How Best Selling Author Jeremy Robinson Got His First Break

You must have had how Amazon.com has given authors a massive break in the publishing industry. The story of Jeremy Robinson is dramatic and revealing. Upcoming writers will find ideas to discover markets guaranteed to give them the needed exposure in the publishing industry just as Lulu.com did for Robinson.
Tina Crandell had an interview with this enterprising author. Enjoy it.

'Jeremy Robinson has had a good year. His self-published books have been wildly successful, his self-started small-press is about to grow, and he just finalized a book deal with a major publisher. He has demonstrated that being a published author not only means being a good writer, but also being a good businessman. The writing entrepreneur discusses his experience with Lulu.com, his recent book deal, and how hard work pays off.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

There was never an actual "a ha" moment for me, no conversion to the ways of the writer. I started out wanting to be an artist; majored in illustration in college and started out in comics. I moved from illustrating comics to scripting them, then to screenwriting and finally to novel writing.

Are you a full-time writer?

I spend about four hours writing every afternoon. The other four hours in my "work day" are spent on marketing, building deals, and responding to e-mails. But all that is part of being a writer. I think that's what most new writers don't realize, that being a good writer is only part of the job. I've had to become a business savvy, outgoing marketing machine. None of those are natural for me. I'm a creative, introverted homebody at heart.

Your first book, The Didymus Contingency, was published by Lulu.com, a website that offers free self-publishing. What was your experience like with Lulu?

Lulu was a great start for me. It showed me that my books could sell and gave me a lot of experience. Plus, it helped land my agent, who found my (at the time) Lulu edition of Didymus Contingency doing very well on Amazon and contacted me as a result. So Lulu helped open some doors for me. But this is not true for all authors who use Lulu, probably the majority. I think the right agent happened to be looking at the right time and saw my book doing well. I don't think authors should look at my success with Lulu as the norm or easily achievable. I've spent the past three years absolutely dedicated to the professional production of my POD books and the non-stop marketing of them. Simply putting a book on Lulu or Amazon is not going to help anyone. I may be proof that self-publishing via POD is a viable option to land an agent and sign a book deal, but it's vastly more work than going the slush-pile submission route. For me, it was simply a more educational and rewarding route.

You started your own small press, Breakneck Books. What drove that decision?

After seeing how well my sales at Lulu were doing I did some math and discovered how much money I would have made if I cut out the middle man (Lulu) and started my own small press. I started Breakneck, at first, just for my books, but I had just finished reading two other books about to be released on Lulu by authors who had asked me to read and blurb their books. Both were fantastic books (with not so great covers) and I thought I could do better. So, I signed both authors and Breakneck was born. I've signed ten authors in the past two years. Some books have done poorly and some have been homeruns (Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood became an Amazon.com bestseller). The result is that I've been able to be a full time writer/publisher using print-on-demand. I'm not sure if that's been done before. It's been a TON of work-- non-stop really-- but after two years, all that work is starting to pay off.

You just signed with a major publisher. Will you give us details?

I just landed a three book deal with Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martins. The books will come out in hard cover first, then mass market paperback. I have yet to write any of the three books, though I'm hard at work on the first. The deal came about as a direct result of my POD sales. The editor saw my books doing well on Amazon (just like my agent), contacted me and over the past YEAR we've been developing the series. It was a long year, but worth the effort.

As a newly represented novelist, what will become of Breakneck Books?
Of course, this is the first question all of the novelists I've signed at Breakneck asked when I announced the St. Martins deal. Luckily, I had the best answer possible. Breakneck is currently in the process of merging with a new hard cover publisher (Variance) who has far greater resources than Breakneck ever had. Breakneck is becoming the paperback imprint for Variance. We'll be switching from a POD model to offset printing, pumping out small to large size print runs and signing some bestselling authors (I can't say who yet).


What inspires you?

I have a hard time with this question because the answer is "everything." I'm always looking for ideas and just about everything I experience gets filtered for juicy bits that might make a good concept, detail or character trait. My more generic answer is the ocean. Though I must say I get a lot of story ideas from the Bible. I think it's an untapped mainstream resource. There's a lot of great material in there (disasters, wars, ancient mysteries, creatures) that if taken at face value makes great fodder for thrillers.

How did you celebrate your book deal?

Well, this is my most pitiful answer. We got take-out. But I added mushrooms to my broccoli/chicken alfredo. Now that's a wild party...

For more information on the upcoming releases or samples of his books, readers can visit his website at: www.jeremyrobinsononline.com or www.myspace.com/sciencethriller.'
CULLED FROM www.absolutewrite.com