during the Opal Fields that you're going to be writing now. is this you you sort of had a story arc in your head for Jenny and and that was fulfilled or
Fiona (14:53)
Well, that's a funny story because I had a story arc for the Opal Fields of six books. So it was supposed to stop at six books. But when I got to the end of the six books, I had emails from readers saying, no, no, no, no, no, you haven't finished this part of the story off. We want to know more about these people. And I went, OK, well, I've got to come up with a new story arc. So I came up with a new story arc of three books, which is where we're on now. I've just released the ninth book in the series.
At book six, I had a spin off series, which was the Dawn Grave series. So Dawn Grave is introduced in book six of the Opal Fields series, which you haven't read yet. And then I created the spin off of Dawn Grave, but then my readers wanted more Opal Fields. So I went back and did more Opal Fields. So we now have three, but I really, because I've explained the Foxy Mystery series that I wrote myself into the corner, she has to become a detective.
Amra Pajalic (15:27)
Right.
Fiona (15:46)
She's Detective Jenny Williams. She isn't Constable Jenny Williams forever. So I was like, how do I bring her out of the Opal Fields into her own new series that is about her being a detective? And to do that, I created a new series called the Detective Jenny Williams series. And the first book of that is On Barren Ground. So it's still about Jenny. So anyone who's followed Jenny's journey is going to want to know what happens to her next.
they also some of them have already read forward or backwards to the Foxy Mystery series so they know where she ended up at one point. So On Barren Ground is the first book after the Foxy Mystery series. So just note to everybody out there watching plan your series a little bit better than I did because
Amra Pajalic (16:31)
No, listening to you.
yeah, 'cause you know, I'm writing my first series and I'm I'm writing book six, book four is now finished and being published you know, in a couple of weeks. And so that's something that I was really worried about because, you know, doing a series and sort of planning all of it, and as you said, now you've got sort of the end for Jenny and and you have to, you know, that that is it. whereas in one sense there are advantages.
Fiona (16:58)
Yeah.
Amra Pajalic (17:01)
And and there are a lot of crime series where readers we just love the characters and we just want to keep following the characters. So I love how you've elegantly figured that out, where you're pass passing the baton onto her friend Penny and Dawn Grave and that you've got, you know, all of these different ways that you're you're pursuing that. It's it's
Fiona (17:23)
Yeah, so mean, it's still
it's still going to be Jenny's story. It's just that I needed to get her out of Cooberpedia and into Adelaide. But without spoilers, she's not there. She's not there for very long. but there's but the idea was that I need you know, I'd already written the Foxy Mystery series. Jenny was a popular character. Jenny became the lead character in the Opal Field series. Everyone loves Jenny.
but she had to leave Coover Pee Dee because anyone who'd read the Foxy Mystery series knew that. So this was my way of bringing her back around. But it wasn't my intention when I set out, I didn't realize how to plan series as well as I do now. So now when I plan out a series, I'm thinking further in advance. I'm thinking about the evolution of this story. When I do have a spin-off character or a spin-off series, it's a bit better and more organized in its planning phase.
Amra Pajalic (18:10)
Yeah, you've done brilliant. What I'm doing to avoid some of this is I'm setting each book one year later where I'm like, I'm just gonna move things along. And I can already see some characters where I'm like, I want to do things with them. so now I'm thinking about, I can't have them too much. and and yeah, tie myself down just in case, because I I have ideas for what I might might want to do.
Yeah, one of the things I love that you're doing in this this is what a lot of indie authors do is is investigating ways to you know exploit your intellectual property. So you've got the ebooks and the paper books, you also produce your series as audiobooks and I'm actually listening to Opal Field's the audiobook. And I find when I make I I start something in a certain format, I have to continue it in that format, and so I'm really
Addicted to the audiobooks, and we also met at the adaptable wards that Queensland Writer Centre runs where you were pitching Opal Fields, I was pitching my book for adaptation. So, what have you learned through that process in terms of thinking about all the different ways to exploit?
Fiona (19:24)
Yeah, I mean, I've already got translations out for the Opel Field series in French, German and Italian. The Dawn Graves series is out in French and German. And I'm actually in conversation with somebody at the moment that might be picking up the banner to take these series to further languages and further options. The audiobooks I commissioned myself for the Opel Field series.
just as I commissioned them, was contacted by Alvers Croft about the books. And I said, well, I've already started doing audio for this series. I think I'll just continue it. But I've got a new series coming out. Did they want to look at it? So when I started the Dawn Graves series, I got a couple of books into it. They picked up the first two books. Unfortunately, they haven't picked up the rest, which has actually left me a little bit.
high and dry and a little bit annoyed that I signed them to a third party. I should have just produced them myself. So note to self, I actually have a contract with a solicitor at the moment. Do not sign any agreements without putting it past a lawyer. And the lawyer costs lots of money, but ultimately it's probably worth it. Because, you know, if I had realised that they wouldn't pick up the rest of that series, I never would have signed it.
And it turns out that that's how they've operated in this particular environment because the Australian market has changed and they are pulling a lot of their audio out of the Australian market and the Australian label. And because partly because they don't put the books with the Borrow Box and Libby, which is where realistically most of the Australian libraries are getting most of their books from is the Borrow Box and Libby.
So the Opal Field series is all available and they're constantly being released. The last one is in production at the moment. They're available through Libby and Borrow Box, but the Dawn Grave series isn't, but we're working on that one. So hopefully we'll get that sorted and then I'll get the rest of the series into production for audio for that one as well.
Amra Pajalic (21:17)
Yeah, that's something that I've been very wary of. I remember having a conversation with someone at a Queensland Writers Centre where I said I chose to publish all of these books. I didn't even pitch it to a publisher because I have heard so many stories from authors who have had that experience because I know that publishers are facing a lot of difficulties and challenges, but you know, they also aren't invested.
And growing, and and that's the issue. And as we can see from you, you have done that investment and growing and you are reaping the dividends. So and I just love also like this is the other thing, you know, as India, the international market. have you had feedback on your like how how are you navigating fans in the international markets and developing that community?
Fiona (22:06)
I'm not putting too much energy into that at the moment, I've got to admit, because it is a huge amount of work to have a separate newsletter or a separate Facebook page or anything like that. do have some of my German market have definitely followed my regular Australian English Facebook and some of them have jumped onto the newsletter because a lot of the German market are actually pretty good at reading English if they want to. And I did find that when I started
putting the translations out, people would probably make me look at the translation and go, you know, I think I could just read this in English. And then I was seeing an uptake in an increase in English purchases of the English version from Germany, not so much from France, but definitely from Germany. So I, my focus is on writing more books, you know, and which is partly why I'm in negotiations at the moment with somebody who might be picking up all of my other foreign rights and.
and also looking at film and TV rights for me so that it's one thing I don't have to think about anymore and I can go back to focusing on just writing more books instead of publishing them. But at the same time, as an independent author, every time I've let go of the reins, it's not necessarily gone the way I planned. So, you know, there comes this point though where you just have to decide if your time writing is more important than your time running the business and
I've gotten to that point where realistically if I want to get my four books out a year or maybe more, which I'm looking at doing, then I need to be focused on my writing and not spend so much time on the business side of things. And there's certain things that I'm willing to let go of the reins on and international rights and the film rights and TV rights, managing of those or sourcing them is one of those things.
Amra Pajalic (23:44)
Mm, yeah, because that's it's so much work because we are a small business and there's only so many hours in the day. And yeah, like the other stuff can be re replaced, someone else can do it, but the writing, you're the only one who can do that. That's your special source. one of the other things that you've been doing recently is you did a Kickstarter for a special edition. So what's some things that you learnt through that process?
Fiona (23:50)
Exactly.
So yeah, the concept of doing the Kickstarter was I wanted to see if I could find a new reading audience through Kickstarter. I've long known that a lot of the fantasy authors are building their brand through Kickstarter. And I knew that it had legs for fantasy, but I just wanted to see what its potential was for crime or Australian crime. I'm yet to analyze the details because the Kickstarter's only just closed.
It is open for late pledges, so people might be jumping on to get some late pledging. But at the moment, I wanted to analyse the figures, send out a survey and find out just how many people had come from my existing readership to buy those special editions and whether those special editions had lured anybody else in from the Kickstarter community that may never have read my books before. So that was part of the reason behind it. And also, I just wanted to find out what the appetite was for special editions.
you know, hardback, sprayed edges, extra, you know, end pages with more graphics. I wanted to find out what the appetite for the crime fiction genre was for special editions. And I was quite surprised that there was a market for it. So moving forward, it's kind of put in my head that I may start doing some limited edition box sets of the Opal Field series. Now that's finished, I can do some omnibuses of the first three, the second, you know, second group, the third group.
and maybe put them into limited editions that I might sell off of my website. They won't go into the wider market, but they'll sell off my website and they'll sell at live events and maybe give them away some, just some gifts and things like that for readers. that was, was, it was a test for me. I'm not necessarily going to be jumping back in to do another Kickstarter. It was very, not necessarily hugely profitable, but it was definitely successful.
in that we more than doubled the funding goal that we were aiming for. So I'm pretty happy with that. But it was more for me was to test the market. That's what it was for.
Amra Pajalic (25:59)
I love that how you're doing the both the creative and and then constantly always like, let's test this and let's figure out and doing the analysis and really sort of being led by that side of it. one thing that I've also noticed is you do quite a few library events and so you actually really cultivate that. is that something that you take on yourself or you have contacts?
Fiona (26:21)
They kind of happen organically, to start off with, I asked my readers, said like, know, just on Facebook, said, hey guys, I'm heading down this way to do something. You know, if you've got a library in that area between here and here that you want me to come and see, then just get the librarian to contact me through the website and I'll see if I can fit that in. So I kind of let the readers drive that.
I was also contacted by a couple of libraries, regional libraries that had a lot of my books being borrowed out. And then they said, you know, could I come and visit? The most recent growth of that has been I attended the Capricorn Festival in Queensland last, not this winter, last winter. And I met up with the librarian team, the library team at the event.
We just chatted and we chatted about the books and they asked me if I could visit on the way back down because I was heading north. So I already had a Mossman Port Douglas visit organised and on the way back down I called into Yapoon at the Livingston Library and we had a huge event. It was packed, it was fully booked out. It was really good and they've given me a bigger venue this year and they've also spoken with some of the other libraries in the area who've asked me to visit as well.
So I'm really looking forward to getting to that event, those events in that region, because I know I've got readers there. And I was the 15th most popular borrowed book, author out of their library this year. Annie Seton was second, mind you. But yeah, was 15th. Lee Childs only just beat me. I mean, I was pretty okay with that. But so yeah, the whole idea is that
Amra Pajalic (27:48)
That's pretty cool though. That's that's a huge
Fiona (27:58)
In Australia, obviously we have the public lending rights. So if your books are being borrowed through libraries, you do ultimately get paid for it. So the visits I do, I don't charge for because libraries are always on short budgets. I don't need to be charging for them. I'm usually traveling through the area. So I call in, have a chat, show my books, sell a few books to the local readers.
and also encourage the libraries to actually keep my books, which means then eventually we get some funding through from the public lending rights as well.
Amra Pajalic (28:25)
And the exciting thing is they have expanded public and electronic lending rights. So now it's also the audiobooks. so as you were talking about earlier with the Libby box and you know borrow box, like people being able to borrow the audiobooks, the e-books, and we get paid through those well, which are great opportunities.
Fiona (28:42)
Yeah, and I mean, I've been in Kindle Unlimited for quite some time and they've just, obviously, like you said, they've allowed us to put our books into libraries as well, which we weren't allowed to do for quite some time. So that's become another income stream. But it does lead me to the point where Amazon's Kindle Unlimited system, as financially viable as it is, I recently had a banned.
temporarily and I did get it back up. It took over a week and it was in the middle of a Kindle deal cycle and it caused me all sorts of grief. So it has made me rethink the All In With Kindle Unlimited policy which look, know, it's been extremely profitable. It's been the best way to go to start my career up and get to a point where I could write full time. But now I really strategically have to consider.
the future of my writing business and part of that is to maybe take some of my series wide. So I'll be looking at options to do that. Probably releasing Ink in the Lung Limited from my existing readership so that they all get a 90 day period to read them and then moving them into a wide audience.
Amra Pajalic (29:46)
Yeah, and that's the thing with you know, indie authors, like we've got so many options, and which is the best option and I was very heartbroken to follow that whole saga for you, because you know, that's been a great success for you and then they decided that because all of your titles you have a formula in a sense that you use the same sort of wording for them, which works great for the marketing and
it looks beautiful on the covers. but they decided that one one of your new books was the same as a previous book.
Fiona (30:21)
No,
it's actually really even more bizarre than that. It's the first book of the Dawn Grave series that they believed that book was a copy of Her Buried Bones, which is the first book of a totally different series. So it's extreme. was extremely bizarre. I have no idea how the bots even got that one confused and we still don't know what we did to trigger it. So it's nothing to do with the fact that all my grave series is called Grave. It was Her Buried Bones. They believed I've republished it as Grave Regret.
Amra Pajalic (30:41)
Yeah.
Fiona (30:49)
So, quite bizarre, but it's something that happens occasionally. The bots get something wrong, something triggered it. It just takes time to get it sorted out. And we did get it sorted out. And I want to thank the Alliance of Independent Authors because without them, that would have been a very, very difficult battle. But they were very, very quick to jump in and mark the project as urgent and try and get that sorted out. And without them, I don't think we would have managed it. So yeah, good on them.
Amra Pajalic (31:15)
And they're a great resource for anyone who's wanting to enter our world as an Indian author. and great advocates for authors as as we navigate all these new paths, because they've even got like contract samples and you know, so presumably when you were doing your audio books, you know, that that would have been a source for contracts and templates and stuff.
Fiona (31:19)
for sure.
Yeah, the audiobook contracts are pretty straightforward. It's just that I got caught out a little bit in that I didn't realise that the publishers that I was going through were expecting the earn back on MP3s and CD sales, which in this market is not such a great benchmark. So although it's doing exceptionally well in ebook format, sorry, in audio lending format,
or MP3 light through audible. It's doing very well there. It's doing very well in large print because large print has earned out very quickly. It's not earned out in MP3 CDs, which isn't really a surprise in the current market.
Amra Pajalic (32:13)
No, that's
that's obsolete. you know, I'm sort of going back old school now and collecting DVDs and I'm collecting these. I do. I actually do because I'm I'm getting I've got all of the streamers, but I I have a lot of nostalgia watches, you know, a lot of things that I like re-watching and it drives me crazy when I I want a certain thing and I can't find it.
Fiona (32:18)
I've got boxes of them if you want them.
Yep.
And he can't find.
Amra Pajalic (32:39)
And and then also, you know, like where where it jumps, everything's jumping all the time. So I'm just getting to the point where I'm like, no, I want I want my own stuff. Yeah, yeah. so it's it's a very yeah, like the technology is constantly changing. You've been through a lot of the changes and and you keep adapting and and that's also sort of what I'm getting through all this is that
Fiona (32:47)
in the election.
Amra Pajalic (33:02)
You have to keep adapting in the indie world and have to keep trying new things and and experimenting.
Fiona (33:09)
Yeah,
I mean, there's no there's no set and forget in any in any business. I don't think, you know, the whole idea that we can write a book on this passive income is not true. Realistically, when you write a book and you put it out into the world, be prepared to republish it or recover it or do whatever it takes to, you know, to get it where it needs to be. But and also, like you said, lots of different formats. But, you know, I will write a book.
I will then put that book aside while it's going through editing. I'm already pre-planning and I've pre-put up the next book in that series. So the cover, the blurb are already ready. By the time that book launches, it has to have the next book in the series ready to pre-order. Otherwise you lose your momentum. So there's lots of processes that have to go in place. But yeah, you do have to be adapting. You do have to be looking at covers and ensuring that they're up to current market trends because they're changing all the time as well.
So, you it is an ever evolving industry that we do need to keep our finger on the pulse of.
Amra Pajalic (34:06)
What's something that you know anyone who is looking to enter this world in terms of being indie pa an indie author, what are some things that you would give them advice on?
Fiona (34:17)
I think the first thing I would say is to really study the genre that you think that you want to write in. And by studying I mean read the top, grab the top 20 of any sub-genre you think it applies to you. Read them and find out which of those authors you like reading. Because if you like reading them, and you find them fast-paced or you find them, you know, maybe you don't like fast-paced, maybe you like slow and steady and you like a really absorbed plot.
If that's what you want, then you need to find those authors and you need to kind of work out how you can write similar to them. You must write similar to them for you to like them. So what I did when I wasn't really sure what was going on with my career is I started reading the top 20 of the sub genres I thought I wrote in and I identified a couple of authors within those genres that I loved reading. just like flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. I'm reading these pages and I've got a really short attention span.
So I'm reading these authors thinking, I really like these books. that kind of, for me, that said, I probably write similar to them because I was really enjoying them. So then I broke them down a little bit like, you know, save the cat writes a novel. I broke them down and went, what are the story beats? What are the themes in these books that I'm drawn to? And how do I put them in my books? And that's kind of what I would say to people who aren't sure on the craft side of it.
When you're, if you're an indie author starting out for the very first time, get an advanced reader team or some beta teams on board because you know it doesn't matter how wonderful you think you are, you really need to make sure that the market agrees with you. You're not just surrounded by two or three relatives that say oh that's a lovely book. You really want to know what the actual industry is thinking about how you're writing and how you need to adjust that.
Cause I've seen a few people that have gone, you know, we just have to rapid release. If you rapid release, you'll make money. And they're rapid releasing books that aren't popular and aren't selling. And then they're getting very, very disillusioned. make sure rapid release definitely works, but make sure that you're writing the right book to rapid release. That's, know, for me, was where I, once I rapid released the Opal Field series, I didn't do it without knowing that my advanced reader team were actually begging for the next book.
because they were doing that I knew that I'd finally hit a stride. So I did rapid release to get the Opal Field series started. But yeah, think studying the market and understanding this is a job. If you start doing this as a job, you need to meet deadlines, you need to run to a schedule. Or if you don't want to do it as a job and you just want to be an author and you don't mind getting one book out a year and just plotting along and not making a living out of it.
That's fine. That's absolutely perfect. But understand where you what your aspiration is before you start. Because if you want to make a living out of being an author you are going to need to work at it. I don't work full time but I certainly work at this every day for at least three hours a day. And then I go do something else.
Amra Pajalic (37:12)
Mm. And do you like in terms of your series, you they've kind of some of them have all finished like the the Jenny series had to for a certain thing. Do you th do they naturally finish for you where you're like I think I've I've done what I need to do and you've got your next idea or how how does that happen for you?
Fiona (37:33)
when the pre-orders drop off.
Amra Pajalic (37:34)
my gosh, you are so ruthless. I need to adopt more of this from you. Okay, please expand on that.
Fiona (37:43)
Well, not entirely. I mean, I get a natural sense of when a series is drawing to a close. I also, you know, I survey my readers how many books is too many books. You know, you get the occasional person that says there's never too many books in a series, but the majority of people will say six to ten, you know, is a good number in a series. You get the occasional one, the Josie Quinn series that's gone on for like 26 books. Who is it that's written A to Z? I can't remember who it is.
Amra Pajalic (38:09)
Yes.
Fiona (38:09)
Yeah, so, know, and you know, if you're a, I can't remember her name, I'll take that one that happens. But you know, know, Patricia Cornwall with her, you know, Scapere, you know, they can go on forever. But most people will say that they've gotten, you know, certain series have gotten stale. So, you know, don't flog a dead horse for me is pre-orders and my final indicator. So if I feel like I'm kind of getting to the stage where I'm not getting bored of the characters, but I'm getting
Board of the World or I think I've taken most of the characters as far as I can take them. Mind you, I do always constantly try and keep a little bit of a plot line open so that there's somewhere to go. But I think that naturally books come, the series will come to an end. But having set up some spin-off series or having set up where you're gonna go next is part of the business side of it. But yeah, maintaining momentum and seeing an increase or at least a steady pre-order number.
is an indicator that the series is still appealing to majority of your readers. If those pre-orders drop off and you're not getting people going straight on to the next book saying, I've got to have the next book, well then your story arc is failing or your character development is starting to lag. You can give it another go and have another book and see if you can bring those orders back up again, or you can just accept that that might be the end of the series and it's time to move on to something else.
Amra Pajalic (39:26)
Yeah, I love I love the way that you're thinking about that, because I'm I'm still sort of flailing and figuring it out, but you are such a veteran now with so many series. and and I love the brilliance of what you're doing in terms of the interconnected
Fiona (39:39)
book.
Amra Pajalic (39:40)
Mm, yeah, and and that's the fun about being an author. Like we do fall in love with our characters, we do want to, you know, tell them that there are surprises that sneak up on us too. And like you, I'm a discovery writer, so that's the s that's what I live for. It's those little surprises where I'm like, that's interesting. Let's see those. but yes, you kind of write yourself into a corner. so just where can readers find you and information about you and your books?
Fiona (39:50)
Yeah.
Hahaha
Pretty much all my links are on my website, so fionatar.com. So that's the easiest spot to go to. But if you search Fiona Tarr in Facebook, TikTok or Instagram, you'll find me there too. And obviously on Amazon.
Amra Pajalic (40:19)
Lovely. And you're very prolific on Facebook and that's where a lot of your community is. are you on Instagram too? I sort of see more of Facebook.
Fiona (40:27)
Yeah, no Instagram, Instagram, I've recently started working a lot more on Instagram because it was actually quite funny. Facebook said to me, you have to do more video content. And I went, well, if I'm going to do more video content, I might as well do TikTok. so you'll find me on TikTok now as well. So, and yeah, and TikTok videos, lenders lend themselves to going on Instagram as well. So it's just part of the whole circle of marketing that you end up doing.
Amra Pajalic (40:41)
Yeah.
Yeah, 'cause it's all about repurposing content and sort of trying to get as much as you can from that one thing 'cause we are so time poor. We've got so many things that we need to do. So yeah, it's about trying to be as clever as possible.
Fiona (40:56)
Yep.
Amra Pajalic (41:04)
Well I want thank you so much for coming and talking to me. I have learned so much from this conversation. so that has been absolutely wonderful and and I hope that other emerging writers out there have also, you know, gotten a lot from from the lessons and from what you've shared and your generosity.
Fiona (41:23)
Thanks for having me. It's been great chatting with you anytime.
Amra Pajalic (41:26)
Thank you. All right.
My guest today is Fiona Tar. She's a number one selling Amazon author who has built a devoted worldwide readership from her home in Noosa, Queensland, and I'm one of her readership. She didn't start out writing crime, she started writing fantasy, biblical epic series, and then a long-remembered Outback Road Trip planted the seed for something new. And in 2023, she launched the Opal Field series.
following Constable Jenny Williams through a remote opal mining town inspired by Cuba Petey and it changed everything. She has written full-time ever since. She has two ongoing crime series, Opal Fields and Dawn Graves, and also the Foxy Mysteries spin-off, which I'm really excited about. So thank you so much for joining me today, Fiona. I've been so excited to talk to you.
Fiona (00:54)
Thanks
for having me, Amra.
Amra Pajalic (00:55)
Yeah, so I'm I'm a fan of Opal Fields. I'm actually listening And so I'm I'm finding it fascinating as a crime
mystery reader, you know, following a series and following a character. But also as a writer I'm really like you know interested in how it's all developing and and how you're crafting that world. I d I wanted to actually first start with that because you said it was a long remembered Outback trip. so how'd that come about?
Fiona (01:23)
Well, it's kind of like, it's back. I Foxy Mystery Series actually came before the Opal Fields series. So although people see it as a spin-off, it was first. So when I was first coming out of writing Fantasy, I went and wrote the Foxy Mystery Series. It went pretty well. It kind of gave me an idea that I really needed to shift towards the mystery genre. But in doing so, I got quite attached to Jenny, Constable Jenny.
Amra Pajalic (01:29)
That's true.
Fiona (01:46)
but she wasn't constable because in the Foxy Mystery series, she's a detective. So I decided to go back and yeah, exactly. So I went back and wrote her origin story. So the Opal Fields are actually a detective Jenny Williams origin story. And so because she was already a character that I was attracted to, I really liked her as a person. I really liked her as a detective. I wanted to go back and discover.
really for me, because I'm a discovery writer, discover who Jenny was and why she became a detective. And that's where the Opal Fields came from. And I went like, where am I going to set these series? And the outback seemed like the right spot to set her. And because I'd been to Coober Pedy for a family camping trip, it just seemed like the right spot because I knew the area well enough to be able to immerse myself in it.
Amra Pajalic (02:30)
Yeah, and like that's the what I love about it because I have not been to the Northern Territory. I think, you know, when everyone thinks of Australia, they think of the red earth, Northern Territory. Kuba Pete is fascinating because it's a mining town and it's so hot and people actually live under the ground and you bring that to life so well. I I love that part of it. And and that's also part of the in a sense because you've got a
Fiona (02:49)
Yep.
Thank you.
Amra Pajalic (02:56)
worldwide readership it's not just Australian readers who are following you you have got you know so many readers all over the world how's that been like them engaging with that part of it
Fiona (03:09)
Well, I mean I didn't set out to just write Australian crime fiction for Australia. I deliberately marketed it towards the American and UK market. I actually thought the UK market would pick it up more than the American market, but the American market is the second biggest market for me. I mean for a lot of writers who write international mystery and crime that's based in the UK or America, the US would probably make up a lot bigger percentage of that.
But about half my readership is Australian or just under. And about a quarter of it is US. And that turned out to be bigger than the UK market, which was a surprise to me. But maybe that's more to do with the size of the market than it is to do with the style of the writing. And also, I think because the Australian outback, although it's Aussie and I do it in a quintessentially Aussie fashion, it still appeals to people from the urban parts of, from the rural parts of America.
because they can still relate to the use the trucks, the hats, the boots, the rodeo, the whole feel for it. They can relate to that and there's plenty of mining and oil mining and rigging out in the central parts of the US as well.
Amra Pajalic (04:19)
Mm. And you are full time author now, and that
Is so amazing because there's not many people that can claim to be doing that, where this is all you do, the full-time business, and you're able to also talk about the market because you're publishing your own books, you're doing everything, and so you know what something that surprised you about this whole journey that you've gone through with self-publishing and creating your own business in a sense.
Fiona (04:51)
think
my advantage is I've been self-employed for a very long time. So coming from one business to another business to another business, I talk about my working in male-dominated industries. 90 % of that was industries that I was self-employed with. So I ran a wood-turning factory, I farmed, I had a retail business in water sports. So all of those kinds of things are very similar running businesses that you've got a product and you need to find out who you're going to sell it to.
make sure that product meets that market, but also you're building a community around that. So particularly with the water sports business we used to have and writing, there's so many similarities because it's about getting to know the people within that community and making sure that you're delivering what they want. And so I think that for me, there wasn't a major surprise about the business side of it. I think trying to find the right product for the market so that I knew that people would
be keen to buy it, keen to read it, keen to read the next one. That was the bit that was surprising and that's what took some time and that's why I'm full time now. But obviously all those other books that I've written, the fantasy, the biblical fantasy, the epic mythological fantasy, the historical fantasy, all the different things I tried that kind of didn't work for me. They actually do sell okay now, but they were difficult to market.
And what it comes down to when it comes to breaking into the self-publishing industry, it's you have to have a product that you can market and make some financial gain from in order to invest in more product.
Amra Pajalic (06:22)
Mm.
I think that's the hardest thing for us as as writers, because you know you're coming in it from that business sense and you're able to really articulate that really well. I'm coming into it as a writer and traditionally published also where everything was done for me, I was one of the chosen ones, la la la, and now I'm entering it and having to apply that business sense. and it's something that I'm really struggling with. How are are some of the ways that you have
have created that community and found readers.
Fiona (06:54)
So I think one of the things I needed to understand was that there's a bit of a system to writing as a self-published author. We can't rely on the big mega media that are traditionally published top five, know, Chris Hammer and a Dervler and all of those authors within the genre that I'm in. They have a publicity machine pushing along behind them. know, their entire schedule is set out for them. They've got all these events that they need to go to.
As an independent author, you can't rely on that. So you need to kind of build a smaller community that you can rely on to, in my case, I've got advanced readers. I can always rely on those to pick up any last minute typos that would normally be picked up by traditional publishing proofreaders that I'm not paying. My advanced reader team are gold. I have quite a few in there that are ex-teachers or people that are very close on their detail.
They'll pick up any last minute typos that myself and my editors might have missed. And they'll also be the first to review the product before it even goes live as an ebook. They're often jumping straight into Goodreads or they're jumping into the paperback when it goes live on Amazon. So I think part of it is also creating that system where it does become a bit of a system. You don't want to get bogged down with that because you don't want it to drain your creativity. But understanding that there's a process.
to going through to publishing your books. You you've got your beta readers, you've got your advanced readers, your advanced readers are, you know, doing a little bit of the promoting for you. They are the community, they're the people that kind of guide you about how well you're writing and whether you're, you know, waffling off in the wrong direction or whether you need to come back or, you know, and I think the biggest compliment you can get is your latest book is your best book. You know, if every time you send out to your advanced reader team, they go, oh my God, I think this is the best book you've ever written. You go like, yes.
Like, so I think, I think that having that community around you, they're doing what the traditional industry would normally be doing for you. They're helping you along the way and they're doing it willingly. Just all they get is a book free early, you know, and they're willing to give themselves and their time for that. And I think as an author or an independent author, you have to respect that and building that community means that it's a two way street. You know, you're giving to them, but they're also giving to you and recognizing that is really important.
Amra Pajalic (09:11)
Yeah, and one thing that I was struck by, you know, 'cause you keep referring to it as product, which I I actually am gonna try and do that from now on. That really kind of takes that emotion out of it where it just becomes, you know, about the marketing because you know, the writing is when we've got our soul into it, but then once it's finished you do need to get that emotion out of it and think of it as a product. So was your decision to move from fantasy and the
biblical epic series into crime made because you could see possible you know potential for sales.
Fiona (09:45)
Yeah, for sure. when I first started indie publishing, was off the original entry point of 2007, but I started writing in 2007 when everyone was first hitting Kindle with this, know, Kindle came out, nobody knew what it was, and I went, oh, this is a good opportunity. It took me ages to write that first book. And the book I first wrote was a bit of a cathartic experience for me because I'd come from working with social services, I'd come from working with disadvantaged communities.
the church, the councils, the government funding, and I was a little bit disillusioned. So the biblical fantasy that I wrote basically tore apart what I was going through and I chucked it into that series. So that series was not saleable in itself. And it took me, was part of the writing process. A lot of writers will write and not publish, and they will just keep writing until they think they've got the right thing. But for me, I needed to put it out into the marketplace to see what.
feedback I was getting, whether it was the writing that was bad, the content that was bad, the style that was bad, what was going on with it. And I let the audience tell me I'd failed or achieved something. And so when I did the Foxy Mystery series, my advanced reader team was small, but they were positive about that series. And that's when I first started to get an indication that I was on the right track, not just for what was written to market, but for how I wrote in a way that would be marketable.
So I often say to people, it's not about writing to market, it's about writing to market your way. So you're not actually just meeting, you're not reading a book and going, I need to write something like this, because you're gonna try and write something that isn't really your style of writing. For me, it was a case of me learning how to write something that was me, but also that would meet the market. And that's when I knew kind of Jenny would be that person, Jenny would be that book, the Opal Field series would be that book. But yeah, I...
deliberately stopped writing for really for about six months and studied the marker and went, how can I write something that I can write it my way emotionally express what I want to express, but in a way that's marketable and tangible for me to get and make a living out of this. And that's when the Opal Field series was born. So it was deliberate. Yeah.
Amra Pajalic (11:56)
I I love how you're talking about that where it's like you can't just write something cynically that you don't care about and that you're not passionate about. You still need to have that that that is your interest and and that is something that you want to do. But you can think strategically in terms of genre. and I think many of us who are indie publishing, we have are trying different genres because we like reading all sorts of things.
and we experiment and try and and send things out into the world and see what happens.
Fiona (12:24)
Yeah, and I think it's the thing about being an indie is a lot of people say, I don't get bored if I just write the same thing over and over again, but you're not writing the same thing over and over again. If you are, then you're doing it wrong because each book should be, you know, it might be about the same characters, but each book should be an evolution of that character's life. It should be another experience that is thrown at them that they weren't expecting that.
they have to now deal with, they have to be growing constantly through the series of a book. So if you feel like your character is getting stale or you feel like your storylines are getting stale, they are. Because you need to kind of go, well, where do we go through from here? How do I make this exciting for me to write? And if it's exciting for me to write, then it should be an evolution of your character or your world that you've built, whether it be fantasy or reality.
Amra Pajalic (12:58)
Mm.
Fiona (13:13)
You're still building a world, you're still building a community within your story. And the temptation to keep changing genres is really people trying to find their stride. It's not so much that they need to change the genre, they might just need to change what's going on within the genre. I I've changed genres because I realized that I was writing fantasy, but I was writing it more like a mystery.
Amra Pajalic (13:35)
Yes.
Fiona (13:36)
So my fantasies are mysteries. I went, it took me a little while to realize that my fantasy stories were actually mysteries or missions, so to speak. And then I realized that I was better off doing that in my real world setting so that I could actually draw on things that were around me rather than just make them up. Because some people are brilliant at making up things from scratch and other people are better at drawing from the world around them. And for me, I'm one of those people who can
spot things and draw lines and join dots that maybe other people aren't doing, but I'm not great at creating from scratch. And that's why I realised fantasy was the wrong genre, because it's world building. It's not taking a world that you already know and building on top of it. And that's where I realised that I was in the wrong genre.
Amra Pajalic (14:24)
Yeah, that's one thing that I really got out of the Opal Fields and following Jenny's journey. How in each book there is a depth of characterisation and that
growth occurring. and you are actually, I think, finishing and then and you're you've got an there's a character that we have met during the Opal Fields that you're going to be writing now. is this you you sort of had a story arc in your head for Jenny and and that was fulfilled or
Fiona (14:53)
Well, that's a funny story because I had a story arc for the Opal Fields of six books. So it was supposed to stop at six books. But when I got to the end of the six books, I had emails from readers saying, no, no, no, no, no, you haven't finished this part of the story off. We want to know more about these people. And I went, OK, well, I've got to come up with a new story arc. So I came up with a new story arc of three books, which is where we're on now. I've just released the ninth book in the series.
At book six, I had a spin off series, which was the Dawn Grave series. So Dawn Grave is introduced in book six of the Opal Fields series, which you haven't read yet. And then I created the spin off of Dawn Grave, but then my readers wanted more Opal Fields. So I went back and did more Opal Fields. So we now have three, but I really, because I've explained the Foxy Mystery series that I wrote myself into the corner, she has to become a detective.
Amra Pajalic (15:27)
Right.
Fiona (15:46)
She's Detective Jenny Williams. She isn't Constable Jenny Williams forever. So I was like, how do I bring her out of the Opal Fields into her own new series that is about her being a detective? And to do that, I created a new series called the Detective Jenny Williams series. And the first book of that is On Barren Ground. So it's still about Jenny. So anyone who's followed Jenny's journey is going to want to know what happens to her next.
they also some of them have already read forward or backwards to the Foxy Mystery series so they know where she ended up at one point. So On Barren Ground is the first book after the Foxy Mystery series. So just note to everybody out there watching plan your series a little bit better than I did because
Amra Pajalic (16:31)
No, listening to you.
yeah, 'cause you know, I'm writing my first series and I'm I'm writing book six, book four is now finished and being published you know, in a couple of weeks. And so that's something that I was really worried about because, you know, doing a series and sort of planning all of it, and as you said, now you've got sort of the end for Jenny and and you have to, you know, that that is it. whereas in one sense there are advantages.
Fiona (16:58)
Yeah.
Amra Pajalic (17:01)
And and there are a lot of crime series where readers we just love the characters and we just want to keep following the characters. So I love how you've elegantly figured that out, where you're pass passing the baton onto her friend Penny and Dawn Grave and that you've got, you know, all of these different ways that you're you're pursuing that. It's it's
Fiona (17:23)
Yeah, so mean, it's still
it's still going to be Jenny's story. It's just that I needed to get her out of Cooberpedia and into Adelaide. But without spoilers, she's not there. She's not there for very long. but there's but the idea was that I need you know, I'd already written the Foxy Mystery series. Jenny was a popular character. Jenny became the lead character in the Opal Field series. Everyone loves Jenny.
but she had to leave Coover Pee Dee because anyone who'd read the Foxy Mystery series knew that. So this was my way of bringing her back around. But it wasn't my intention when I set out, I didn't realize how to plan series as well as I do now. So now when I plan out a series, I'm thinking further in advance. I'm thinking about the evolution of this story. When I do have a spin-off character or a spin-off series, it's a bit better and more organized in its planning phase.
Amra Pajalic (18:10)
Yeah, you've done brilliant. What I'm doing to avoid some of this is I'm setting each book one year later where I'm like, I'm just gonna move things along. And I can already see some characters where I'm like, I want to do things with them. so now I'm thinking about, I can't have them too much. and and yeah, tie myself down just in case, because I I have ideas for what I might might want to do.
Yeah, one of the things I love that you're doing in this this is what a lot of indie authors do is is investigating ways to you know exploit your intellectual property. So you've got the ebooks and the paper books, you also produce your series as audiobooks and I'm actually listening to Opal Field's the audiobook. And I find when I make I I start something in a certain format, I have to continue it in that format, and so I'm really
Addicted to the audiobooks, and we also met at the adaptable wards that Queensland Writer Centre runs where you were pitching Opal Fields, I was pitching my book for adaptation. So, what have you learned through that process in terms of thinking about all the different ways to exploit?
Fiona (19:24)
Yeah, I mean, I've already got translations out for the Opel Field series in French, German and Italian. The Dawn Graves series is out in French and German. And I'm actually in conversation with somebody at the moment that might be picking up the banner to take these series to further languages and further options. The audiobooks I commissioned myself for the Opel Field series.
just as I commissioned them, was contacted by Alvers Croft about the books. And I said, well, I've already started doing audio for this series. I think I'll just continue it. But I've got a new series coming out. Did they want to look at it? So when I started the Dawn Graves series, I got a couple of books into it. They picked up the first two books. Unfortunately, they haven't picked up the rest, which has actually left me a little bit.
high and dry and a little bit annoyed that I signed them to a third party. I should have just produced them myself. So note to self, I actually have a contract with a solicitor at the moment. Do not sign any agreements without putting it past a lawyer. And the lawyer costs lots of money, but ultimately it's probably worth it. Because, you know, if I had realised that they wouldn't pick up the rest of that series, I never would have signed it.
And it turns out that that's how they've operated in this particular environment because the Australian market has changed and they are pulling a lot of their audio out of the Australian market and the Australian label. And because partly because they don't put the books with the Borrow Box and Libby, which is where realistically most of the Australian libraries are getting most of their books from is the Borrow Box and Libby.
So the Opal Field series is all available and they're constantly being released. The last one is in production at the moment. They're available through Libby and Borrow Box, but the Dawn Grave series isn't, but we're working on that one. So hopefully we'll get that sorted and then I'll get the rest of the series into production for audio for that one as well.
Amra Pajalic (21:17)
Yeah, that's something that I've been very wary of. I remember having a conversation with someone at a Queensland Writers Centre where I said I chose to publish all of these books. I didn't even pitch it to a publisher because I have heard so many stories from authors who have had that experience because I know that publishers are facing a lot of difficulties and challenges, but you know, they also aren't invested.
And growing, and and that's the issue. And as we can see from you, you have done that investment and growing and you are reaping the dividends. So and I just love also like this is the other thing, you know, as India, the international market. have you had feedback on your like how how are you navigating fans in the international markets and developing that community?
Fiona (22:06)
I'm not putting too much energy into that at the moment, I've got to admit, because it is a huge amount of work to have a separate newsletter or a separate Facebook page or anything like that. do have some of my German market have definitely followed my regular Australian English Facebook and some of them have jumped onto the newsletter because a lot of the German market are actually pretty good at reading English if they want to. And I did find that when I started
putting the translations out, people would probably make me look at the translation and go, you know, I think I could just read this in English. And then I was seeing an uptake in an increase in English purchases of the English version from Germany, not so much from France, but definitely from Germany. So I, my focus is on writing more books, you know, and which is partly why I'm in negotiations at the moment with somebody who might be picking up all of my other foreign rights and.
and also looking at film and TV rights for me so that it's one thing I don't have to think about anymore and I can go back to focusing on just writing more books instead of publishing them. But at the same time, as an independent author, every time I've let go of the reins, it's not necessarily gone the way I planned. So, you know, there comes this point though where you just have to decide if your time writing is more important than your time running the business and
I've gotten to that point where realistically if I want to get my four books out a year or maybe more, which I'm looking at doing, then I need to be focused on my writing and not spend so much time on the business side of things. And there's certain things that I'm willing to let go of the reins on and international rights and the film rights and TV rights, managing of those or sourcing them is one of those things.
Amra Pajalic (23:44)
Mm, yeah, because that's it's so much work because we are a small business and there's only so many hours in the day. And yeah, like the other stuff can be re replaced, someone else can do it, but the writing, you're the only one who can do that. That's your special source. one of the other things that you've been doing recently is you did a Kickstarter for a special edition. So what's some things that you learnt through that process?
Fiona (23:50)
Exactly.
So yeah, the concept of doing the Kickstarter was I wanted to see if I could find a new reading audience through Kickstarter. I've long known that a lot of the fantasy authors are building their brand through Kickstarter. And I knew that it had legs for fantasy, but I just wanted to see what its potential was for crime or Australian crime. I'm yet to analyze the details because the Kickstarter's only just closed.
It is open for late pledges, so people might be jumping on to get some late pledging. But at the moment, I wanted to analyse the figures, send out a survey and find out just how many people had come from my existing readership to buy those special editions and whether those special editions had lured anybody else in from the Kickstarter community that may never have read my books before. So that was part of the reason behind it. And also, I just wanted to find out what the appetite was for special editions.
you know, hardback, sprayed edges, extra, you know, end pages with more graphics. I wanted to find out what the appetite for the crime fiction genre was for special editions. And I was quite surprised that there was a market for it. So moving forward, it's kind of put in my head that I may start doing some limited edition box sets of the Opal Field series. Now that's finished, I can do some omnibuses of the first three, the second, you know, second group, the third group.
and maybe put them into limited editions that I might sell off of my website. They won't go into the wider market, but they'll sell off my website and they'll sell at live events and maybe give them away some, just some gifts and things like that for readers. that was, was, it was a test for me. I'm not necessarily going to be jumping back in to do another Kickstarter. It was very, not necessarily hugely profitable, but it was definitely successful.
in that we more than doubled the funding goal that we were aiming for. So I'm pretty happy with that. But it was more for me was to test the market. That's what it was for.
Amra Pajalic (25:59)
I love that how you're doing the both the creative and and then constantly always like, let's test this and let's figure out and doing the analysis and really sort of being led by that side of it. one thing that I've also noticed is you do quite a few library events and so you actually really cultivate that. is that something that you take on yourself or you have contacts?
Fiona (26:21)
They kind of happen organically, to start off with, I asked my readers, said like, know, just on Facebook, said, hey guys, I'm heading down this way to do something. You know, if you've got a library in that area between here and here that you want me to come and see, then just get the librarian to contact me through the website and I'll see if I can fit that in. So I kind of let the readers drive that.
I was also contacted by a couple of libraries, regional libraries that had a lot of my books being borrowed out. And then they said, you know, could I come and visit? The most recent growth of that has been I attended the Capricorn Festival in Queensland last, not this winter, last winter. And I met up with the librarian team, the library team at the event.
We just chatted and we chatted about the books and they asked me if I could visit on the way back down because I was heading north. So I already had a Mossman Port Douglas visit organised and on the way back down I called into Yapoon at the Livingston Library and we had a huge event. It was packed, it was fully booked out. It was really good and they've given me a bigger venue this year and they've also spoken with some of the other libraries in the area who've asked me to visit as well.
So I'm really looking forward to getting to that event, those events in that region, because I know I've got readers there. And I was the 15th most popular borrowed book, author out of their library this year. Annie Seton was second, mind you. But yeah, was 15th. Lee Childs only just beat me. I mean, I was pretty okay with that. But so yeah, the whole idea is that
Amra Pajalic (27:48)
That's pretty cool though. That's that's a huge
Fiona (27:58)
In Australia, obviously we have the public lending rights. So if your books are being borrowed through libraries, you do ultimately get paid for it. So the visits I do, I don't charge for because libraries are always on short budgets. I don't need to be charging for them. I'm usually traveling through the area. So I call in, have a chat, show my books, sell a few books to the local readers.
and also encourage the libraries to actually keep my books, which means then eventually we get some funding through from the public lending rights as well.
Amra Pajalic (28:25)
And the exciting thing is they have expanded public and electronic lending rights. So now it's also the audiobooks. so as you were talking about earlier with the Libby box and you know borrow box, like people being able to borrow the audiobooks, the e-books, and we get paid through those well, which are great opportunities.
Fiona (28:42)
Yeah, and I mean, I've been in Kindle Unlimited for quite some time and they've just, obviously, like you said, they've allowed us to put our books into libraries as well, which we weren't allowed to do for quite some time. So that's become another income stream. But it does lead me to the point where Amazon's Kindle Unlimited system, as financially viable as it is, I recently had a banned.
temporarily and I did get it back up. It took over a week and it was in the middle of a Kindle deal cycle and it caused me all sorts of grief. So it has made me rethink the All In With Kindle Unlimited policy which look, know, it's been extremely profitable. It's been the best way to go to start my career up and get to a point where I could write full time. But now I really strategically have to consider.
the future of my writing business and part of that is to maybe take some of my series wide. So I'll be looking at options to do that. Probably releasing Ink in the Lung Limited from my existing readership so that they all get a 90 day period to read them and then moving them into a wide audience.
Amra Pajalic (29:46)
Yeah, and that's the thing with you know, indie authors, like we've got so many options, and which is the best option and I was very heartbroken to follow that whole saga for you, because you know, that's been a great success for you and then they decided that because all of your titles you have a formula in a sense that you use the same sort of wording for them, which works great for the marketing and
it looks beautiful on the covers. but they decided that one one of your new books was the same as a previous book.
Fiona (30:21)
No,
it's actually really even more bizarre than that. It's the first book of the Dawn Grave series that they believed that book was a copy of Her Buried Bones, which is the first book of a totally different series. So it's extreme. was extremely bizarre. I have no idea how the bots even got that one confused and we still don't know what we did to trigger it. So it's nothing to do with the fact that all my grave series is called Grave. It was Her Buried Bones. They believed I've republished it as Grave Regret.
Amra Pajalic (30:41)
Yeah.
Fiona (30:49)
So, quite bizarre, but it's something that happens occasionally. The bots get something wrong, something triggered it. It just takes time to get it sorted out. And we did get it sorted out. And I want to thank the Alliance of Independent Authors because without them, that would have been a very, very difficult battle. But they were very, very quick to jump in and mark the project as urgent and try and get that sorted out. And without them, I don't think we would have managed it. So yeah, good on them.
Amra Pajalic (31:15)
And they're a great resource for anyone who's wanting to enter our world as an Indian author. and great advocates for authors as as we navigate all these new paths, because they've even got like contract samples and you know, so presumably when you were doing your audio books, you know, that that would have been a source for contracts and templates and stuff.
Fiona (31:19)
for sure.
Yeah, the audiobook contracts are pretty straightforward. It's just that I got caught out a little bit in that I didn't realise that the publishers that I was going through were expecting the earn back on MP3s and CD sales, which in this market is not such a great benchmark. So although it's doing exceptionally well in ebook format, sorry, in audio lending format,
or MP3 light through audible. It's doing very well there. It's doing very well in large print because large print has earned out very quickly. It's not earned out in MP3 CDs, which isn't really a surprise in the current market.
Amra Pajalic (32:13)
No, that's
that's obsolete. you know, I'm sort of going back old school now and collecting DVDs and I'm collecting these. I do. I actually do because I'm I'm getting I've got all of the streamers, but I I have a lot of nostalgia watches, you know, a lot of things that I like re-watching and it drives me crazy when I I want a certain thing and I can't find it.
Fiona (32:18)
I've got boxes of them if you want them.
Yep.
And he can't find.
Amra Pajalic (32:39)
And and then also, you know, like where where it jumps, everything's jumping all the time. So I'm just getting to the point where I'm like, no, I want I want my own stuff. Yeah, yeah. so it's it's a very yeah, like the technology is constantly changing. You've been through a lot of the changes and and you keep adapting and and that's also sort of what I'm getting through all this is that
Fiona (32:47)
in the election.
Amra Pajalic (33:02)
You have to keep adapting in the indie world and have to keep trying new things and and experimenting.
Fiona (33:09)
Yeah,
I mean, there's no there's no set and forget in any in any business. I don't think, you know, the whole idea that we can write a book on this passive income is not true. Realistically, when you write a book and you put it out into the world, be prepared to republish it or recover it or do whatever it takes to, you know, to get it where it needs to be. But and also, like you said, lots of different formats. But, you know, I will write a book.
I will then put that book aside while it's going through editing. I'm already pre-planning and I've pre-put up the next book in that series. So the cover, the blurb are already ready. By the time that book launches, it has to have the next book in the series ready to pre-order. Otherwise you lose your momentum. So there's lots of processes that have to go in place. But yeah, you do have to be adapting. You do have to be looking at covers and ensuring that they're up to current market trends because they're changing all the time as well.
So, you it is an ever evolving industry that we do need to keep our finger on the pulse of.
Amra Pajalic (34:06)
What's something that you know anyone who is looking to enter this world in terms of being indie pa an indie author, what are some things that you would give them advice on?
Fiona (34:17)
I think the first thing I would say is to really study the genre that you think that you want to write in. And by studying I mean read the top, grab the top 20 of any sub-genre you think it applies to you. Read them and find out which of those authors you like reading. Because if you like reading them, and you find them fast-paced or you find them, you know, maybe you don't like fast-paced, maybe you like slow and steady and you like a really absorbed plot.
If that's what you want, then you need to find those authors and you need to kind of work out how you can write similar to them. You must write similar to them for you to like them. So what I did when I wasn't really sure what was going on with my career is I started reading the top 20 of the sub genres I thought I wrote in and I identified a couple of authors within those genres that I loved reading. just like flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. I'm reading these pages and I've got a really short attention span.
So I'm reading these authors thinking, I really like these books. that kind of, for me, that said, I probably write similar to them because I was really enjoying them. So then I broke them down a little bit like, you know, save the cat writes a novel. I broke them down and went, what are the story beats? What are the themes in these books that I'm drawn to? And how do I put them in my books? And that's kind of what I would say to people who aren't sure on the craft side of it.
When you're, if you're an indie author starting out for the very first time, get an advanced reader team or some beta teams on board because you know it doesn't matter how wonderful you think you are, you really need to make sure that the market agrees with you. You're not just surrounded by two or three relatives that say oh that's a lovely book. You really want to know what the actual industry is thinking about how you're writing and how you need to adjust that.
Cause I've seen a few people that have gone, you know, we just have to rapid release. If you rapid release, you'll make money. And they're rapid releasing books that aren't popular and aren't selling. And then they're getting very, very disillusioned. make sure rapid release definitely works, but make sure that you're writing the right book to rapid release. That's, know, for me, was where I, once I rapid released the Opal Field series, I didn't do it without knowing that my advanced reader team were actually begging for the next book.
because they were doing that I knew that I'd finally hit a stride. So I did rapid release to get the Opal Field series started. But yeah, think studying the market and understanding this is a job. If you start doing this as a job, you need to meet deadlines, you need to run to a schedule. Or if you don't want to do it as a job and you just want to be an author and you don't mind getting one book out a year and just plotting along and not making a living out of it.
That's fine. That's absolutely perfect. But understand where you what your aspiration is before you start. Because if you want to make a living out of being an author you are going to need to work at it. I don't work full time but I certainly work at this every day for at least three hours a day. And then I go do something else.
Amra Pajalic (37:12)
Mm. And do you like in terms of your series, you they've kind of some of them have all finished like the the Jenny series had to for a certain thing. Do you th do they naturally finish for you where you're like I think I've I've done what I need to do and you've got your next idea or how how does that happen for you?
Fiona (37:33)
when the pre-orders drop off.
Amra Pajalic (37:34)
my gosh, you are so ruthless. I need to adopt more of this from you. Okay, please expand on that.
Fiona (37:43)
Well, not entirely. I mean, I get a natural sense of when a series is drawing to a close. I also, you know, I survey my readers how many books is too many books. You know, you get the occasional person that says there's never too many books in a series, but the majority of people will say six to ten, you know, is a good number in a series. You get the occasional one, the Josie Quinn series that's gone on for like 26 books. Who is it that's written A to Z? I can't remember who it is.
Amra Pajalic (38:09)
Yes.
Fiona (38:09)
Yeah, so, know, and you know, if you're a, I can't remember her name, I'll take that one that happens. But you know, know, Patricia Cornwall with her, you know, Scapere, you know, they can go on forever. But most people will say that they've gotten, you know, certain series have gotten stale. So, you know, don't flog a dead horse for me is pre-orders and my final indicator. So if I feel like I'm kind of getting to the stage where I'm not getting bored of the characters, but I'm getting
Board of the World or I think I've taken most of the characters as far as I can take them. Mind you, I do always constantly try and keep a little bit of a plot line open so that there's somewhere to go. But I think that naturally books come, the series will come to an end. But having set up some spin-off series or having set up where you're gonna go next is part of the business side of it. But yeah, maintaining momentum and seeing an increase or at least a steady pre-order number.
is an indicator that the series is still appealing to majority of your readers. If those pre-orders drop off and you're not getting people going straight on to the next book saying, I've got to have the next book, well then your story arc is failing or your character development is starting to lag. You can give it another go and have another book and see if you can bring those orders back up again, or you can just accept that that might be the end of the series and it's time to move on to something else.
Amra Pajalic (39:26)
Yeah, I love I love the way that you're thinking about that, because I'm I'm still sort of flailing and figuring it out, but you are such a veteran now with so many series. and and I love the brilliance of what you're doing in terms of the interconnected
Fiona (39:39)
book.
Amra Pajalic (39:40)
Mm, yeah, and and that's the fun about being an author. Like we do fall in love with our characters, we do want to, you know, tell them that there are surprises that sneak up on us too. And like you, I'm a discovery writer, so that's the s that's what I live for. It's those little surprises where I'm like, that's interesting. Let's see those. but yes, you kind of write yourself into a corner. so just where can readers find you and information about you and your books?
Fiona (39:50)
Yeah.
Hahaha
Pretty much all my links are on my website, so fionatar.com. So that's the easiest spot to go to. But if you search Fiona Tarr in Facebook, TikTok or Instagram, you'll find me there too. And obviously on Amazon.
Amra Pajalic (40:19)
Lovely. And you're very prolific on Facebook and that's where a lot of your community is. are you on Instagram too? I sort of see more of Facebook.
Fiona (40:27)
Yeah, no Instagram, Instagram, I've recently started working a lot more on Instagram because it was actually quite funny. Facebook said to me, you have to do more video content. And I went, well, if I'm going to do more video content, I might as well do TikTok. so you'll find me on TikTok now as well. So, and yeah, and TikTok videos, lenders lend themselves to going on Instagram as well. So it's just part of the whole circle of marketing that you end up doing.
Amra Pajalic (40:41)
Yeah.
Yeah, 'cause it's all about repurposing content and sort of trying to get as much as you can from that one thing 'cause we are so time poor. We've got so many things that we need to do. So yeah, it's about trying to be as clever as possible.
Fiona (40:56)
Yep.
Amra Pajalic (41:04)
Well I want thank you so much for coming and talking to me. I have learned so much from this conversation. so that has been absolutely wonderful and and I hope that other emerging writers out there have also, you know, gotten a lot from from the lessons and from what you've shared and your generosity.
Fiona (41:23)
Thanks for having me. It's been great chatting with you anytime.
Amra Pajalic (41:26)
Thank you. All right.