When he was young, bestselling thriller author J.D. Barker never thought he could make a living as a writer, so he instead studied business while unaware of his special gift. It would create barriers in his life and career that he would struggle to surmount. Yet it would help him soar to a resounding success.
It wasn’t an easy journey and it’s not over. It never will be. But Barker has become rich and famous in large part thanks to his uncommon capability.
While in college at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, he worked part-time for BMG Music babysitting and chauffeuring musicians on promotional tours to southern Florida radio stations and publicity events. He spent days with the likes of Madonna, Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, Tiffany, Poison, Skid Row, New Kids on the Block, and Debbie Gibson.
“If I got Guns N’ Roses in and out of south Florida for three or four days without anyone getting hurt, that was a win,” he says. It was also a learning experience. He escorted his share of one-hit-wonders and watched them quickly blow through their bulging bank rolls.
“I would see their expensive car disappear, then the house disappear, then the apartment, and finally they’d disappear…It stuck with me for a long time…That was a crash course in money management.”
Paul Gallotta, reporter and later senior editor at Circus magazine, read one of Barker’s college writing assignments and offered him a job with lifestyle magazine 25th Parallel. For a while Barker worked out of the same newsroom as Brian Warner, who would later merge the names of Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson to become rocker Marilyn Manson.
Barker also freelanced for several publications including Seventeen and TeenBeat. At age twenty, he syndicated a column on supernatural occurrences and haunted places – an early sign of his literary interest and the publishing business acumen he would later develop.
After Barker earned his business degree and observed the chaotic financial world of the music business from the front-row, he found a steady job as a compliance officer at a Florida brokerage firm. His role was to assure stockbrokers behaved ethically with their clients and followed the rules and regs of the business. It didn’t make him the most popular guy at the office, but his bosses were impressed with his drive and productivity. But Barker began to irritate his colleagues and even got into a shouting match with his boss, who should have fired him for the altercation, Barker says. But to his credit, his boss sent him to a therapist to deal with anger management.
Barker didn’t know it at the time, but part of the therapist’s practice included working with Autistic children. About twenty minutes into their first session, she recognized his lack of eye contact and general demeanor as traits of Autism. He was twenty-two and had no idea.
“Back in school you were just the weird guy in the corner,” he says.
After months of testing, he was diagnosed with Aspergers’ syndrome, which is on the Autism neuro-divergent spectrum. He then spent years in therapy learning how to deal with it and to improve his interactions with other people.
He began to understand why he liked to be alone and didn’t like to be touched. Why he could read at age three. He learned why others’ jokes didn’t make him laugh. But best of all, he learned why and how he was different and how to embrace it and find normalcy. Today he still wonders what would have happened to him had he not visited the therapist that day. She changed his life.
“Outside of seeing the movie ‘Rain Man,’” he says, “I’d never researched it.”
What he didn’t realize at the time, but came to appreciate later, was his Autism would become what his wife Dayna later termed his “superpower.” Autism would give him a leg up on other writers and enable him to create an extraordinarily successful career as an author in barely a decade.
“It allows me to do what I do,” he says.
After twenty years he hated his brokerage job and wanted to write fulltime, but he was boxed in. The brokerage business afforded Dayna and him a big house, a boat and all the trappings of the good life in southern Florida. To feed his desire to write, he’d become a ghostwriter and book doctor. “That’s what made me a good writer,” he says.
But it also stemmed from his childhood. “I’ve always wanted to write,” he says. “I grew up without a TV in the house. My mother took us to the library all the time.”
During his tenure at the brokerage firm, six of his ghostwritten books became New York Times bestsellers, however none of them had his name on the cover. Watching others receive accolades from his words on the page was starting to get old.
After nearly two decades and having recently turned forty, he’d had enough. He and Dayna decided to downsize and give his writing ambitions a go.
His brokerage firm felt his loss immediately. They hired three people to replace him. “I’m very good with structure and being organized,” Barker says.
The couple sold everything and bought a duplex in Pittsburgh near her family. They lived in one half and rented out the other to cover living expenses.
Investment banking, he says, “paid really well, but I think I got a little complacent. I could have started this back in my twenties…But it all came together.”
To begin his new career, “I knew I wanted to write a book about a witch.” His first novel, which he called Forsaken, would meld the stories of a historical character with a modern-day witch.
Barker, a great admirer of Stephen King, wanted to use King’s recurring character, Leland Gaunt, in his own novel, but he needed King’s permission. He knew King wintered on an island near Sarasota along the Florida Gulf Coast. But not knowing the world-famous novelist, Barker thought it best if he tried to visit him and seek his permission in person. He drove to Sarasota and to Casey Island. After crossing a narrow bridge, he turned onto King’s long driveway, ignoring the “No Trespassing” signs along the way. Finally, he came to a gate across the road making it clear strangers were not welcome. Barker thought better of it and turned around, never reaching his destination.
Instead, he called a friend who knew King and told him of his effort. “It’s a good thing you turned around,” his friend said. “King hates that.” The friend eventually got through to King who granted Barker permission to use his character.
Barker finished his manuscript in nine months and then faced the next obstacle, finding an agent. He sent out a pile of query letters and sat back to await replies. None came. None, like not even one rejection. He was so naïve about the process, he said, “I had no idea what I’d done wrong.”
What he’d gotten wrong was a whopper. Barker mailed each agent a form letter beginning with “To Whom It May Concern.” He soon realized the only person concerned was himself.
Yet, in the end his error actually worked in his favor. Not finding interest in Forsaken, he decided to self-publish. He didn’t want to look like he was self-published, so he created his own imprint, Hampton Creek Press.
“I put Forsaken on every website I could, including Smashwords.” Because he didn’t know any better, he’d failed to send advance reader copies to reviewers ahead of publication. “This was a big learning curve for me,” he says.
The reviews he finally received were positive, but not plentiful. “Ultimately, I didn’t get as many reviews as I would have.”
Still, book sales were not bad, but they wouldn’t make him rich. It was no breakout novel, so after several months he hired a publicist. During their conversation, he mentioned his effort to reach out to King. She told him that was the publicity angle she needed. She contacted Publisher’s Weekly, and they soon ran a feature describing his somewhat comical but earnest failed attempt and his ultimate success. Thanks to that article, sales took off, and Forsaken went on to sell more than 250,000 copies.
Today, his life is much different. He’s learned the ropes of the publishing business. He writes in the morning and later in the day tends to marketing and business issues. “Ultimately,” he says, “this is a business.” Spoken like a man who knows. He has created his own imprint and now distributes his books though Simon & Schuster. He has cowritten books with James Patterson and created a hybrid publishing empire. He built his own business because he didn’t like the low royalties publishers paid, especially after experiencing the fat share of gross sales he received being self-published.
And his key to success? “Being autistic, I’m sure, is part of it.” He’s known for his complex plots and attention to detail in his stories, yet there are no signs of sticky notes or white board scribbles anywhere in his office attempting to piece together plot ideas. Yes, you’ll find bookcases crammed with books, but his desk looks as clean as any corporate CEO’s––bare except for a single laptop computer. So where does he keep his files on his next book?
“It’s all up here,” he says, pointing to his head.
His superpower.
Indeed.
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Forsaken
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Start to Finish: 11 months
I want to be a writer: I’ve known my whole life.
Decided to write a novel: 42 years old
Experience: Compliance officer, journalist, ghostwriter, book doctor.
Agents Contacted: A lot.
Agent Rejections: Technically zero, because no one responded.
First Novel Agent: None
First Novel Editor: Self
First Novel Publisher: Self
Inspiration: The books themselves.
Website: JDBarker.com
Advice to Writers: Write every day. It’s like going to the gym. It’s like working a muscle. If I don’t write every day, it’s a struggle to come back to where I was before. Your voice stays consistent if you write every day.
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