[6] Despite early interest, his career and most of his life involved no writing, focusing his energy instead on selling insurance and investing in real estate, where he made most of his fortune.

[6][7] He began singing for a rock band and working as a door-to-door insurance salesman, where he advanced to area vice president by the time he was 21 years old.

(The other seven authors are Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, and Michael Connelly.)

Artwork and design of the books is done by Telemachus Press, a work-for-hire services company that charges a one-time fee and allows the author to retain 100% royalties.

[2] As Locke reported to the Daily Telegraph in 2011, "I put the most famous authors in the world in the position of having to prove their books were ten times better than mine."

[12] Through the use of social media and blogging, Locke states he has the ability to create large amounts of publicity through his core group of loyal readers, around 100,000 by his estimate.

[4][15][16] In August 2012, The New York Times revealed that John Locke had paid an online service to write reviews of his books, in order to artificially boost sales.