Vincent Zandri's Blog - Posts Tagged "stephen-king"
Finger on the Trigger
The following blog is now appearing in slightly different form at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
If you're going to try, go all the way.
Maybe you're a novelist working exclusively with the Amazon KDP self-publishing program and what started out as just a kind of curious, let's-see-what-happens thing turned into, I'm-making-enough-in-royalties-now-to-pay-the-mortgage-and-all-my-bills kind of thing.
Or maybe you're like me, a novelist and journalist who stresses the importance of utilizing not just one method of publication, but all three: Major, traditionally-based indie, and self-publishing.
Whatever the case, you've gone from obscure nobody to enjoying a profitable fan base in a relatively short amount of time. Now you find yourself getting up in the morning, getting dressed and hustling off to work, and all the time there's this voice inside your head saying, "Quit the day job. You don't need it anymore."
But will the royalties keep on coming?
Will your desire and ability to write good novels last?
Will changes in an ever volatile e-book market affect your sales?
Or have you simply gotten really lucky over the past couple of years and now the luck is about to run out?
The answer is yes and no.
The only guarantee for a the full-time writer is that there are no guarantees.
So what are you going to do? Are you going to play it safe and keep the day job? Or is that letter of resignation already locked and loaded in your email, your index finger ticking the Enter key. Your finger on the trigger...
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Innocent
If you're going to try, go all the way.
Maybe you're a novelist working exclusively with the Amazon KDP self-publishing program and what started out as just a kind of curious, let's-see-what-happens thing turned into, I'm-making-enough-in-royalties-now-to-pay-the-mortgage-and-all-my-bills kind of thing.
Or maybe you're like me, a novelist and journalist who stresses the importance of utilizing not just one method of publication, but all three: Major, traditionally-based indie, and self-publishing.
Whatever the case, you've gone from obscure nobody to enjoying a profitable fan base in a relatively short amount of time. Now you find yourself getting up in the morning, getting dressed and hustling off to work, and all the time there's this voice inside your head saying, "Quit the day job. You don't need it anymore."
But will the royalties keep on coming?
Will your desire and ability to write good novels last?
Will changes in an ever volatile e-book market affect your sales?
Or have you simply gotten really lucky over the past couple of years and now the luck is about to run out?
The answer is yes and no.
The only guarantee for a the full-time writer is that there are no guarantees.
So what are you going to do? Are you going to play it safe and keep the day job? Or is that letter of resignation already locked and loaded in your email, your index finger ticking the Enter key. Your finger on the trigger...
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Innocent
Russo's War
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Russo is trying to stop progress or, said another way, reverse recent history. He's decided to boycott the ebook edition of his newest collection of stories (You can get the exciting story here) in favor of only paper versions (Go to hell all you trees!). Russo feels that in doing so he will become the savior of the ever failing independent bookstore. Hey Russo, where were you when the behemoth Barnes and Nobles and Border's bookstore giants were crushing the itsy bitsy independents? Oh, you were doing book signing tours for them, right? Course you were.
In any case, Russo claims that lots of authors will eventually give up their ebook editions in order to follow his crusade. Wow, Richard, we're all holding our breath. I wonder how many paper copies Russo will sell regardless of giving up ebook sales? I can bet it will be a lot. Certainly more than the average mid-list author who usually won't earn enough back on paper sales to make up his or her advance. But now with ebooks being all the rage, and having great books available at affordable prices to young people who are devouring them on their e-readers, many authors can make a good solid living again. I know, I'm one of them.
Sure, all my books are published in paper, audio, and e-book, and yes I publish with a major publisher (Thomas & Mercer) and with at least two, small, independent publishers (including StoneHouse and StoneGate Ink). Like a writing professor of mine once said, "I lust publishing." Me too! Heck, if there were a way for a book to be published over a smart phone, I would lust that too. Oh, wait, you can get all twelve of my in-print books on a smart phone. You can read plenty of Russo's books that way too.
I wonder if the entire literary intelligentsia is going to jump on the Russo, "Let's go back to the olden days when authors had to struggle to be published and hardcover books cost $30 a piece?" I wonder if the MFA programs and the literary wanna-be NYT newspaper reporters will join in? Not likely. Then they'd have to stop the electronic versions of their papers appearing on their Nooks and Kindles. I wonder if the bookstores Russo is trying to save will give up the antiquated old fashioned system of book returns or stop pulling new books from the shelves after only six weeks? I wonder if they will give up their Internet connections, their Google searches, their smartphones, their Pandora and their Sirius radio in order to support musicians who want to see a return to vinyl records and cash for each single played on the air?
Ok, my point is made.
Mr. Russo, I have the utmost respect for your talents, but please don't encourage other authors who have not won a Pulitzer to follow in your footsteps. Instead encourage them to sign the paper editions of their books at their local independent bookseller. Not since the 1920s have authors enjoyed so much freedom to publish however and wherever they want without having to suffer horrible humiliation at the hands of the corporate media giants. And make no mistake about it, the untalented ones will fail and the talented ones will persevere and sell, just like always. It's not how the words are published, Mr. Russo, it's the fact that they are being published and that people are reading them again at an affordable price.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
Vincent Zandri
Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Russo is trying to stop progress or, said another way, reverse recent history. He's decided to boycott the ebook edition of his newest collection of stories (You can get the exciting story here) in favor of only paper versions (Go to hell all you trees!). Russo feels that in doing so he will become the savior of the ever failing independent bookstore. Hey Russo, where were you when the behemoth Barnes and Nobles and Border's bookstore giants were crushing the itsy bitsy independents? Oh, you were doing book signing tours for them, right? Course you were.
In any case, Russo claims that lots of authors will eventually give up their ebook editions in order to follow his crusade. Wow, Richard, we're all holding our breath. I wonder how many paper copies Russo will sell regardless of giving up ebook sales? I can bet it will be a lot. Certainly more than the average mid-list author who usually won't earn enough back on paper sales to make up his or her advance. But now with ebooks being all the rage, and having great books available at affordable prices to young people who are devouring them on their e-readers, many authors can make a good solid living again. I know, I'm one of them.
Sure, all my books are published in paper, audio, and e-book, and yes I publish with a major publisher (Thomas & Mercer) and with at least two, small, independent publishers (including StoneHouse and StoneGate Ink). Like a writing professor of mine once said, "I lust publishing." Me too! Heck, if there were a way for a book to be published over a smart phone, I would lust that too. Oh, wait, you can get all twelve of my in-print books on a smart phone. You can read plenty of Russo's books that way too.
I wonder if the entire literary intelligentsia is going to jump on the Russo, "Let's go back to the olden days when authors had to struggle to be published and hardcover books cost $30 a piece?" I wonder if the MFA programs and the literary wanna-be NYT newspaper reporters will join in? Not likely. Then they'd have to stop the electronic versions of their papers appearing on their Nooks and Kindles. I wonder if the bookstores Russo is trying to save will give up the antiquated old fashioned system of book returns or stop pulling new books from the shelves after only six weeks? I wonder if they will give up their Internet connections, their Google searches, their smartphones, their Pandora and their Sirius radio in order to support musicians who want to see a return to vinyl records and cash for each single played on the air?
Ok, my point is made.
Mr. Russo, I have the utmost respect for your talents, but please don't encourage other authors who have not won a Pulitzer to follow in your footsteps. Instead encourage them to sign the paper editions of their books at their local independent bookseller. Not since the 1920s have authors enjoyed so much freedom to publish however and wherever they want without having to suffer horrible humiliation at the hands of the corporate media giants. And make no mistake about it, the untalented ones will fail and the talented ones will persevere and sell, just like always. It's not how the words are published, Mr. Russo, it's the fact that they are being published and that people are reading them again at an affordable price.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
Vincent Zandri
The Red Pill
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
It's the moment I've been waiting for, for nearly ten years now.
The moment 5 of my my in-print books and 3 brand new books get republished with a really big house that knows how to sell books (and that's saying it rather lightly). It's the moment I've worked for since my split with Random House. The moment I've honed and sharpened in my mind with each book I wrote and each publication that rose up the charts with some really great small presses and indie publishers like my brothers and sisters at StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink.
I've put up with empty bank accounts, broken relationships, too many sleepless nights, ugly book signings, and at times a hopelessness and an anxiety so profound it was crippling. But then I've also had the great fortune of having enjoyed a creative well that is at present 7 years deep and doesn't show any signs of drying up.
I've enjoyed some nice relationships, met a bunch of new friends, traveled to some distant and exotic lands both as a journalist and novelist, and even been blessed with being reunited with the same woman who inspired me all those years ago. I've seen my bank account refill and I've watched my books go from selling hundreds per year to selling hundreds of thousands.
Next year at this time, I will have sold more than a million copies of my in-print hard-boiled novels. That to me is mind boggling, but a reality nonetheless. A new kind of surreality.
So life has changed for me. And now, in this hinterland between past and future, I await a brand new life filled with publishing possibilities and creative works I never would have dreamed up a dozen years ago when I signed my first major contract. I no longer think on a local level. I think globally and I write for a global audience. My books will never go out of print. The antiquated system of returns means nothing to me now that my novels are being published not only in paper, but ebook and audio.
It's a new world I'm about to enter into. I've swallowed the red pill, and I'm passing through a new doorway that will show me where the rabbit hole goes.
Listen up on September 4th 2012 when the long pause becomes the big bang!
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
It's the moment I've been waiting for, for nearly ten years now.
The moment 5 of my my in-print books and 3 brand new books get republished with a really big house that knows how to sell books (and that's saying it rather lightly). It's the moment I've worked for since my split with Random House. The moment I've honed and sharpened in my mind with each book I wrote and each publication that rose up the charts with some really great small presses and indie publishers like my brothers and sisters at StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink.
I've put up with empty bank accounts, broken relationships, too many sleepless nights, ugly book signings, and at times a hopelessness and an anxiety so profound it was crippling. But then I've also had the great fortune of having enjoyed a creative well that is at present 7 years deep and doesn't show any signs of drying up.
I've enjoyed some nice relationships, met a bunch of new friends, traveled to some distant and exotic lands both as a journalist and novelist, and even been blessed with being reunited with the same woman who inspired me all those years ago. I've seen my bank account refill and I've watched my books go from selling hundreds per year to selling hundreds of thousands.
Next year at this time, I will have sold more than a million copies of my in-print hard-boiled novels. That to me is mind boggling, but a reality nonetheless. A new kind of surreality.
So life has changed for me. And now, in this hinterland between past and future, I await a brand new life filled with publishing possibilities and creative works I never would have dreamed up a dozen years ago when I signed my first major contract. I no longer think on a local level. I think globally and I write for a global audience. My books will never go out of print. The antiquated system of returns means nothing to me now that my novels are being published not only in paper, but ebook and audio.
It's a new world I'm about to enter into. I've swallowed the red pill, and I'm passing through a new doorway that will show me where the rabbit hole goes.
Listen up on September 4th 2012 when the long pause becomes the big bang!
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
Survivor Man
The following post is now appearing in slightly different form at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The year was 2005 and I was at my wick’s end.
What had started out as a stellar literary career of writing crime novels for a Random House imprint to the tune of 200K a pop in advance money, went south due to a corporate merger. I had published two books that were going nowhere and, at the same time, gotten involved in a ghost writing project that, while sending me around the world on a fact finding mission on the client’s dime, nearly drove me towards a nervous breakdown when it came time for the actual writing. Imagine writing for someone who is constantly telling you, “You can’t write that piece of dialogue. My friend George Bush won’t like it.” That’s the kind of vice tightening madness I was up against.
I was broke from a protracted divorce, without a home I could call my own, no money in the bank, considerable debt, no book contracts, no work, nothing. I had recently remarried and it was not going well. Instead of being a good and decent husband, I spent most of my nights staying up until the wee hours, stressing, plotting, but mostly just feeling sorry for myself. Things got so bad, my wife asked me to move out. I loved her more than any woman in the world. And because I loved her, I did what she asked of me. I moved out.
A couple of months later I woke on a cold Christmas morning. The kids were already up, but I decided I didn’t want to have a Christmas that year. So I stayed in bed until everyone had opened their gifts. When I finally emerged from my bedroom sometime that late afternoon, I went immediately to the refrigerator and cracked open a beer. I also lit up a cigarette. I stood there at the sink, staring at the beer and the blue smoke rising up from the cigarette. I knew I had reached a pivotal moment in my life. I could either slide down that slippery slope towards certain protracted death. Or, I could somehow make the effort to get my life back together.
I’m not sure what came over me at that very moment in time, but I put out the cigarette and dumped the beer. I apologized to my family over missing Christmas and then I put on my running clothes and went for a long jog on that cold December afternoon.
The next day I went back to work. Since it was going to be a while until I could manage another book contract, I went back to the beginning, so to speak. I went back to the same kind of freelance journalism and freelance writing that had originally sustained me back when I was just starting out. It took some time, but I eventually scored gigs with some global publications. I worked so hard at it day in and day out, that within the year I was working for RT, Russia’s English speaking 24 hour global satellite news network. I found myself writing news pieces, professional blogs and photographing in places like West Africa, Moscow, Italy, Paris and other destinations. I also secured some much needed bread and butter work with some trade journals that specialized in architecture, building, and design. Suddenly, I was paying my rent and putting some money away. I’d even managed to pay up most of my debt. Not bad considering when I moved out of my house my wife loaned me fifty bucks in order to start a checking account.
I wasn’t only writing journalism at the time. I was also stealing an hour or so a day to work on the new novel that would become Moonlight Falls. To my surprise, an agent willingly took it on, and while I was still more or less blackballed by the majors for having not earned out my original $250K advance, she secured a contract with a small publisher. I couldn’t have been happier. I was not only back as a professional writer and journalist, I had a new book coming out.
I was so encouraged by my humble but serious success that I started taking even more time out to write fiction. That next year I wrote The Remains, The Concrete Pearl, and then Moonlight Rises. Those got picked up by one of the hottest indie publishers in the business. In the meantime, my agent managed to re-acquire the rights to my Random House books, The Innocent and Godchild. My new publisher agreed to republish them also. By the fourth year of my career rebuilding and re-commitment to excellence, I had sold more than one-hundred thousand copies of The Innocent and nearly the same for Godchild. The Remains would go on to sell at least as many. Almost all of these sales were e-book sales, which meant the books would never go out of print. In the end, I sold so many books I would have earned out my Random House advance.
Enter year six. With my new sales record and the income that was coming in along with it, I found myself with a new agent. That agent took able to repackage Vincent Zandri and acquire an eight book, “very nice deal” with arguably the hottest and potentially most powerful new major publisher on the block: Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing. I had come full circle.
It took six full years to overcome the hump, or slump if you will, that began with a simple corporate restructuring. No matter what you call it, it still resulted in my having been served a crap sandwich. But there’s a major lesson to be learned here. As bad and personally directed as it all seemed at the time, my situation wasn’t unique. This business is fraught with disappointments and stumbling blocks too numerous to mention here. It’s not a matter of avoiding them since you can’t possibly avoid them all, but a matter of positioning yourself so that you can deal with them without having to take too many steps backwards.
Sure I have the major deal again but unlike the last time, I have set myself up so that I am never without a writing income, should one of my sources go south. How can you do the same?
--Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. If you’re a journalist and/or freelance writer, try and maintain a client or two, even if your books are making you a nice living. The money will be welcome, and it will keep your journalism skills sharp.
--Don’t rely on one method of publishing. Acquire major, traditionally-based independent, and self publishing contracts. This is an ever changing business and what seems like an awesome major contract today can become a real dog tomorrow.
--Ally yourself with a very good agent. He or she will secure you work should you need it. And of course, they will sell your movie, TV, and foreign rights.
--Take care of yourself. I still like to drink beer and wine, but I never again touched another cigarette after that one dreadful Christmas day nearly seven years ago now. I run and lift on a daily basis and I love to cook good food.
--Travel. See the world and write about it. This will re-energize the batteries and give you a global perspective, the least of which is this: the world and the universe does not revolve around you.
--If you’re in bad relationship that prohibits your making a success of yourself as a writer, get out of it. My second wife saw the destructiveness of our relationship and she made the difficult decision to end it while we still had love for one another and even a friendship. Today, I have my life back together and we are once more a couple. But this relationship is so different from what we had before, that she seems like an entirely new woman to me. And as for me, I’m an entirely new man. I’ve learned from my mistakes and turned a disaster into a success. More importantly, I’ve grown up. And in doing so, I survived the slump.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
The year was 2005 and I was at my wick’s end.
What had started out as a stellar literary career of writing crime novels for a Random House imprint to the tune of 200K a pop in advance money, went south due to a corporate merger. I had published two books that were going nowhere and, at the same time, gotten involved in a ghost writing project that, while sending me around the world on a fact finding mission on the client’s dime, nearly drove me towards a nervous breakdown when it came time for the actual writing. Imagine writing for someone who is constantly telling you, “You can’t write that piece of dialogue. My friend George Bush won’t like it.” That’s the kind of vice tightening madness I was up against.
I was broke from a protracted divorce, without a home I could call my own, no money in the bank, considerable debt, no book contracts, no work, nothing. I had recently remarried and it was not going well. Instead of being a good and decent husband, I spent most of my nights staying up until the wee hours, stressing, plotting, but mostly just feeling sorry for myself. Things got so bad, my wife asked me to move out. I loved her more than any woman in the world. And because I loved her, I did what she asked of me. I moved out.
A couple of months later I woke on a cold Christmas morning. The kids were already up, but I decided I didn’t want to have a Christmas that year. So I stayed in bed until everyone had opened their gifts. When I finally emerged from my bedroom sometime that late afternoon, I went immediately to the refrigerator and cracked open a beer. I also lit up a cigarette. I stood there at the sink, staring at the beer and the blue smoke rising up from the cigarette. I knew I had reached a pivotal moment in my life. I could either slide down that slippery slope towards certain protracted death. Or, I could somehow make the effort to get my life back together.
I’m not sure what came over me at that very moment in time, but I put out the cigarette and dumped the beer. I apologized to my family over missing Christmas and then I put on my running clothes and went for a long jog on that cold December afternoon.
The next day I went back to work. Since it was going to be a while until I could manage another book contract, I went back to the beginning, so to speak. I went back to the same kind of freelance journalism and freelance writing that had originally sustained me back when I was just starting out. It took some time, but I eventually scored gigs with some global publications. I worked so hard at it day in and day out, that within the year I was working for RT, Russia’s English speaking 24 hour global satellite news network. I found myself writing news pieces, professional blogs and photographing in places like West Africa, Moscow, Italy, Paris and other destinations. I also secured some much needed bread and butter work with some trade journals that specialized in architecture, building, and design. Suddenly, I was paying my rent and putting some money away. I’d even managed to pay up most of my debt. Not bad considering when I moved out of my house my wife loaned me fifty bucks in order to start a checking account.
I wasn’t only writing journalism at the time. I was also stealing an hour or so a day to work on the new novel that would become Moonlight Falls. To my surprise, an agent willingly took it on, and while I was still more or less blackballed by the majors for having not earned out my original $250K advance, she secured a contract with a small publisher. I couldn’t have been happier. I was not only back as a professional writer and journalist, I had a new book coming out.
I was so encouraged by my humble but serious success that I started taking even more time out to write fiction. That next year I wrote The Remains, The Concrete Pearl, and then Moonlight Rises. Those got picked up by one of the hottest indie publishers in the business. In the meantime, my agent managed to re-acquire the rights to my Random House books, The Innocent and Godchild. My new publisher agreed to republish them also. By the fourth year of my career rebuilding and re-commitment to excellence, I had sold more than one-hundred thousand copies of The Innocent and nearly the same for Godchild. The Remains would go on to sell at least as many. Almost all of these sales were e-book sales, which meant the books would never go out of print. In the end, I sold so many books I would have earned out my Random House advance.
Enter year six. With my new sales record and the income that was coming in along with it, I found myself with a new agent. That agent took able to repackage Vincent Zandri and acquire an eight book, “very nice deal” with arguably the hottest and potentially most powerful new major publisher on the block: Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing. I had come full circle.
It took six full years to overcome the hump, or slump if you will, that began with a simple corporate restructuring. No matter what you call it, it still resulted in my having been served a crap sandwich. But there’s a major lesson to be learned here. As bad and personally directed as it all seemed at the time, my situation wasn’t unique. This business is fraught with disappointments and stumbling blocks too numerous to mention here. It’s not a matter of avoiding them since you can’t possibly avoid them all, but a matter of positioning yourself so that you can deal with them without having to take too many steps backwards.
Sure I have the major deal again but unlike the last time, I have set myself up so that I am never without a writing income, should one of my sources go south. How can you do the same?
--Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. If you’re a journalist and/or freelance writer, try and maintain a client or two, even if your books are making you a nice living. The money will be welcome, and it will keep your journalism skills sharp.
--Don’t rely on one method of publishing. Acquire major, traditionally-based independent, and self publishing contracts. This is an ever changing business and what seems like an awesome major contract today can become a real dog tomorrow.
--Ally yourself with a very good agent. He or she will secure you work should you need it. And of course, they will sell your movie, TV, and foreign rights.
--Take care of yourself. I still like to drink beer and wine, but I never again touched another cigarette after that one dreadful Christmas day nearly seven years ago now. I run and lift on a daily basis and I love to cook good food.
--Travel. See the world and write about it. This will re-energize the batteries and give you a global perspective, the least of which is this: the world and the universe does not revolve around you.
--If you’re in bad relationship that prohibits your making a success of yourself as a writer, get out of it. My second wife saw the destructiveness of our relationship and she made the difficult decision to end it while we still had love for one another and even a friendship. Today, I have my life back together and we are once more a couple. But this relationship is so different from what we had before, that she seems like an entirely new woman to me. And as for me, I’m an entirely new man. I’ve learned from my mistakes and turned a disaster into a success. More importantly, I’ve grown up. And in doing so, I survived the slump.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
Google's "Glasses" Will Change the World Forever
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Vox in slightly different form: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Wondering how we'll be reading and even writing our books in the very near future? Hint: you won't need a hand-held device nor will you require a laptop...Just don't forget your glasses....
Google's "Project Glass" has already developed the prototype to the world's first pair of eyeglasses that delivers and transposes real-time information before your eyes. Its applications are mind-boggling, especially for readers and writers.
Feel like reading a book on the train without having to utilize that cumbersome, and now very old fashioned E-Reader? Just put on your glasses
Want to write another chapter of you new novel, but don't feel like sitting inside a cramped writing studio? Head on outside and transcribe the action to your new glasses while you walk.
Sportsmen and women looking to land that big trout can put on their glasses and get real time data on precisely where it's hiding and what kind of fly it wants to eat.
Travelers won't need to juggle a smart phone when trying to find their way around a foreign city or for that matter, a busy airport.
Speaking of airports: Just put on your glasses and your identification, profile, boarding passes, and seat assignment will all be taken care of...And once that's done, you can phone the wife and kids at the same time while using both hands to eat your lunch.
I can see the future...The many gadgets we now plug into our electrical wall sockets on a daily basis...the Nook or Kindle, the Smart Phone, the I-Pad, the Laptop...it's all going bye-bye in the blink of an eye, now that Project Glass has its eye on a new world with 20/20 super vision.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
Wondering how we'll be reading and even writing our books in the very near future? Hint: you won't need a hand-held device nor will you require a laptop...Just don't forget your glasses....
Google's "Project Glass" has already developed the prototype to the world's first pair of eyeglasses that delivers and transposes real-time information before your eyes. Its applications are mind-boggling, especially for readers and writers.
Feel like reading a book on the train without having to utilize that cumbersome, and now very old fashioned E-Reader? Just put on your glasses
Want to write another chapter of you new novel, but don't feel like sitting inside a cramped writing studio? Head on outside and transcribe the action to your new glasses while you walk.
Sportsmen and women looking to land that big trout can put on their glasses and get real time data on precisely where it's hiding and what kind of fly it wants to eat.
Travelers won't need to juggle a smart phone when trying to find their way around a foreign city or for that matter, a busy airport.
Speaking of airports: Just put on your glasses and your identification, profile, boarding passes, and seat assignment will all be taken care of...And once that's done, you can phone the wife and kids at the same time while using both hands to eat your lunch.
I can see the future...The many gadgets we now plug into our electrical wall sockets on a daily basis...the Nook or Kindle, the Smart Phone, the I-Pad, the Laptop...it's all going bye-bye in the blink of an eye, now that Project Glass has its eye on a new world with 20/20 super vision.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
Release me ... Let Me Go!
The following blog is "Now Appearing" at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
I had six books released five days ago.
I'm still trying to wrap that number around my finger...get a grip on it.
Two of those titles are brand new releases...Well, scratch that. One of them, Blue Moonlight, is brand new. The other, The Concrete Pearl, is almost brand new, having been published originally about a year ago with hot indie publisher, StoneGate Ink....
The other books are as follows (click on the website link below if you want buy some):
The Remains
The Innocent
Godchild
Moonlight Rises....
All of the books are doing great right out of the gate and I'm not surprised. My new publisher is Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing. While my agent could have accepted similar deals in terms of advance money from other, more traditional publishers, I would not even entertain the thought of it. I've been published by the traditional majors in the past and trust me when I say you are pretty much on your own when publication date arrives. They put your out to sea in a rubber raft. If you happen to make it to dry land unscathed, they gladly take credit for putting you on the right course. If you drift in circles and die from starvation, then well, it's your own damned fault.
Not so with Amazon Publishing. Just yesterday I received an email from my marketing staff, detailing (in bullet form) their initial marketing plan. That's right, "initial." In the words of one of my peeps at T&M, "We are on fire for you!" That's the kind of enthusiasm and support that takes my breath away. And the numbers show it. While "Pearl" is closing in on the top 500 in overall Kindle sales, "Blue" is edging its way towards the top 1000. And the others are holding their own nicely. Paper and European/Asian sales are also beginning to happen as well.
When I think back to where I was just five years ago after having published two books under two Random House imprints and how dreadful an experience it was, I shake my head and shiver. It's a new world and the new publishing model is quickly dismantling an old system that worked for only a few, very wealthy people, while writers were considered a necessary evil.
I'm embracing it. Are you?
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Blue Moonlight
Vincent Zandri
I had six books released five days ago.
I'm still trying to wrap that number around my finger...get a grip on it.
Two of those titles are brand new releases...Well, scratch that. One of them, Blue Moonlight, is brand new. The other, The Concrete Pearl, is almost brand new, having been published originally about a year ago with hot indie publisher, StoneGate Ink....
The other books are as follows (click on the website link below if you want buy some):
The Remains
The Innocent
Godchild
Moonlight Rises....
All of the books are doing great right out of the gate and I'm not surprised. My new publisher is Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing. While my agent could have accepted similar deals in terms of advance money from other, more traditional publishers, I would not even entertain the thought of it. I've been published by the traditional majors in the past and trust me when I say you are pretty much on your own when publication date arrives. They put your out to sea in a rubber raft. If you happen to make it to dry land unscathed, they gladly take credit for putting you on the right course. If you drift in circles and die from starvation, then well, it's your own damned fault.
Not so with Amazon Publishing. Just yesterday I received an email from my marketing staff, detailing (in bullet form) their initial marketing plan. That's right, "initial." In the words of one of my peeps at T&M, "We are on fire for you!" That's the kind of enthusiasm and support that takes my breath away. And the numbers show it. While "Pearl" is closing in on the top 500 in overall Kindle sales, "Blue" is edging its way towards the top 1000. And the others are holding their own nicely. Paper and European/Asian sales are also beginning to happen as well.
When I think back to where I was just five years ago after having published two books under two Random House imprints and how dreadful an experience it was, I shake my head and shiver. It's a new world and the new publishing model is quickly dismantling an old system that worked for only a few, very wealthy people, while writers were considered a necessary evil.
I'm embracing it. Are you?
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Blue Moonlight
Vincent Zandri
Libraries Get It
The following blog is now appearing at the Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
I'm week three into the re-release of five novels along with the release of two new novels: BLUE MOONLIGHT and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GRACE. The former by a major, Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing and the latter from an indie, StoneHouse Ink. While the "Blue" E-Book edition, especially Kindle, is being pushed in a major way, it's also available in paper and audio, etc. For the time being however, "Grace" is available in E-Book only. In the meantime the new editions of my five previously published novels are moving like crazy. In E-Book primarily.
You see where I'm going with this...
In the past three weeks I've moved more units of my novels than I did in an entire first year with Delacorte. No lie. Much of that has to do with the tremendous author support I am lucky enough to enjoy from Amazon Publishing (They are so good, they even push my independent books, if you can imagine that...), but it also has a lot to do with the changing nature of publishing. E-Books have been and are now becoming the most popular way by which we read. The mass market paperback is quickly disappearing. So is the hardcover while the trade paperback takes over the roll of both.
This leaves me in a bit of a conundrum. I find myself wanting to do some in-person promotion of my books, aside from the stuff I do at several writerly book conferences every year (I never sell many books at these things anyway since they are attended primarily by other writers and all we do is have fun eating and drinking together). But approaching brick and mortar bookstores with the prospect of a book signing in support of paper being published by their major competitor is probably a road I want to avoid. And besides, book signings are always a gamble anyway. In short, they suck.
But there are other avenues to explore. Schools, universities, and hell, even book signings at coffee shops and my favorite, the local corner gin mill. And then there's the holy grail of book venues: the library. I have always been a fan of libraries and the fact that no matter what happens in terms of the evolutionary/de-evolutionary business/retail aspect of writing, the library will always withstand the test of time. A place to store many volumes, both ancient and new, as well as a place to share and exchange ideas. From Socretes to Stephen King, the library has always been a refuge for the intellectual, for the hopeful, the creative, the thinker, and the dreamer.
That clearly in mind, I contacted the head rep for my local library system, the Albany Public Library and asked her about setting up an event much like the one we did for Moonlight Falls back in 2010. This one would be in Dec/Jan in conjunction with yet another new Thomas & Mercer novel, MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, a fictional take on the infamous Porco axe murder case which hit New York's Capital region some years back. She was happy to hear from me for more than one reason. I played drums in her band a while ago, and we are friends. She was delighted to set up an event for "Murder." But just as I was about to tell her how great the trade paperback version of "Murder" looked, she said, "We're really pushing E-Books these days."
I must admit, I was taken a bit back. Me, the king of E-Books.
Libraries pushing E-Books...What a concept.
That said, my library event will more than likely be about the E-Book version of my brand new book and it will take place inside the hallowed halls of an institution older than even the world's most ancient cathedral. But then, E-Books are becoming far more popular than paper and libraries recognize this. Doesn't mean they are about to give up their paper. Just means they are adapting. Can't say the same thing about bookstores. But something tells me they'll get it eventually. Hopefully before it's too late.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Blue MoonlightVincent Zandri
I'm week three into the re-release of five novels along with the release of two new novels: BLUE MOONLIGHT and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GRACE. The former by a major, Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing and the latter from an indie, StoneHouse Ink. While the "Blue" E-Book edition, especially Kindle, is being pushed in a major way, it's also available in paper and audio, etc. For the time being however, "Grace" is available in E-Book only. In the meantime the new editions of my five previously published novels are moving like crazy. In E-Book primarily.
You see where I'm going with this...
In the past three weeks I've moved more units of my novels than I did in an entire first year with Delacorte. No lie. Much of that has to do with the tremendous author support I am lucky enough to enjoy from Amazon Publishing (They are so good, they even push my independent books, if you can imagine that...), but it also has a lot to do with the changing nature of publishing. E-Books have been and are now becoming the most popular way by which we read. The mass market paperback is quickly disappearing. So is the hardcover while the trade paperback takes over the roll of both.
This leaves me in a bit of a conundrum. I find myself wanting to do some in-person promotion of my books, aside from the stuff I do at several writerly book conferences every year (I never sell many books at these things anyway since they are attended primarily by other writers and all we do is have fun eating and drinking together). But approaching brick and mortar bookstores with the prospect of a book signing in support of paper being published by their major competitor is probably a road I want to avoid. And besides, book signings are always a gamble anyway. In short, they suck.
But there are other avenues to explore. Schools, universities, and hell, even book signings at coffee shops and my favorite, the local corner gin mill. And then there's the holy grail of book venues: the library. I have always been a fan of libraries and the fact that no matter what happens in terms of the evolutionary/de-evolutionary business/retail aspect of writing, the library will always withstand the test of time. A place to store many volumes, both ancient and new, as well as a place to share and exchange ideas. From Socretes to Stephen King, the library has always been a refuge for the intellectual, for the hopeful, the creative, the thinker, and the dreamer.
That clearly in mind, I contacted the head rep for my local library system, the Albany Public Library and asked her about setting up an event much like the one we did for Moonlight Falls back in 2010. This one would be in Dec/Jan in conjunction with yet another new Thomas & Mercer novel, MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, a fictional take on the infamous Porco axe murder case which hit New York's Capital region some years back. She was happy to hear from me for more than one reason. I played drums in her band a while ago, and we are friends. She was delighted to set up an event for "Murder." But just as I was about to tell her how great the trade paperback version of "Murder" looked, she said, "We're really pushing E-Books these days."
I must admit, I was taken a bit back. Me, the king of E-Books.
Libraries pushing E-Books...What a concept.
That said, my library event will more than likely be about the E-Book version of my brand new book and it will take place inside the hallowed halls of an institution older than even the world's most ancient cathedral. But then, E-Books are becoming far more popular than paper and libraries recognize this. Doesn't mean they are about to give up their paper. Just means they are adapting. Can't say the same thing about bookstores. But something tells me they'll get it eventually. Hopefully before it's too late.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Blue MoonlightVincent Zandri
What's Old is Hot
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Voyager: http://vincentzandrinoirauthor.blogsp...
Remember the feeling of buying a new album?
Not a compact disk, but a real vinyl LP. If you still didn't have you drivers license your mother or father carted you to the record store and you dropped the five bucks you earned from delivering papers or babysitting, and you stared at the cover art all the way home. Once insde the house, you shot up to your room, peeled away the plastic, smelled the good smell of the cardboard sleeve that somehow combined with the smell of the vinyl record to create a fragrance that in my life anyway, has never been replicated. You slipped the record onto the turntable praying it wouldn't be warped, and then you gently set the needle onto the record. You sat yourself down on your bed with the album cover gripped in your hands and you listened for the first pops and hisses and scratches that can only come from vinyl, until the music kicked in and transported you a million miles away.
That experience has never been duplicated for me in the modern age of music downloads and internet radio stations. Music has gone from being a very personal emotional event to something more like a plastic backdrop. Instead of enjoying a one on one with the music artist, we now create for ourselves, our own particular brand of Muzac. The loss of the personal music experience that could only come from vinyl is almost like losing a language or even a religion.
But now vinyl is back. In a big way. This holiday season, one of the bestsellers is, and will continue to be, newly remixed and repackaged albums from some of the bands we have loved the most for decades. The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, and more...Now I need to go out and buy a new turntable. What's old is hot again, proving it's not the technology we're after, but the experience. The personal experience.
Look for the same thing to occur in the books. While E-Books, Kindles, Nooks and other digitized versions of books will continue to take off and even dominate the market for years to come, there will come, sooner than later, a resurgence not only of paper books, but beautifully bound rich paper volumes. What's old will be hot.
It's one thing to keep up with technology and always be moving forward. But it's another to abandon entirely the personal experience we once shared only with ourselves when we cracked open a brand new novel, or when we gently, hopefully, placed that diamond needle down onto a new album
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Murder By Moonlight
Remember the feeling of buying a new album?
Not a compact disk, but a real vinyl LP. If you still didn't have you drivers license your mother or father carted you to the record store and you dropped the five bucks you earned from delivering papers or babysitting, and you stared at the cover art all the way home. Once insde the house, you shot up to your room, peeled away the plastic, smelled the good smell of the cardboard sleeve that somehow combined with the smell of the vinyl record to create a fragrance that in my life anyway, has never been replicated. You slipped the record onto the turntable praying it wouldn't be warped, and then you gently set the needle onto the record. You sat yourself down on your bed with the album cover gripped in your hands and you listened for the first pops and hisses and scratches that can only come from vinyl, until the music kicked in and transported you a million miles away.
That experience has never been duplicated for me in the modern age of music downloads and internet radio stations. Music has gone from being a very personal emotional event to something more like a plastic backdrop. Instead of enjoying a one on one with the music artist, we now create for ourselves, our own particular brand of Muzac. The loss of the personal music experience that could only come from vinyl is almost like losing a language or even a religion.
But now vinyl is back. In a big way. This holiday season, one of the bestsellers is, and will continue to be, newly remixed and repackaged albums from some of the bands we have loved the most for decades. The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, and more...Now I need to go out and buy a new turntable. What's old is hot again, proving it's not the technology we're after, but the experience. The personal experience.
Look for the same thing to occur in the books. While E-Books, Kindles, Nooks and other digitized versions of books will continue to take off and even dominate the market for years to come, there will come, sooner than later, a resurgence not only of paper books, but beautifully bound rich paper volumes. What's old will be hot.
It's one thing to keep up with technology and always be moving forward. But it's another to abandon entirely the personal experience we once shared only with ourselves when we cracked open a brand new novel, or when we gently, hopefully, placed that diamond needle down onto a new album
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Murder By Moonlight
A Process of Discovery: Mixing Genres in 'Murder by Moonlight'
The following blog is now appearing in slightly different form at The Vincent Zandri Voyager: http://vincentzandrinoirauthor.blogsp...
I'm not known as an experimental writer.
In fact, I'm often accused of being a throwback to the very old days of Dash Hammett or even the more recent old days of the now, sadly late, Robert B. Parker and Jim Crumley. Not that I write as well as the aforementioned hard-boiled masters, but I am still trying to improve my skills on a daily basis, and that entails going out on a limb at times. In a word, it entails experimentation.
I think it was Jim Harrison who said, 'Life should be a process of discovery or else it's not life at all.' Or maybe it was Hemingway. In any case, in my newest release, Murder by Moonlight which is based on the true story of Bethlehem, New York axe murderer/attempted axe murderer, Chris Porco, I might have chosen to write a true crime novel. All the information on the case has already been published in the papers so it would have been a matter of putting it all together and telling the story, like it happened or supposedly happened.
But that's not me.
While conducting my research, I found a lot of discrepancies in the case, not the least of which is that, in my mind, it's impossible for one skinny young man to take a heavy fireman's axe to both his parents in the middle of the night, and not get at least some amount of blood spatter on his skin and clothing. I get spatter on my clothes just cooking a steak. It's because of inconsistencies in evidence like this that I decided to write a fictional truth about about the Porco murder in which I am able to dramatize what might have happened on that cold moonlight night back not too long ago.
I did something else too.
I normally write in a sparse, hard-boiled, noir style. But in this novel, because of the axe element, I added in a bit of horror as well. It's not a horror novel say in the vein of JA Konrath or Blake Crouch, nor would I attempt to even think about walking onto their territory with my limited skill set, but I can say this: "Murder" was a fun book to write simply because as an artist, I was presented the perfect canvass for mixing styles, and I think I pulled it off. That is, judging by the many great reviews received thus far, not to mention the very good sales.
How about you? Do you mix your genres? Have you ever attempted re-writing a true story in order to get at more possible truths?
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Murder By MoonlightVincent Zandri
I'm not known as an experimental writer.
In fact, I'm often accused of being a throwback to the very old days of Dash Hammett or even the more recent old days of the now, sadly late, Robert B. Parker and Jim Crumley. Not that I write as well as the aforementioned hard-boiled masters, but I am still trying to improve my skills on a daily basis, and that entails going out on a limb at times. In a word, it entails experimentation.
I think it was Jim Harrison who said, 'Life should be a process of discovery or else it's not life at all.' Or maybe it was Hemingway. In any case, in my newest release, Murder by Moonlight which is based on the true story of Bethlehem, New York axe murderer/attempted axe murderer, Chris Porco, I might have chosen to write a true crime novel. All the information on the case has already been published in the papers so it would have been a matter of putting it all together and telling the story, like it happened or supposedly happened.
But that's not me.
While conducting my research, I found a lot of discrepancies in the case, not the least of which is that, in my mind, it's impossible for one skinny young man to take a heavy fireman's axe to both his parents in the middle of the night, and not get at least some amount of blood spatter on his skin and clothing. I get spatter on my clothes just cooking a steak. It's because of inconsistencies in evidence like this that I decided to write a fictional truth about about the Porco murder in which I am able to dramatize what might have happened on that cold moonlight night back not too long ago.
I did something else too.
I normally write in a sparse, hard-boiled, noir style. But in this novel, because of the axe element, I added in a bit of horror as well. It's not a horror novel say in the vein of JA Konrath or Blake Crouch, nor would I attempt to even think about walking onto their territory with my limited skill set, but I can say this: "Murder" was a fun book to write simply because as an artist, I was presented the perfect canvass for mixing styles, and I think I pulled it off. That is, judging by the many great reviews received thus far, not to mention the very good sales.
How about you? Do you mix your genres? Have you ever attempted re-writing a true story in order to get at more possible truths?
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Murder By MoonlightVincent Zandri
ITW Interviews Vincent Zandri
The following article is now appearing in slightly different form at ITW's "The Big Thrill": http://www.thebigthrill.org/2012/12/m...
Murder by Moonlight Author, Vincent Zandri Talks Writing
By Milton C. Toby
The idea of “humorous noir” is so rife with contradictionthat it’s difficult to know what to make of an author who attaches that label to some of his work. But after talking with Vincent Zandri, author of MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, his latest release in the Dick Moonlight series, “humorous noir” starts to make sense.
Moonlight is a cop-turned-private detective who spends an inordinate amount of time making bad decisions in his personal and professional lives and getting into all sorts of trouble. That happens to a lot of us, but Moonlight’s got a pretty good excuse for his shortcomings, a fragment of a .22 caliber hollow point bullet lodged against the cerebral cortex in his brain. The injury affects his memory and compromises his ability to make rational decisions, and, for good measure, keeps him at death’s door.
A near-fatal brain injury that almost guarantees one disaster after another for the detective accounts for the “noir” part of the equation.
The humor? That comes with Zandri’s ability to make certain doom for his protagonist funny.
“Dick Moonlight really started in the gym,” Zandri explained. “There was this crazy dude who was working out all the time. He decided to become a masseur because he thought it was a great way to pick up women. It was the craziest thing I’d ever heard of. I was working on the character at the time, and I realized that because of the brain injury Moonlight could be as crazy as I want in the books. They’re are serious, but really meant to be fun.”
In MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, the detective faces his toughest case yet, an apparently open-and-shut murder investigation that proves to be far more complicated than a first look at the clues suggests. Moonlight’s new client, socialite Joan Parker, barely survived a brutal ax attack that killed her husband. Questioned by the police at the scene, she identified her son, Christopher, as the killer. The problem that Moonlight must unravel is that Joan now admits that she has no recollection of the attack and, despite her accusation, she is convinced that Christopher actually is innocent. Moonlight is familiar with near-death experiences, uncooperative memory, and false accusations, and he takes the case.
The result for Moonlight, the author says, is “something more sinister than anything he’s ever come up against.”
Zandri was a journalist first, a novelist later. He took a time-tested path, one that worked for him at the time, but one that now may be out of style thanks to the digital revolution.
“I started out covering sports for the local newspaper, and worked my way up from there” he said. “Working as a journalist taught me to write and it honed my skills. Then writing school in Vermont. I expected to teach and write literary fiction, a novel every two or three years. But I always wanted to be a freelancer.”
Would he do things differently now?
“That’s just what you did at that point in time,” Zandri said. “But things have changed. My son wants to start with a novel, talking to readers through social media, without going through the traditional route of agents and publishers. There are more opportunities for authors today than there were when I started writing.”
Easier doesn’t necessarily mean better, though, he added.
“Maybe it’s too easy to get published now. There is a lot of garbage out there, but the gems seem to rise to the top. Talent, hard work, and perseverance always will pay off in the end.”
Along the way, Zandri began taking photographs.
“I took some photography courses at my liberal arts college, this was in the 1980s, but I wasn’t thinking about photojournalism at the time. One day, by chance, I had my camera equipment with me when I witnessed a serious automobile accident. I started snapping away. The local paper wanted to buy the photographs, and so did the lawyers. This is great, I thought. You take photographs and you get paid for it.”
Journalist-to-novelist is a relatively common career sequence, the transfer of similar skill sets from one occupation to the other a logical one. Photographer-to-novelist, on the other hand, doesn’t happen as often, even though a good photographer has an aptitude that translates well to writing. The ability to compose the elements of a scene into an effective photograph is a skill similar to creating an effective scene with words.
“A photographer sees the scene first, the same way a writer tries to picture a scene happening on the page,” Zandri said. Writers are taught to “show, don’t tell.” For photographers, showing and telling are one and the same.
Zandri’s writing and photography took him to exotic locales around the world. Now he’s cutting back on that part of his life, spending more time on writing fiction.
“I want to keep my hand in, though,” Zandri said of his journalistic pursuits. “It’s like getting paid to exercise. But I want a mixed bag of publishing opportunities and genres. The business could change tomorrow, and you have to be ready.”
Zandri can turn out a Dick Moonlight book in about six weeks—the next one is due for release in Spring 2013—but his traditional noir novels take a little longer to write. When we talked in mid-December, he was putting the finishing touches on THE GUILTY, the third novel in a well-received series featuring private detective Jack Marconi. There has been a 10-year break between this one and the earlier Marconi books, THE INNOCENT and GODCHILD.
“It was good to get back to Jack Marconi,” Zandri said, “good to get back to his voice.”
Zandri works in a variety of genres—journalist, photographer, writing school graduate, noir novelist—and media—print and digital. He’s a traditionalist who has embraced cutting edge technology. Considering the variety, I asked if there was a common theme running through all of his work.
“I want readers to finish one of my books and think it was money well spent,” he explained. “I really appreciate the people who have stayed with me, and I always keep them in mind. I’m going to work hard for my readers.”
Murder By Moonlight
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Murder by Moonlight Author, Vincent Zandri Talks Writing
By Milton C. Toby
The idea of “humorous noir” is so rife with contradictionthat it’s difficult to know what to make of an author who attaches that label to some of his work. But after talking with Vincent Zandri, author of MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, his latest release in the Dick Moonlight series, “humorous noir” starts to make sense.
Moonlight is a cop-turned-private detective who spends an inordinate amount of time making bad decisions in his personal and professional lives and getting into all sorts of trouble. That happens to a lot of us, but Moonlight’s got a pretty good excuse for his shortcomings, a fragment of a .22 caliber hollow point bullet lodged against the cerebral cortex in his brain. The injury affects his memory and compromises his ability to make rational decisions, and, for good measure, keeps him at death’s door.
A near-fatal brain injury that almost guarantees one disaster after another for the detective accounts for the “noir” part of the equation.
The humor? That comes with Zandri’s ability to make certain doom for his protagonist funny.
“Dick Moonlight really started in the gym,” Zandri explained. “There was this crazy dude who was working out all the time. He decided to become a masseur because he thought it was a great way to pick up women. It was the craziest thing I’d ever heard of. I was working on the character at the time, and I realized that because of the brain injury Moonlight could be as crazy as I want in the books. They’re are serious, but really meant to be fun.”
In MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, the detective faces his toughest case yet, an apparently open-and-shut murder investigation that proves to be far more complicated than a first look at the clues suggests. Moonlight’s new client, socialite Joan Parker, barely survived a brutal ax attack that killed her husband. Questioned by the police at the scene, she identified her son, Christopher, as the killer. The problem that Moonlight must unravel is that Joan now admits that she has no recollection of the attack and, despite her accusation, she is convinced that Christopher actually is innocent. Moonlight is familiar with near-death experiences, uncooperative memory, and false accusations, and he takes the case.
The result for Moonlight, the author says, is “something more sinister than anything he’s ever come up against.”
Zandri was a journalist first, a novelist later. He took a time-tested path, one that worked for him at the time, but one that now may be out of style thanks to the digital revolution.
“I started out covering sports for the local newspaper, and worked my way up from there” he said. “Working as a journalist taught me to write and it honed my skills. Then writing school in Vermont. I expected to teach and write literary fiction, a novel every two or three years. But I always wanted to be a freelancer.”
Would he do things differently now?
“That’s just what you did at that point in time,” Zandri said. “But things have changed. My son wants to start with a novel, talking to readers through social media, without going through the traditional route of agents and publishers. There are more opportunities for authors today than there were when I started writing.”
Easier doesn’t necessarily mean better, though, he added.
“Maybe it’s too easy to get published now. There is a lot of garbage out there, but the gems seem to rise to the top. Talent, hard work, and perseverance always will pay off in the end.”
Along the way, Zandri began taking photographs.
“I took some photography courses at my liberal arts college, this was in the 1980s, but I wasn’t thinking about photojournalism at the time. One day, by chance, I had my camera equipment with me when I witnessed a serious automobile accident. I started snapping away. The local paper wanted to buy the photographs, and so did the lawyers. This is great, I thought. You take photographs and you get paid for it.”
Journalist-to-novelist is a relatively common career sequence, the transfer of similar skill sets from one occupation to the other a logical one. Photographer-to-novelist, on the other hand, doesn’t happen as often, even though a good photographer has an aptitude that translates well to writing. The ability to compose the elements of a scene into an effective photograph is a skill similar to creating an effective scene with words.
“A photographer sees the scene first, the same way a writer tries to picture a scene happening on the page,” Zandri said. Writers are taught to “show, don’t tell.” For photographers, showing and telling are one and the same.
Zandri’s writing and photography took him to exotic locales around the world. Now he’s cutting back on that part of his life, spending more time on writing fiction.
“I want to keep my hand in, though,” Zandri said of his journalistic pursuits. “It’s like getting paid to exercise. But I want a mixed bag of publishing opportunities and genres. The business could change tomorrow, and you have to be ready.”
Zandri can turn out a Dick Moonlight book in about six weeks—the next one is due for release in Spring 2013—but his traditional noir novels take a little longer to write. When we talked in mid-December, he was putting the finishing touches on THE GUILTY, the third novel in a well-received series featuring private detective Jack Marconi. There has been a 10-year break between this one and the earlier Marconi books, THE INNOCENT and GODCHILD.
“It was good to get back to Jack Marconi,” Zandri said, “good to get back to his voice.”
Zandri works in a variety of genres—journalist, photographer, writing school graduate, noir novelist—and media—print and digital. He’s a traditionalist who has embraced cutting edge technology. Considering the variety, I asked if there was a common theme running through all of his work.
“I want readers to finish one of my books and think it was money well spent,” he explained. “I really appreciate the people who have stayed with me, and I always keep them in mind. I’m going to work hard for my readers.”
Murder By Moonlight
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
