Activated Authors

#022: Craig Falconer – Lessons in writing Sci-Fi, modeling specific success, and quality versus quantity.

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Craig A. Falconer is a bestselling Scottish novelist, specializing in science fiction. He has written several widely popular series in his career, including the Not Alone series, Terradox series, and the Sycamore series.


In this episode we go deep into:

  • What it feels like to win a ‘Best Dressed’ at a ceilidh
  • Advantages of leveraging a box set
  • Changing your mindset from minimum work to maximum output
  • Importance of specializing in one ad platform instead of trying to juggle them all
  • Best ways to market a box set
  • Modeling specific success
  • Finding your ideal writing routine
  • Going beyond what you believe you’re capable of (writing 113,000 in 13 days)
  • How speed can help the quality of your writing
  • Tips to increase your odds of creating a runaway success
  • Studying trends across mediums to find what could sell
  • Knowing your genre inside and out
  • Craig’s research process
  • Capitalizing on emotional resonance and playing with contrasting lines
  • Sticking in your own lane and abiding by your own pace
  • Working with agents on your audio deals
  • Taking risks and thinking outside of the box to secure success (with audiobooks)


    • Craig answers questions from Patrons:

    • Jenn Mitchell: What kinds of things did you do to deal with the pressure of trying to write the next few books following such a huge initial success?
  • Mark McClure: Do you plot, pants, or dance between the two?


    • Find out more about Craig:

    facebook.com/CraigAFalconer

    Craig’s Facebook group


    Links from the show:

    www.danielwillcocks.com

    www.facebook.com/groups/greatwritersshare

    Not Alone by Craig A Falconer


    Special thanks to:

    Intro vocals: Persephone Rose

    Show theme: Karl Hughes


    Become a Patron of the show! Get exclusive bonus content, find your tribe, and get early access to all episodes.

    Thank you to my patrons:

    David Hines

    Harley Christensen

    Jon Cronshaw

    Jenn Mitchell

    Innes Richens

    Ian J Middleton

    PT Hylton

    Michael Anderle

    Jerry Evanoff

    Mark McClure


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