murder.booklocker.com

As a newly published Five Star author, I’ll share my experience. My first mystery novel, Retirement Homes Are Murder, features octogenarian Paul Jacobson who suffers from short-term memory loss, finds a dead body in the trash chute of a retirement home, is accused of a crime, and everything goes down hill from there.

I pitched this novel to Deni Dietz (she works for John Helfers of Tekno Books) at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in September 2005. Deni liked the concept and told me to send the complete manuscript to John Helfers. John responded with an email offer letter and contract in November 2005 and the book was published in January 2007. TeknoBooks is a book packager and performs front end acquisition duties for Five Star. Retirement Homes Are Murder is now entering the fifth printing and also has a large print edition that came out in April.

In February 2007 a successful book signing at Tattered Covers in Denver led to my novel being #4 on the Rocky Mountain Post local best seller list in Denver and #3 on the Denver Post best seller list.

I’ve teamed with three other Colorado authors to do signing and panel events called “Mystery Through The Ages.” Two of the others, Beth Groundwater and Patricia Stoltey, are Five Star authors and Bob Spiller (The Witch of Agnesi) is with another publisher. We each have characters of different ages ranging from Bob’s high school students and teachers to my octogenarians.

I’ve just returned from Malice Domestic which was a fantastic opportunity to network with other mystery authors and fans. One of the events was called “Malice-go-round” during which new Malice authors gave 90 second pitches in turn to 20 tables of fans. There was also a “New Author’s Breakfast” where we were introduced and had another chance to pitch our books.

Cheryl: Mike, I have a few follow-up questions.

Can you tell me a little bit more about your pitch to Deni Dietz? (Geezer lit seems to be warm and getting hotter).<

Mike: I pitched the concept of a humorous mystery with a “challenged” protagonist who has to overcome the adversity of his short-term memory lost to solve the crime. Paul Jacobson keeps a journal as a memory aid. Themes in the novel in addition to the mystery include aging, short-term memory loss and relationships (Paul has a romance with a young chick in her seventies).

Cheryl: Did you negotiate over the contract at all? Did you talk about a paperback edition?

Mike: I didn’t have an agent, and the contract is very standard with little room to negotiate. I retain paperback rights as Five Star only publishes hardcovers now. At one time they were also doing trade paperback, but no longer.

Cheryl: How did you learn about the large print edition?

Mike: It was an option in my contract and I sent a note to my marketing person at Five Star early-on requesting the large print edition, given my audience of older readers. In follow-on discussions, Five Star informed me that a large print edition was planned for April and it did come out. Now I’m requesting a second print run as it has been well-accepted by libraries and I need copies for events I do in retirement homes.

Cheryl: What sort of marketing efforts have you put into this?

Mike: A lot of word of mouth campaigns, conferences, book signings at Colorado book stores, Mystery Through The Ages Panels, talks and signings at retirement homes, publicity through the corporate website of the company where I work (I still have a day job and I was interviewed and the interview and my picture appeared on our company website which generated a lot of sales to co-workers), email notification to bookstores and libraries, postcard mailings to bookstores and libraries, lots of bookmarks given away, article in Mystery Scene Magazine about my mom and stepfather who were part of the inspiration for the novel, a good review in Library Journal (Five Star is good at getting ARCs to the major reviewers), website.

Cheryl: Would you recommend Tekno to other first-time authors? What kind of advice would you give them?

Mike: Tekno Books/Five Star represent a very good way to jump start a writing career. The hardcover route is difficult because of pricing, but does lead to reviews that often wouldn’t happen with paperpacks. Five Star puts out a quality product, solicits input from the author on jacket design and I’ve been very pleased with the attractive and eye-catching result. I’d recommend going with a standalone to Five Star (to get known) followed by a series to a larger publisher.

Cheryl: How did you hook up with Beth Groundwater (A Real Basket Case) and Patricia Stoltey (The Prairie Grass Murders)?

Mike: I met Beth at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference several years ago. At the 2006 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference, John Helfers was in attendance, and all the Five Star authors and John got together one evening. I met Patricia then and Beth pulled us all together for the “Mystery Through The Ages” concept.

My thanks to Mike Befeler for sharing his experience. Mike’s book is available at:Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Five Star Publishing, Books a Million

Visit Mike’s website.