Former NZ advertising creative Karl Fleet launches ‘The Truth Files’ book series

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45704869_992231564311691_6168735560148975616_n.jpgWhat’s your story? Everyone has one. Is it time to write it?

Have you ever thought about quitting your lucrative and highly sought after creative job in advertising to write “that book” idea – the idea that’s been constantly lurking in the back of your mind, the one that won’t leave you alone, telling you, begging you, prodding you to turn it into a novel?

So, let’s say you finally agree with this little voice to write that book, because, you say, “I could always do a little freelance work on the side to bring some money in.”

But soon, you discover to write a good book, you need to write it full-time.

You decide to stop freelancing, and go back to university to do a master of creative writing, as writing prose is very different to writing copy.

One year off work becomes two years to continue to write full-time, and end up turning one book into three books, because your advertising side is telling you to campaign it out.

Then, as you’re finishing off the third book, you learn about self-publishing, build a website, travel halfway across the world, and see if you can use your award-winning advertising background to create a campaign and viral content for the books.

Well, that’s Karl Fleet’s story and what he has been doing for the past six years to bring his series of books – the Truth Files to life.

As a placement student, Fleet won his first award at Axis, a Gold for point-of-sale. The ad was a hidden camera? video recorded inside a supermarket catching people’s reactions to an in-store radio ad. Two years into his career, he represented New Zealand at the Cannes Young Lions competition and the following year won a rare Gold Pencil at The One Show. Karl is one of only a handful of creatives to be awarded Campaign Brief’s Creative of the Year (in 2009) while learning under legendary creative director, Nick Worthington.

Some of his campaigns include: making Mr Grumpy happy on Coke, helping make it fun to buy menswear at Hallenstein Brothers, sending a Speight’s pub to London, creating a short film festival for Schweppes, making viral films before viral became a “thing” for Lift Plus, and placing a traffic cone on top of the Auckland Sky Tower for V Energy. Which people still ask him if they really did do it.

 

Fleet loves a good story, and his love for storytelling even led him down the most unlikely of paths: professional wrestling. As his alter ego, Curt Chaos, he defied the odds and became the New Zealand Heavyweight Champion. He held this prestigious belt for a year and thirteen days–the third longest title run in New Zealand’s history.

 

077-6x9-Book-Series-Presentation-COVERVAULT (2).jpgSix years ago, Fleet had a crazy idea to write about an ultimate “negative protagonist,” Justin Truth, a murderous corporate sociopath with an eye on the Oval Office. A story with themes currently mirrored by events happening in American politics today.

As the negative protagonist genre is one of the hardestWebsite1.jpg genres to write, Fleetwent back to university and earned a Master’s in creative writing to help build Justin Truth’s world. Fleet spent the next two years writing, crafting, and editing 01:Corporate Truth, 02:Criminal Truth, and 03:Fractured Truth.

 

Fleet uses everything he has learned from advertising, wrestling, and his Master’sWebsite2.jpg degree to  create a unique form of written prose that he calls “binge reading.” He believes people don’t want to wait to be entertained.

Says Fleet: “It’s taken me longer to write three books simultaneously but, I wanted to create a book series, and drop it how Netflix now drops an entire season of a TV series.”Website3.jpg

Working inside an agency is very different than writing a book.

Says Fleet: “Writing a 30 second tv script is hard, 80,000 words of prose was an Everest of hard for me. When I started, I smashed and crashed my way through a few drafts before sharing it with friends. I was worried about giving Nick Website4.jpg(Worthington) the first book, 01:Corporate Truth, as I respect his opinion so much. He ended up taking it on holiday to read a chapter or two. On his return, he told me he’d read the whole thing in one day. He started it on the first day by the pool and couldn’t stop reading it. He found it that addictive. His praise encouraged me to keep going and strengthened my decision to go back to university. I worked001-Hardcover-book-Corporate-6x9book.jpg 12-15 hour days on writing, editing, crafting and when I thought I was close, I would start the process all over again. At that stage I was working with a good friend of mine, Andrew Robertt, as a structure editor. It’s like working with a creative director. They push you to get the best story out of you. I treated writing the books like working in an agency. No time for writer’s block. I set deadlines and worked towards them.

“Working in advertising is a great education to identify an idea, and001-Hardcover-Criminal-6x9book (1).jpg001-Hardcover-book-Fractured-6x9book.jpg then twisting it or giving it a punchy last sentence.”

Sitting down to write the books was one thing, designing them was another.

Adds Fleet: “While having lunch with Levi Slavin (ECD Colenso BBDO) and chatting about the idea behind the books and how our brains process stories, Levi mentioned his wife Kate may be interested in helping me create a look for the series. I jumped at the idea, Kate is a world class designer at Cottonwood Studio. We caught up and talked about the themes behind the books and she instantly grasped what I wanted.”013-5x8-Front-Back-Paperback-Mockup-COVERVAULT2.jpg

Says Kate: “Book cover design is a category of its own and a really fun challenge. Having a set of three in the series makes it that much more interesting. Karl was after something that would stand out on the shelf against other novels in the same genre, so we tried to keep it graphic and high impact. With a nod to official investigation folders, and a slight visual twist representative of the title of each book, they look like the criminal has been handling them himself.”

Says Fleet: “From my advertising career. I knew having a consistent look through all the touch points was needed. From book cover to business card to website. Evan Altman at Sites Built for You, picked up on Kate’s art direction and carried it through to the website. Giving each element a tie back to the covers’ original art. Evan was fantastic, every time he would send through a website update, it would have one more special element built in. Like the menu he created is a great touch, the finger prints that pop up relates to each of the books.”

For the past six months, Fleet has been backpacking across America. Working with his American-based editor and proofer putting the finishing touches on the books. He is currently in New York City where he will work and live for the next six months, while getting the word out about The Truth Files and searching for an agent to help build the series into true international best sellers. Fleet’s eventual ambition is to have The Truth Files turned into an original HBO/Netflix series.

 

Books are available to purchase on Amazon at amazon.com/author/karlwilliamfleet.

 

At the time of this post the e-book 01:Corporate Truth is available to download for free at his website, karlwilliamfleet.com.

Fleet can be contacted at karl@karlwilliamfleet.com.

And follow his journey at facebook.com/KarlWilliamFleet.