Jane Harper shares her secret to becoming a best-selling author
Jane Harper was a business journalist “tapping away at night” on her first novel The Dry. Five years on, that story has sold more than a million copies worldwide and a movie, starring Eric Bana, is soon to be released. So what is her secret to success?
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In five short years Jane Harper’s life has become “unrecognisable”.
As a business reporter, tapping away at the Herald Sun in Melbourne in 2015, little did Harper know her debut novel The Dry was on the cusp of becoming a worldwide hit.
Three top-selling novels later, and with a fourth due on the shelves next week, the 40-year-old says she has hung up her journalism boots for good and is embracing life as a celebrated crime writer.
So far, her first novel has sold more than a million copies worldwide, garnering her fans
across the globe, but true to form Harper remains incredibly humble and hardworking.
Harper happily chats on the phone from her Elwood home — where she has been in lockdown with her two young children, 10-month-old Ted, Charlotte, 4, and husband Peter, 48, — revealing just how much her life has changed.
She still writes every day, but after her meteoric rise in the literary world it’s no longer late night hours on the laptop.
Instead, she has an office above her local coffee shop where she spends hours creating new characters and story plots.
Travel is also now a common feature of her life, jetting off for book tours across the globe, meeting adoring fans and mingling with acclaimed authors — albeit this glamorous part of the lifestyle is on hold at the moment due to coronavirus.
But Harper modestly says the writing remains her favourite part of this newly found career.
In fact, she admits being hunched over a computer for hours once creativity has struck.
This may come as no surprise to those who have read every one of her suspenseful page turners that she seems to produce at breakneck speed — almost one book a year.
Taking a rare moment to reflect, Harper says she never expected her novels to be so widely embraced by fans.
“I was working on the Herald Sun, I was working full-time and tapping away at night,” she says. “It was just a hobby really, it was just something that I wanted to do for myself that was kind of separate from work and was something that I was interested in.
“I had no real aspirations beyond just trying to finish it for my own personal satisfaction. Then it took off in a way that I never could have imagined.”
The book became a sensation in England and Europe, eventually made it onto the New York Times’ bestseller list and was widely lauded by critics.
Even though Harper could have dined out on the overnight success for years, within a matter of months she was back at her computer, pregnant with her first child, and plotting her next book, Force of Nature — a thriller set in the Australian bush.
This second release was also met with praise proving she was no one-hit wonder. Then came The Lost Man, a novel set in the outback that with every page transports the reader into the hot oppressive desert.
Those familiar with Harper’s work know landscapes play an important role in her books.
In fact, it was the allure of Australian scenery that prompted her to move from England in 2008, settling in Geelong, where she got a gig as a young reporter at the local newspaper. Quiet and polite, Harper was known as a good journalist in the team. But she would come alive when talking about her trips to the countryside on weekends, vividly describing the scenery.
It’s now clear Harper has a gift, one her readers will have experienced first-hand.
Every book has a distinct landscape that plays a central part in the plot made possible by
Harper’s uncanny knack of bringing the scenery to life.
Her latest book, The Survivors, is set in the fictional Tasmanian country town of Evelyn Bay, settled on a secluded beach.
It’s another suspenseful thriller to add to her award-winning body of work.
Her description of the sea, sand and town are as always spot on, transporting the reader to the shores of Australia’s most southern state.
And in Harper’s proven style, the story is not only atmospheric, it delves deep into the psyche
of main character Kieran Elliott and the townsfolk, unearthing dark secrets of the past, hidden guilt and simmering social tensions.
A silver lining to becoming an author is that each book that she writes, Harper has the opportunity to “immerse” herself in the settings exploring a new part of Australia.
For The Dry, she travelled in her spare time to parts of country Victoria, taking notes on the hardened and drought-ridden regions and the people who lived there.
Her other books have led her to remote Australian forests and the burnt orange sands of Birdsville in Queensland.
In the past, these research trips were always done alone.
But in January this year, Harper made it a family affair, strapping her newborn son to her chest and hitting the road to explore Tasmania.
“I kind of wanted to take elements from different coastal towns, and the scenery, and kind of bring it all together to create something that was ideally recognisably Tasmania — but without being too specific geographically,” she says. “Pete and Charlotte went on Spirit of Tasmania and I flew down with the baby who was 12 weeks old at that time.
“We drove down the east coast, stopping in all the little towns along the way, like St Helens and Bicheno, and ended up in Hobart, then we went to Port Arthur.”
Conversing with the locals, she also picked up on undertows of struggle and the complexities of Tasmanian life, adding context to make the book feel “authentic”, Harper says.
In the name of research, Harper even braved the frigid Tasmanian waters, diving in the bay off Eaglehawk Neck — a popular destination on the convict-history trail.
Before setting off Harper reveals she had spent months brainstorming and creating a
comprehensive plot outline, but had written only just enough that she could “still absorb as much from the settings as possible” weaving her new-found experience into the story.
Having her new bub on the trip also led to her making her main character a father.
“The baby in the book is about the same age as my son was, only 12 weeks, so I was thinking about that while I was there,” she says.
Although Harper admits doing a research trip with a young family in tow logistically is harder, it adds a special element she will no doubt experience the next time round.
Never one to rest too long — even though her latest project hasn’t even officially hit the shelves yet — Harper is already planning her next hit.
“There will be another one,” she says confidently. “It’s really still the early stages of thinking about it though.”
First, she has to hit the promotional trail with literary events and book tours for The Survivors, which will be done virtually this year — for the first time — due to the worldwide pandemic.
“It will be a little bit different, but hopefully it will give people the chance to come along that couldn’t have in person.”
While the past five years have been jam-packed with new experiences, seeing her first novel made into a feature film is one of her more recent career highlights.
Optioned by Reese Witherspoon’s film production company Pacific Standard in 2017, The Dry has been made, directed by Robert Connolly and starring Eric Bana in the lead role as Aaron Falk.
Originally the movie was set to be released on August 27, however, like most things in 2020, the opening has been delayed by the pandemic.
Harper is not phased and says she has seen the final cut and the wait will be worth it for fans. “It’s an excellent film and a really thoughtful adaptation of the book,” she says.
“I remember sitting at my desk at home and kind of coming up with these characters and their names and what they say to each other, and then to see that happening in front of your eyes, it’s really surreal.
“It was thrilling and so exciting.
“It just really captured the spirit of the story and the characters and the landscape perfectly.
“I think whenever it comes out readers are going to love it.”
Filmed in northwest Victoria, Harper was able to visit the set during filing where she met Bana, but she also scored a role as an extra.
“Blink and you’ll miss it,” she says laughing. “But if you’re looking at the right place at the right time you can see me, in the funeral, during the wake scene, so that was really fun.”
Harper’s journey from financial journalist to becoming a renowned international author definitely appears to be a dream trajectory, but she says it’s important for other struggling writers to be realistic on what it takes to become an overnight sensation. It has been previously publicised that Harper found fame after a 12-week writing course, but she says people usually don’t realise the amount of time she spent refining her first book.
“Writing a book is hard work,” she says.
“I say that for aspiring authors because I don’t want to give the false impression that for people who have already been published that it is just a really easy process where you just dash off 90,000 words and then go have another coffee.
“It actually takes thousands of hours.
“Sometimes, I am working seven days a week full time, depending on what stage of the process I am in.
“Like I can be thinking about it almost constantly, rewriting, planning or editing.
“It is a really fun job, but it is still a job that requires dedication and time.”
Budding authors reach out to Harper regularly for tips on how to craft a great novel.
This interest has led her to appear before book writing forums and even recording a TED Talk called Creativity in Your Control, detailing how writing is often not a talent, but a skill to be honed.
Another element of being an author that Harper had contemplated when starting out is fame. A naturally quiet and reserved person, Harper, while proud of her success, chooses to keep out of the spotlight where possible.
“People do reach out when they really like the book,” she says.
“On social media they may mention me or tweet at me. It’s usually positive in that they have enjoyed the book.
“But I don’t actively check, I kind of keep it at a distance because I feel like you only have
so much mental capacity and it’s better to channel that into something else and in my case
that’s the book.”
The Survivors by Jane Harper (Pan Macmillan, $32.99) is released on September 22.
REVIEW: JANE HARPER’S THE LOST MAN