Jennifer McAdam: Be Kind and Take Care of Yourself While Writing Memoir
Jennifer McAdam had a long career in the marketing industry before launching her own consultancy working with IT companies throughout Scotland and abroad. Illness forced here to cut back on work, but she remains active in the industry.
Since 2016, she has worked fulltime, even from her sickbed, through her online Victims’ Support Group to fight for retribution for the OneCoin fraud and to see the perpetrators brought to justice. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this post, McAdam shares the real story that inspired her debut book, what surprised her the most about publishing it, and more.
Name: Jennifer McAdam
Literary agent: Rachel Mills Literary
Book title: Devil’s Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious OneCoin Cryptoqueen
Publisher: William Morrow
Release date: August 8, 2023
Genre/category: Memoir/Nonfiction/Crime Thriller
Elevator pitch for the book: Devil’s Coin is my true story of how as a Scottish coal miner’s daughter I took on the Mafia-backed creators of the world’s biggest financial fraud and helped the FBI to convict them. I still have to shake myself today that I did this—and was able to write about the scam which targeted society’s ‘unbanked,’ not wealthy investors, and it robbed millions of their livelihood and futures; the poor became poorer.
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What prompted you to write this book?
Anger, justice, and prevention. Along with my friends and family, I was defrauded of nearly $300,000, a fraction of the $27 billion stolen worldwide by Dr, Ruja Ignatova and her fake cryptocurrency scam, OneCoin. I’d lost the $15,000 I’d been left by my father, money I wanted to securely invest for the future of my son and his family.
Met by disinterest, often disdain, by authorities in the UK, I decided to try and publish my story seeking justice and as a warning to those at risk worldwide. The FBI became my champions in what became a prolonged and is an ongoing battle.
Dr Ruja Ignatova is on the Ten Most Wanted list with a $250,000 reward being offered for information on her whereabouts and several of her cohorts are in custody or on trial. This was all happening as the book was being prepared so I was living the story as it was being written. Which was equally exciting and terrifying.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took a long three and a half years, not the selling of the book but the telling of it. It was hard work.
The editors at William Morrow instantly took on Devil’s Coin and were wonderful but throughout we had to overcome legal hurdles as arrests were being made and charges brought but not against all the fraudsters. Maybe, just maybe, some of them were innocents dragged into the skullduggery.
For someone new to the publishing world, for me it was frustrating. I knew that something had happened, and a certain villain had done it—but I couldn’t say it with impunity. I do understand we need laws to protect those who are not guilty, but I was spinning around in a nest of vipers.
With the help of some talented and clever people we made it over the final hurdle to complete the original mission, to get justice and alert possible victims.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The big surprise was the legal obstacles to what I knew was the truth. That said, it was the amount of time and people involved to produce a successful book. It’s not only editing of your work but the layout and cover designers, the photographs, the caption, the checking, the double-checking, the permissions, all manner of technical considerations.
And, of course, in today’s social media world there is the marketing which can be a round-the-clock process; it’s exciting only being a click away from telling someone new your story.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
When we set out the title of the book was Fake! but we learned later that title conflicted with another. That’s when I discovered Devil’s Coin—a title which was already written in the text. I’d always thought OneCoin was evil and when I was working out from personal data the number of Ruja’s victims on the little screen on my calculator, up came the numbers 666,666.66666666. I’d always said Ruja was doing the devil’s work, but this! A running code of Satan’s favorite numbers.
The big lesson for me was what a complex business publishing is. There are so many factors to consider. Every sentence has consequences for your story but also for readers, how it will affect them emotionally? I was writing about bad guys and their victims but many of those victims had never identified themselves because of fear or embarrassment or some other personal reason. I kept aware of that.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I want them to enjoy Devil’s Coin. Of course, the experience was devastating for me but from the start I understood if readers were to learn from what I’d gone through then I had to make the narrative as thrilling as possible.
There’s no point in telling the best of stories if it doesn’t keep people turning the pages. That’s not the way to get the message across. And that message is that we’re all vulnerable and we must be alert but if the worst happens work with others through kindness, empathy, and understanding for that will give you all the strength to fight back.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Do not give up and take those much-needed breaks away from the pen and your thoughts. Be kind and take care of yourself. Personally, I found that working on the book through the night worked for me when all was quiet and undisturbed.
While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.