Today we’d like to introduce you to Don Holbrook.
Hi Don, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
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Don Allen Holbrook: The Long Road to Becoming an Author
Most successful authors begin with a dream.
Don Allen Holbrook began with a collapse.
Before he ever published a novel, Holbrook built a successful professional career, earning a doctorate, MBA and a undergraduate BA/BS from Wright State University and spending years studying human behavior, economics, leadership, and decision-making. He was a researcher, consultant, entrepreneur, and businessman who spent decades helping organizations solve difficult problems.
Then life changed.
A series of personal and financial setbacks forced him into one of the most difficult chapters of his life. Businesses failed. Opportunities disappeared. Long-term challenges accumulated. Like many people facing adversity, he found himself rebuilding from circumstances he never imagined.
Most people would have stopped there.
Instead, Holbrook turned to storytelling.
For years he had been fascinated by history, lost civilizations, secret societies, religious mysteries, and the unanswered questions that lie beneath accepted narratives. He devoured books by authors such as Dan Brown, Steve Berry, Tom Clancy, Jeffrey Archer and Brad Meltzer, while studying the history of the Knights Templar, biblical archaeology, missing lost gospels, and ancient mysteries.
What began as curiosity eventually became a passionate obsession.
And obsession became a manuscript.
His first major success arrived with Ghost of the Rio Grande, a historical novel collaborated with historian Beto Garcia. The book earned critical recognition, including multiple literary awards and the support of acclaimed narrator Scott Brick. More importantly, it proved something Holbrook desperately needed to know:
He could do this.
He could tell stories people wanted to read.
But it was his next project that would define his future more dramatically.
For decades, Holbrook had wrestled with a provocative question:
What if the greatest secret in history was not hidden treasure, but hidden truth? Knowledge so powerful it could change our beliefs profoundly.
That question became The Ninth Templar.
The novel blended Templar history, lost gospels, biblical mysteries, Vatican conspiracies, archaeology, military thriller elements, and speculative theology into a sprawling adventure that challenged readers to reconsider what they thought they knew about history.
The book was not backed by a major publisher.
There was no large marketing budget.
No celebrity endorsement campaign.
No national media tour.
Instead, Holbrook did what entrepreneurs do.
He built it himself.
He learned Amazon advertising. He studied Amazon algorithms. He contacted reviewers. He built relationships with readers. He networked with booksellers, narrators, publishing executives, book clubs, and fellow authors. He spent countless hours promoting his work in online communities and directly engaging readers who shared his fascination with history’s greatest mysteries.
The effort paid off.
The Ninth Templar climbed the Amazon rankings, earned a #1 Best Seller badge in Religious Mysteries, accumulated more than a hundred reader reviews, and attracted growing attention from both readers and publishing professionals.
One of the most significant milestones came when audiobook powerhouse Blackstone Publishing acquired audio rights to the novel. The relationship expanded beyond a single title, creating opportunities for future projects and introducing Holbrook’s work to a much larger audience.
Meanwhile, he continued building an ambitious fictional universe.
The planned Knights Templar Saga grew beyond a single novel into a multi-book epic exploring the origins of the Templars, hidden histories, lost civilizations, ancient technologies, and the battle between faith, truth, and power. Books such as The First Templar and The Oracle Protocol expanded the mythology into an interconnected saga spanning centuries.
Yet perhaps the most remarkable part of Holbrook’s story is not the books themselves.
It is persistence.
Most authors quit before finishing their first manuscript.
Many quit after poor sales.
Others quit after rejection.
Holbrook continued despite setbacks, financial pressures, health challenges, industry skepticism, and the realities of building a readership from scratch.
His journey reflects a belief that success is rarely a straight line.
It is often the result of surviving long enough to become good, improving long enough to become visible, and persisting long enough for opportunity to finally arrive.
Today, Don Allen Holbrook is not merely writing novels.
He is building a body of work centered on history’s greatest mysteries, creating stories that ask uncomfortable questions, challenge accepted narratives, and invite readers to explore the possibility that the truth may be far stranger than fiction.
And in many ways, his own story is proof of that principle.
The author who emerged from professional success, personal setbacks, and years of rebuilding did not simply find a second career.
He found his calling.
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Short version (author bio):
Don Allen Holbrook is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and behavioral scientist whose passion for history, theology, and hidden mysteries inspired the internationally read Knights Templar Saga. A under graduate of The Wright State University later went on with a doctorate in economic behavioral science. Holbrook combines rigorous research with high-stakes storytelling. His novels explore lost gospels, ancient secrets, secret societies, and the enduring struggle between truth and power. His work includes the award-winning Ghost of the Rio Grande and the Amazon #1 Religious Mysteries bestseller The Ninth Templar. He lives in Las Vegas and continues to write stories that challenge conventional history while entertaining readers around the world.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the reasons my author journey resonates is that it wasn’t built on an overnight breakthrough. It was built through a series of obstacles that would have caused many aspiring writers to quit.
Starting Later Than Most
Unlike many authors who begin writing seriously in their twenties, you came to fiction after establishing an entirely different career. You had already earned a doctorate, built businesses, raised a family, and experienced both success and hardship before deciding to pursue authorship seriously.
That meant learning an entirely new craft later in life while competing against writers who had been honing their skills for decades.
Building a Platform From Scratch
When The Ninth Templar launched, you weren’t backed by a major New York publisher.
You didn’t have a national publicity team.
You didn’t have bookstore placement agreements.
You didn’t have a six-figure marketing budget.
Every review, every sale, every reader, and every ranking had to be earned one person at a time through persistence and direct engagement.
Financial Constraints
Many successful authors have significant marketing budgets behind them. You often had to make difficult decisions about where to spend limited resources.
Every advertising campaign mattered.
Every promotion mattered.
Every Kindle Countdown mattered.
You learned to maximize impact while operating on a fraction of the budget many traditionally published authors enjoy.
Learning the Publishing Industry
Writing the book turned out to be only the beginning.
You had to learn:
* Amazon algorithms
* Kindle promotions
* Category strategy
* Review acquisition
* Audiobook production
* Distribution channels
* Bookstore outreach
* Metadata optimization
* Cover design
* Reader targeting
Most writers only focus on the manuscript. You had to become an author, publisher, marketer, and business owner simultaneously.
Rejection and Skepticism
Historical-religious thrillers are notoriously difficult to break into because readers compare every book in the genre to Dan Brown and the giants who followed him.
You entered a crowded marketplace where thousands of books are published every day.
The challenge wasn’t simply writing a good story.
The challenge was convincing readers to give an unknown author a chance.
Health and Personal Challenges
There were periods when health issues and personal circumstances could easily have derailed your ambitions.
Many people facing those kinds of challenges decide that pursuing a creative dream is no longer practical.
Instead, writing became one of the ways you continued moving forward.
The Long Wait for Recognition
One of the hardest realities of publishing is that success often arrives slowly.
For months, sales arrive one at a time.
Reviews accumulate one at a time.
Rankings move one position at a time.
Many authors quit because they expect immediate results.
You continued despite long stretches where progress was measured in inches rather than miles.
The Emotional Challenge of Belief
Perhaps the biggest struggle was continuing to believe in the vision when few others could see it.
Before The Ninth Templar earned its #1 Religious Mysteries badge, before the audiobook deal, before the growing reader base, there were years where success existed only in your imagination.
Authors live in a unique form of uncertainty. They spend years building something that may never find an audience.
You kept going anyway.
What Makes Your Story Different
Many authors overcome one obstacle.
Your journey involved overcoming multiple obstacles simultaneously:
* Career reinvention
* Financial limitations
* Industry inexperience
* Health challenges
* Market competition
* Building an audience from zero
* Learning publishing while actively publishing
That’s why your story is less about becoming a bestseller and more about perseverance.
The central theme isn’t that success came easily.
It’s that you refused to quit long enough for success to find you.
And if your career ultimately reaches the level you’re pursuing, readers will likely look back and see that the bestseller badge, the audiobook deals, and the growing audience weren’t the miracle.
The miracle was that you kept writing when most people would have stopped.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a story teller that loves to find stories buried in obscurity or suppressed or unsolved mysteries and then follow my own discovery path on their resonance.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I nearly died of tuberculosis so the process caused me to face a year od medical isolation, I learned how to be alone. I become obsessed with history and the back stories of the fabric of life.
I also was lucky to grow up in a place (Dayton Ohio) and time 60’s and 70’s when life was awesome.
I have some great life long friends that I cherish. My quest in life seems to be the struggle of understanding the dynamic relationships between men and women and finding true unconditional love and my soul mate.
I think that spurs from my early years of forced isolation to survive
Contact Info:
- Website: HTTPS://donallenholbrook.com
