In this episode, we’re joined by Jussi Adler-Olsen, the author who has sold over 30 million copies in more than 40 languages across over 125 countries. We talk about how to succeed as an author at home and around the world, and about how his career began. We also talk about how he feels about the end of the Department Q series, and about the future.
Jussi opens the conversation by describing himself as a creative, hands-on person who is reflective and looks for happiness wherever it can be found. He’s curious, good at getting things across and always challenges himself. He also describes himself as loyal and a friend among friends, but not just anyone gets close to him.
“I became an author so I’d have time”
In the episode, Jussi takes us through lots of different projects. He’s done a lot: run a comic shop, owned a publishing house, composed music and been CEO at Bonnier, and today he’s an author.
Jussi and his wife became parents late in life, and in the five years he sat in the CEO’s chair at Bonnier, he was rarely at home with their son, Kes. He explains that he became an author so he’d have time to be a good father. As an author, you can choose your own working hours and where you work. Jussi has always enjoyed research, and it turned out to be an important part of writing. He quickly realised that you need to know more about the subject than the reader, and that you have to travel and experience the place and the culture to write about it convincingly.
Department Q
Jussi grew up in various psychiatric hospitals in Denmark, and that has helped shape the character Carl Mørck. According to Jussi, Carl is inspired both by himself and by one of the patients at the hospital, whose surname was Mørck. Jussi says he began shaping the concept for Department Q in 2005, with all the characters and their secrets. He spent more than six months developing a thesis about what Department Q was, without knowing whether it would be a success. But Jussi has never been afraid to spend his time on something that might not work out.
He explains that the big breakthrough came in 2009, after the publication of “Flaskepost fra P”. Jussi became one of the hottest names in Germany and sold more than 1.25 million copies of his first book, which drew attention from all over the world. Jussi says he didn’t expect that kind of success, but that today it’s fantastic to see a project flourish after many years of work.
“Find people around you who read your genre, and let them tell you whether you’re original”
Jussi rounds off the podcast by sharing his best advice for succeeding as an author. He points out that you have to accept that either it works or it doesn’t, and whatever the outcome, you have to keep your integrity and take both failure and success with the same calm. Jussi’s road to success hasn’t been without its bumps, but he has used those experiences to get better.
He also advises against believing you can do everything, and recommends staying open to learning something new along the way. For him, creating something original is crucial. When it comes to the writing schools’ advice to read a lot, Jussi is somewhat sceptical. He knows it’s important to read other people’s books. But at some point it’s more important to stop and believe that what you’re creating is original. Finally, Jussi advises surrounding yourself with people who read the genre you write in, so they can tell you whether your work is original.