In this episode, I’m delighted to welcome Nikolas Allen, a lifelong creative with a background in art, music, and video production, and the author of two non-fiction marketing books. His first fiction novel, ***Juniper Falls***, came out in January 2025. In our conversation, you’ll hear: - Nikolas’ creative history from music, art, film production and marketing (including writing a marketing book for creatives) to becoming a realtor (or estate agent) and finally writing his own fiction - How Nikolas went from discovery writing Juniper Falls (albeit with a lot of structural knowledge) to planning out his current trilogy and the book he recommends for outlining - How to find the time to write your novel - The ‘signature’ technique that Nikolas used in his debut book to create dramatic tension, that he’s continued to use in his second novel - 10 years and 10 drafts - how leaving his book in a drawer for an extended time made the story better in the long run - The number of drafts that Nikolas went through and how he worked with a developmental editor before serialising on Substack before self-publishing - His refreshingly positive attitude to marketing and how he’s used it to promote his book - from advertising to social media. - Nikolas’ writing routine and how he fits that around his day job and the tools he uses to write, format and distribute his books as a self-published author - The super exciting, speculative fiction trilogy that Nikolas is working on now starting with “Surreal Estate”.Watch now | > Find out more about the Behind The Debut podcast here.