Craig A. Falconer used to believe that anyone writing 10,000 words a day had to be producing garbage. Then a deadline forced his hand: he needed 113,000 words in thirteen days, hit 14,500 words in a single 19-hour sitting, and came out the other side with what his beta readers called his favorite chapters yet. It's a blunt challenge to a belief a lot of writers hold onto — including, until recently, Craig himself.
Craig A. Falconer is a bestselling Scottish science fiction novelist behind the Not Alone series, the Teradox series, and the Sycamore series. His debut breakout, Not Alone, launched in December 2015 and became a runaway hit that's sustained his career for years — including a six-figure Audible advance built by pitching three books as a single trilogy deal instead of negotiating one at a time.
We get into the deliberate, research-heavy engineering behind Not Alone's breakout success — from choosing \"aliens in a contemporary setting\" as a crossover-friendly subject to reverse-engineering optimal chapter length from bestselling comps — and how a single trip to the 20Books Edinburgh conference reshaped his entire production and marketing strategy. We also talk candidly about the reality of a 10,000-word-a-day writing sprint, why he deliberately used 2D covers for his box sets against industry convention, and how \"modeling specific success\" (not general advice) became his core strategy for every major decision in his career.
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📚 About Craig A. Falconer
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, the Teradox series, and the Sycamore series.
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