I can honestly say that I have made my living from crime. It started with deception: as a teenager I wrote a gossip column for the school newspaper using the pseudonym Cupid’s Delight. As an adult I graduated onto the hard stuff, and ran an anti-money laundering consultancy for twenty-five years, advising banks, law firms, casinos and the like on how to spot and deal with criminal proceeds. I became truly obsessed by financial crime – how it works, and the astonishing lengths to which people will go to in order to preserve and increase their wealth and influence. I wrote and self-published dozens of books on the topic of money laundering but even that wasn’t enough: when I could no longer resist the siren call of trying my hand at writing a novel, financial crime elbowed its way in there too.
I was researching bank fraud and came across the intriguing story of Henry Fauntleroy. A successful London banker, he abused the trust of his clients by stealing their share certificates – which were, at the time, an exciting and rather daring financial innovation. When he was caught he immediately confessed to his crime, despite knowing that in 1824 a crime such as fraud would lead straight to the scaffold. Two questions presented themselves: why did he do it, and why did he confess? And that was the start of Fatal Forgery…
People often ask why I chose to self-publish the Sam Plank books. The honest truth is that I didn’t choose to do it: I had no alternative. When Fatal Forgery was finished I hawked it to about a dozen carefully-chosen agents and publishers. They all replied to my approach with the same response: this is a very good book, well-written, but it won’t sell because no-one is interested in bank fraud. Thankfully the self-publishing world was really opening up at that time and so I decided to ignore them and go ahead anyway. And now that I am a seasoned indie author I’m not sure I could go into traditional publishing, even if they’d have me – I am too spoiled by being able to make all my own decisions rather than having to write to a brief.
Self-publishing also allows me to indulge my inner control-freak by letting my choose my own covers for the books. Note that I say that I choose them – not for one second would I contemplate creating them, when I can call on the services of the marvellous Andrew and Rebecca at Design for Writers. They have created every single one of my gorgeous book covers, and I try to smile sweetly when readers say that their favourite part of a book is the cover.
If you’re still curious about my books, my writing or me, I have put together some FAQs on the Ask Susan page – and you can also send in your own questions for me to ponder.
