Wayne Zurl grew up on Long Island and retired after twenty years with the Suffolk County Police Department, one of the largest municipal law enforcement agencies in New York and the nation. For thirteen of those years he served as a section commander supervising investigators. He is a graduate of SUNY, Empire State College and served on active duty in the US Army during the Vietnam War and later in the reserves. Zurl left New York to live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with his wife, Barbara. Ten (10) of his Sam Jenkins mysteries have been produced as audio books and simultaneously published as eBooks or are under contract. His first full-length novel, A NEW PROSPECT, was named best mystery at the 2011 Indie Book Awards. A new full-length novel, A LEPRECHAUN’S LAMENT, is on the coming soon list at Iconic Publishing and will be available in print for early 2012.
Just One Guy's Honest Perspective on the World of the Post-publication Blues
Getting
my first novel into print wasn’t an easy ride. From the day I wrote that first
sentence on my yellow legal pad in the summer of 2006, to the day a signed
contract showed up in our mailbox, the journey spanned four years. Prior
to A NEW PROSPECT’s actual release in January 2011, I learned how some of the
big names on the best seller lists took as much as ten years before their debut
novels appeared. James Lee Burke mentioned once receiving 111 rejections before
one of his earliest books got accepted by a publisher. So, I didn’t feel too bad.
Once my
book was released and on all the data bases of the usual vendors, and I had my
publisher’s press kit in hand, a new journey began—post-publication promotion
and marketing. I had spent my entire adult life as either a soldier or a cop. I
knew nothing about marketing, precious little about selling, and even less
about the electronic media world. I didn’t know a tweet from chirp, a facebook
from a facelift, or a blogspot from a sunspot. But I figured if I could
convince a suspect it was in his best interest to write a statement admitting
to one or more felonies, I could learn how to peddle books. I’m
old-fashioned, so my first excursions began with arranging traditional book
signings at the storefront bookshops near my home in east Tennessee.
I had
seen pictorial accounts of famous authors sitting at a desk next to a
five-foot-tall stack of their books, getting exhausted signing oodles of copies
for a block-long line of their adoring fans. Don’t expect your first events to
be that spectacular. I’m
happy if I sell between four and seven books in two to three hours sitting in a
retail store. Wouldn’t you know that the place where I sold out the entire
stock of fifteen copies, Borders in Knoxville, Tennessee, went out of business?
But success is a relative thing. I set up one Friday evening at a Hastings Book
Store, right at the front entrance, next to one of those five-foot stacks of
James Patterson’s latest mystery. I occupied a card table with a half-dozen
copies of A NEW PROSPECT. Two and a half hours later, I packed up after scoring
5 books for me, while James sold none.
Don’t
get discouraged if you only sell a few books at an event. You’re winning the
hearts and minds of potential readers and book buyers when they take your
business cards and/or one of the printed handouts you’ve prepared with a brief
summary for your book(s)…HINT. Shoppers aren’t stupid. They may like a signed
copy of your book, which might be worth a few cents more after you’re famous…or
dead, or they may prefer to shop the Internet discount sites rather than pay
retail plus sales tax.
Other
writers surprise me when they say how terribly uncomfortable (or afraid) they
are to meet their public at book signings. Considerate it part of the job. I
had to learn how to become intimate with dead bodies in my former occupation,
live ones are now a breeze. Speaking engagements are also part of the job.
Start practicing—it really gets easier with experience. And remember the old
public speaker’s trick to feel in control of a group. Imagine your audience
sitting there in their underwear. That may be more exciting some places than at
others, but if you’re laughing to yourself, you tend to lose stage fright
quickly.
After
much soul searching, you still can’t bare the idea of watching shoppers avoid
eye contact with you and scurrying away from your table quicker than if you
were trying to sell time shares? Maybe a virtual book tour is more up your
ally. You may arrange these personally by networking with bloggers for
reciprocal favors. But if you don’t maintain a blog and lack the time to
thoroughly read and review other writer’s books, you can hire a publicist who
will arrange stops with his or her stable of reviewers, interviewers, bloggers,
and radio show hosts. I’ve done a two-month summer VBT and now I’m in the
middle of a pre-holiday sales push. These virtual tours can be a lot of work.
You MUST prepare intelligent, interesting, and sometimes wordy responses to an
interviewer’s questions and quality guest postings for someone’s blog. And be prepared to give away review copies of
your book and prize copies to contest winners—that’s all part of the package,
too.
Book
tours are the glamour part of selling. The day-to-day reality involves posting
clever and catchy blurbs on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google &, etc.,
ect. Follow the lead of some of your favorite authors to see how they handle
it. Then be prepared to devote hours a day to “establishing an Internet
presence.” Gads, I hate that phrase as much as seeing a Blue Screen of Death.
Here’s
my take on this extremely necessary aspect of an author’s life: Writing is fun.
Post-publication marketing is too much like work. But for me, it’s like saying,
“I love to cook. I can’t wait to eat what I’ve made. But I hate to do dishes.”
That little voice inside my head keeps telling me, “Suck it up, pal.”
~ Wayne Zurl
Sam Jenkins never thought about being a fish out of water during the twenty years he spent solving crimes in New York. But things change, and after retiring to Tennessee, he gets that feeling. Jenkins becomes a cop again and is thrown headlong into a murder investigation and a steaming kettle of fish, down-home style.
In true Jenkins style, Sam turns common police practice on its ear to insure an innocent man doesn't fall prey to an imperfect system and the guilty party receives appropriate justice. A NEW PROSPECT takes the reader through a New South resolutely clinging to its past and traditional way of keeping family business strictly within the family.
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Here are several ways you can keep up with author Wayne Zurl's literary journey.
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Would you like to read Wayne Zurl's new book, A New Prospect?
If so, check back after midnight where I'll be giving away a copy of A New Prospect along with other goodies that will be apart of 3 gift boxes. And just in time for the holidays.
Please leave a comment and tell me what you think about A New Prospect by Wayne Zurl?
