Pieces of Mind

by Vincent Zandri

  Today he will see the Uffizi Gallery, the world's most precious collection of Italian art in the world. Giotto, Leonardo, Rubens, Titian, Caravaggio and other masters will peer into Harrison and he will peer into them and his life will be changed even more.

  In the process, I get to see how my greatest work of art . . . my son . . . will continue to grow and evolve.

  —2011

  Father and Son Enjoy a First Beer Together

  Ok, comes a time in every parent's life (most parents anyway) where they sit down and enjoy a first beer with their son or daughter. In my case, my son Harrison and I were able to experience exactly that in the Irish Bar located in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy.

  Bear is 17 and a half and more than old enough to legally drink a beer here. So what a great opportunity to share something so sacred as a drink with my own son and to unwind and just talk with him in a way we rarely can back in the states.

  We took a table outside that my friends who work the establishment cleared for us. The bartender Steve (an art student and all around great dude), brought us two Heineken's a piece. Setting them on the table, Bear grabbed his in his fist and took a big swig. I told him to go easy. The alcohol could go to his head. But he just shrugged his shoulders like, "No big deal, dad."

  Suddenly I was reminded of that scene in the 80's comedy classic "Vacation" where Chevy Chase sits down to enjoy a first beer with his teenage son. The kid chugs the beer and crushes the can in his fist, making it plainly apparent it's obviously not his first. Now, I'm not condoning underage drinking here by any means. But what I'm talking about is a sacred rite of passage. In this case, I thought I was above being the forty something naive dad, and totally in tune with my son. But when he downed his beer like it was just another glass of Pepsi, I knew that this wasn't Bear's first beer by any means.

  It made me feel strange, like I didn't know him as well as I should. However, we had one more together and we entered through that rite of passage together and we talked about life and dreams and adventures and ups and downs, and all those things that make up a life worth living.

  Sharing your first beer with your son isn't all about beer. It's about love.

  —2011

  My Son: Chip Off the Old Block . . . Sort Of

  Did you ever find yourself watching your teenager eat and whispering softly to yourself: did I eat that much when I was his age?

  My 17 year old son, Bear, and I are now entering into week 4 of our month long stay in Italy. All has been smooth sailing as they say thus far, with our having investigated every museum, church, monastery, cathedral, catacomb, and tomb in Rome, Florence and beyond. We've seen relics like bits and pieces of the true cross, pieces of Christ's thorn of crowns, Galileo's teeth and cut off fingers, and the entire mummified body of Cosimo De' Medici (he was a tiny man for having made such a monumental impact on art and architecture). We've climbed mountains, towers and domes, and navigated narrow alleyways and tunnels. We've put in 5 miles a day running along both the Arno and the Tiber and we even found an old gym to bench press and get in some dead-lifting.

  All throughout the trip, I could not have asked for a better adventure companion if I'd pre-ordered one from out of an old Montgomery Ward catalog. But I have to say, man, can that boy eat. And not just your average pasta or lasagna. True to form, Bear goes for the more exotic in order to please his palate. Snails drowned in sauce. Squid and muscles soaking in a fish brine. Whole sardines sitting in a vat of olive oil and rank fish heads . . . It seems there is nothing the kid doesn't like or won't try.

  I don't recall being that adventurous an eater when I was his age. Pizza mostly, burgers and tacos. That was about the extent of my culinary table of contents. But not the Bear. Like he said on the plane over, he wants to experience everything he can about the life here in Florence.

  It's a shame I'm here to work or we might travel to some other out of the way places along the coast. But that will have to wait until I come back in just a few months. In the meantime, Bear wants me to book tickets for us to see the pyramids in Egypt. I'm sure he'll find the pyramids as breathtaking as he did climbing to the cupola atop St. Peter's Cathedral. I'm sure he'll make us ride a camel. He'll want to climb the pyramids, block by solid block. He'll want to look out over the valley and soak it all in.

  Afterwards, he'll find something exotic to eat. Something goopy, fishy, rank, and entirely dramatic. Chip off the old block . . . Sort of.

  —2011

  Finally, the Secret behind Great Sales

  A friend of mine who is a published author and great writer just emailed me about what it takes to sell a lot of books. E-Books in particular or so I'm assuming. At first I was ready to dig in with a two page email about marketing and social media and how important it is to maintain a constant presence on these digital mediums. I was also ready to discuss the importance of blogging two or three times a week on topics ranging from how to write a great noir novel to what I did on my summer vacation. Then there's Kindleboards, Goodreads, Crimespace, yadda . . .

  But then it occurred to me that no matter how much I talk about these issues, none of them are really responsible for selling books, so much as they simply spread the word about your books being available for sale on the free market. Social media can definitely help you sell books but it can also hurt sales when you abuse and over-use it. After all, you shouldn't be directly selling your books in a social media setting. You should be selling you the human being.

  So then, how was it I've been able to sell hundreds of thousands of e-books so far this year?

  Jeeze, I'm not entirely sure how I did it.

  But I do know this. If you want sell a lot of units (as they are lovingly called in the trade), you need to write great books (luckily my friend has this going for him already). You need a great cover (like me he's traditionally published so he has to rely on his team to produce this for him), a great product description and a very good if not "cheap" yup "cheap" price. As for the rest of the equation, you have to rely on a little luck here.

  But then, how can you improve your luck as an author who wants to sell lots of books? The best possible way is simply to write more books. Authors like Scott Nicholson and JA Konrath are making thousands of dollars every month not on just one title, but upwards of 40 titles. These guys aren’t sitting on a novel and rewriting it over and over again for two or three years. They are writing them in a matter of two or three months (please don't take this as gospel, I'm merely trying to make a point).

  But Vin, you say, how is it possible to write a great novel in two or three months?

  My answer is this: can you produce five good pages per day, five days a week? Or are you worried about writers block? If you believe in writers block, you must learn to change your beliefs. Writers block doesn't exist. If you're a writer your job is to show up at work every day and write. Granted, there will be days when Mr. Plot and Mr. Story and Mrs. Brilliance don't show up for work, but that's just the nature of any business. You go with the flow and you keep plugging away anyhow. You take up the slack and plow through the day.

  Or here's an idea that might help.

  Whenever you feel like it will be impossible to write yet another book, think about your dad or mom. What did they do for a living while they were raising you trying to put clothes on your back, Hamburger Helper on your dinner plate and video games in the Play Station? If your dad was a lawyer, did he ever get lawyer's block? If your mom was a nurse, did you ever hear her complain "I've had absolutely nothing to nurse about for the past six months"? Of course not. Your parents showed up for work five days a week because that was their job. Sometimes it went well, and on occasion, when the proper support staff didn't always show up, things were hard. But by the year's end, they produced a body of work for which they were paid a significant sum.

  Back to my point about selling books.

  There is no tried or true answer to selling books. Sales flow in cycles. I seem to experience a few weeks of
stellar bestselling sales every three or four months or so, probably due to Amazon marketing campaigns. My last great months was in July. I'm not due for another Top 100 Kindle Bestseller months until October or November. But then, this is just a guestimate. I have no control over Amazon marketing, other than signing on with their publisher, Thomas and Mercer, which I'm about to do.

  So, in the final analysis, there is only one tried and true method of increasing your chances of selling books. That tried and true method is to show up for work every day, and write more of them.

  —2011

  "You'll Never Get a Major Deal Again!"

  "You'll never get a major deal again!"

  Sounds harsh doesn't it. Even cruel, especially when it comes from the mouth of a respected independent bookstore owner who operates one of the most successful bookselling operations out of Albany.

  This was the scene: a year ago or so, said bookstore owner was lamenting the fact that my newest novel at the time, The Remains, was being published in trade paper and E-Book by an indie press. Due to the slowdown in paper sales because of E-Book sales and other economic factors, she didn't want to take the book on in the traditional manner by ordering it from the distributor. She wanted it on consignment. That way she wouldn't get burned down the road by having to hang on to unsold books.

  When I explained to her that she could by all means return the books, she wouldn't hear of it. Ok, fair enough. These are trying economic times after all, and book stores are quickly going the way of the record store and the Blockbuster video store. Somehow our talk shifted to my original major deal with two Random House imprints back in '99 and 2000. I mentioned how my agent was going after another major deal based on the excellent E-Book sales I'd been experiencing thus far with The Remains. That's when she turned to me, looked me in the eye and said, "Vincent, you will never get a major deal again!" It wasn't like a slap to the face, it was more like a swift kick to the soft underbelly. She then backed up her statement by telling me the deal with RH had been fluke. The editors were tossing major six-figure deals around like confetti back then. Didn't matter the talent or the inherent value of the writing.

  Wow, if I didn't already feel poorly enough about having to be on consignment at her shop, now I was made to feel like a total loser. I mean, I thought bookstore owners were supposed to prop up writers? Work with them? Live in harmony? You need me and I need you and all that . . .

  Fast forward a few months.

  The Innocent, Godchild and The Remains all hit the Top 100 on Amazon Kindles and eventually the Top 20. I started moving around 3,000 units per day. That's right. That's not a typo. 3,000 units. The Innocent hit the Top 10 and stayed there for seven weeks. In the meantime, I completed yet another novel, Murder by Moonlight. My agent wanted to go out to sale with it, hoping for the major deal said bookstore owner claimed would be impossible.

  The Big 6 in New York all enthusiastically expressed interest in getting a read. So did another major publisher. A new major publisher that's emerged from out of Amazon. Thomas and Mercer. I'd heard about this publisher as not a major in the traditional sense, but more of a hybrid indie and major in which the author receives a terrific E-book royalty on top of being published in hardcover, audio and trade, and along with it, a nice advance or even better.

  What makes this new publisher more enticing than the Big 6 however, is their direct connection to Amazon, the biggest store in the world. This publisher will not only sell your books but it is in their best interest to market them and even position them to sell. Something the Big 6 cannot guarantee.

  I told my agent that if we did indeed get an offer from T&M that I wouldn't entertain a Big 6 deal, even if they offered me a much larger advance. I wanted to be at a home that represented the future of book selling. I wanted a place that would offer me security and a voice as an author. T&M, I was told would offer that and more. Then, when I heard that big name bestsellers like JA Konrath and Barry Eisler were signing contracts with T&M, that entirely iced the deal for me.

  Just yesterday my agent excitedly forwarded my new contract from T&M to me for my review. There's a few details we're ironing out, but it looks great. I'm not at liberty to discuss the upfront money or the percentages, but suffice to say I'm back in the big leagues in a big way. Not only is T&M publishing Murder by Moonlight, but they are re-publishing five titles on my back-list, including The Innocent and The Remains—a first for my agent who has been in the publishing business for two decades. News will be forthcoming in all the usual trades: PW, etc. It's an exciting time for me and my entire family.

  "You will never get a major deal again!" said the bookstore owner.

  Sometimes I love proving people wrong.

  —2011

  Is Rejection Good for You?

  There's been a lot of chatter lately about the e-Book market being flooded with crappy books from writers who would, under traditional publishing circumstances, not only be rejected by major publishers but also by most discerning agents. In other words, their writing sucks. But being able to publish your own book these days means you don't have to go through the often terrible trials that most editors can put upon a budding author by lambasting said literary neophyte with rejection after rejection.

  Like my dad always says, "But that's the job."

  I entered into the literary arena as a traditionalist back in the early '90s, having started out at a local newspaper, then working my way up to regional magazines, and eventually national publications. I wrote my first publishable short story in 1991 after four or five years of writing nothing that was publishable. Or, at least, nothing that was ever accepted by a decent literary magazine or journal. Then I went to writing school where I began my first full-length novel that was to become As Catch Can and later, The Innocent. It sold to Delacorte almost immediately upon my graduation and for a time, it looked like rejection, and the ugly horse she road in on, was a thing of the past. Forever.

  Then came the dismantling of my publishing house, and Catch was largely forgotten about. I published one more novel with the biggies, Godchild, but by then, the Big 6 were already entering into a tailspin of consolidation and house cleaning. Having earned a major six-figure advance I was now out on my ass as they say, and only as good as my next manuscript.

  I wrote that manuscript and while my agent loved it, it was rejected by the big six. So I wrote another one. That one got rejected. It wasn't the quality of the writing I was told, it was my having not earned out my advance. But that wasn't my fault I bellowed. No one wanted to hear it. My argument was rejected.

  Still I labored on, and wrote yet one more novel. Same story. No one would take me on.

  In the meantime, other forms of rejection awaited me. Friends rejected me for being down in the dumps. My max'ed out credit cards rejected me. My emptying bank accounts rejected me. A good night's sleep rejected me. Health rejected me. My ability to quit smoking rejected me (I've since been smoke free for 6 years, but bear with me) Even my new lovely wife, who was growing impatient with my inability to make a living, rejected the crap out of me. So did her family. They wanted me to give up full-time writing and go to work for my dad's business, whom I had worked for in the past while honing my skills. Problem was, if I worked full-time, I couldn't write. And I knew in my heart that the only way to break through the hell-hole of rejection was to write. Not write "on the side" as some of them were saying.

  So I persevered, even when my wife divorced me. My life might have entered into a tailspin of rejection and humiliation for a year or so, but always, the writing was my constant. It was the light I could rely upon in the midst of all that darkness.

  When Moonlight Falls got accepted by a small press, and did very well I was elated. Later when The Remains was accepted by an indie publisher and produced as an e-Book first, I was entirely skeptical that anything good could come out of it. I had no idea about e-Books and initially rejected the notion that they would replace paper as the dominant manner of reading. But whe
n it eventually hit the Top 100 and then the Top 20, I was hooked.

  You would think that I might cut the cord at that point, and kick rejection in the ass and simply self-publish from that point forward. But something in my gut told me to continue with the traditional route. The process, while grueling and often times frustrating, still worked for me. Which is why I prefer to continue working with an agent who reads my manuscripts first for their quality and promise. Later on, my publisher will do the very same thing. If they reject it, there's probably a good reason. You know, like it sucks or something (Luckily this hasn't happened yet . . . I'm on a roll as they say).

  Now I'm signing a 7 book deal with Thomas & Mercer, potentially the biggest powerhouse publisher on the block. I have many more novels in me that will have to be read by my agent first and then my editor at T&M. Even though I could simply publish the novels myself, I choose to go this route and risk being rejected yet again.

  Why?

  Because for me . . . and I speak only for me . . . risking rejection makes me a better writer. And it's more important for me to have a reader tell me Concrete Pearl or Scream Catcher was "brilliantly written," than to be in the Amazon Top 10. Ok, well, I lie, that rocks too (The Innocent graced the Top 10 for 7 weeks . . .). But if I'm going to be a writer who not only has staying power, but whose audience continues to grow and expand all over the globe, then every now and then, a little ass kicking might do me some good.

  —2011

  The Most Selfish Occupation on Earth

  My ex-wife (the second one) used to call me selfish. She claimed my work came before my family. That all the hours I put into my writing was taking away from the quality time I might otherwise share with she and the kids. Which I never quite understood since I usually never work nights and was often the Johnny-on-the-spot when it came to making dinners, feeding the crew and helping out with the homework. You know, domestic stuff like that. My ex was pretty good at making reservations. That was about it. Ok, I'm joking. In her defense she worked and took care of quite a few household chores that might have otherwise never gotten done. Like the laundry for instance.