Christoffer Petersen

Authentic Arctic Thrillers

indie author

Greenland Noir – podcast

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Something a little different today. I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for a podcast with the hosts of Book Lover’s Companion.

It was great fun and Edith and Teacup were generous hosts. We covered a lot of ground – most of it covered in snow – as we talked a lot about Greenland and the inspiration for my stories, and the Greenland Missing Persons series in particular.

And I tease a lot more information from my background, and more personal Greenland experiences, of course.

I also talk about being an indie author, and air my thoughts on what it takes to make a career outside of traditional publishing.

I hope you’ll join us for Episode 45 – Greenland Noir: Talking Murder and Fishy Business with Christoffer Petersen.

 

Hmm… as Maratse would say

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Yep, I have an idea what you might be thinking. It could be that zombies don’t fit with Christmas (now there’s an idea). Or it could be that zombies don’t fit with what I usually write. Or something along the lines of wtf?

I’ll go with the last one.

This is me, playing around and experimenting with 3D art, which is really more along the lines of graphic design. I put the “assets” together, change some colours, angles, poses, expressions, angle of eyes, position of lips, cameras, lighting – pretty much everything, and then I render the image.

After that, I open it in Photoshop for post work, play with the contrast, some filters, add smoke, add dust (in this case snow with a low opacity setting), remove the stuff that I missed or couldn’t fix in the render, add some more contrast, remove the contrast, then flatten the image and save it.

Voila!

Kind of.

This is what I do when not writing and editing or running – note to self, I need to run more!

2021 has been about two things for me:

Translations (thanks Françoise and Ewa!)

and Graphic Design (a.k.a. covers)

I’ve always done my own covers (give or take a few paid commissions) and now I’m ready to really do my own covers. I’ve mentioned before that I hope to provide pre-made covers for other indie authors, as well as making my own.

My biggest problem is always going to be “letting go” of each cover, as the story that goes with everything I make is already turning in my head.

Oh well.

We’ll see what happens.

Chris

P.S.

Coming soon (including more artwork) … meaning tomorrow – Advent Sunday!

Nothing is impossible

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The publishing world has changed drastically since the advent of eBooks. There are thousands of articles and blog posts about the changes, and I’m not going to recap any of them here. But what I will say, as an independent author, is the smartest thing I ever did when flirting with the traditional publishing world was to keep my English rights for the books they were interested in.

I’d like to take credit for that smart move, but I must confess that at the time, I was ready to go all in, and sign over everything, because I believed I had finally made it. An editor from a big French publisher reached out after finding me on Amazon. They were interested in my books, but they would only deal with an agent. I found a reputable agency in Copenhagen, and I’m guessing having a publisher in my back pocket might have worked in my favour, and I was invited to meet them in the big city. I took my bag of books – I think I had five at the time – and I went off to make my fortune.

Sitting on the train, I felt like I was in a Disney movie, with my bag of books clutched to my chest. It was fun. I was excited about the prospects of becoming a ‘real author’. There was a tiny part of my brain that urged caution, and reminded me of everything I had achieved already as an indie author, but I ignored it. I was ready.

To cut a long story short, after the initial meeting and a tiny bit of haggling about commission rates, I accepted and the agency said they would send the contract to be signed.

The Chestnut Man got in the way.

Yep, that Chestnut Man.

Basically, the agency was swamped, understandably so, with putting the finishing touches on that book, and my contract took a little while to arrive. In the meantime, that voice urging caution got louder and louder, and when the contract did come, I renegotiated and pulled my English rights, leaving the agency to represent my foreign and film rights only. My English rights were my only source of income, so I kind of needed them. Prior to pulling those rights back the agency suggested I return to teaching.

This was in 2018.

I quit my teaching job in December 2017, wrote Seven Graves, One Winter in January/February 2018, published it on Valentine’s Day, got spotted in March, signed in June.

However, the French realised they already had a “Greenland Crime” book in their catalogue, and they pulled out. But during that time Françoise contacted me. She was a translator and had heard about the French interest in Seven Graves, One Winter, and was keen to translate it. But of course that particular deal fell apart. And with no other French interest, so did the opportunity for translation.

Fast forward to February 2021.

I was getting more and more disillusioned with traditional publishing, and considered quitting my agency contract to be truly independent once more. I reached out to Françoise. Was she still interested? And would she like to translate Petra’s Greenland Missing Persons series? They were not on the agency’s books, and therefore not bound to any contract or commission.

I think you can see where this is going, but I’m really excited to say she was interested, and today I published the fifth French translation in the Greenland Missing Persons: Le Piège de l’Hiver. Françoise is currently working on the sixth book in the series. You can find the others here. You’ll also see a Polish edition – more about that later. 🙂

When dealing with the traditional world of publishing, you’re often told about the things that are impossible to do as an independent author. Getting indie books translated was one of those things. Well, when you find the right person, and you both agree on the terms, then nothing is impossible.

One of my favourite books is Michael Asher’s Impossible Journey. It’s a fabulous true-life account of a husband and wife crossing the Sahara with camels. Michael Asher is one of my heroes and I was fortunate to meet him and his wife, photographer Mariantonietta Peru, at a lecture in Glasgow. In the book, Asher visits a French explorer to pick his brains about desert travel. What Théodore Monod said has stuck with me ever since I first read it: … nothing is impossible. Only, some things are difficult.

That quote and that attitude has been my mantra for as long as I can remember. It’s gotten me this far, at least. However, I’d like to add something to that quote and change it slightly to:

Nothing is impossible. Only, some things are difficult, but with the right help, many things can be easier.

I got the right help with my French translations.

Thanks, Françoise!

Chris