Online Book Review

Online Book Review Readers,

Today I am excited to bring you an original interview for the Online Book Review with suspense author Robert Burton Robinson. Robert is the author of the Greg Tenorly Suspense Series, and is truly a pioneer of online book publishing. In 2006, he started serializing his first novel BICYCLE SHOP MURDER online through his blog, and it became an online book sensation. Subsequently he started publishing his serialized books online through the Kindle, and he has done quite well.

One of the most interesting details to emerge from this interview though was Robert’s admission that yours truly served as the inspiration for his psychopathic villain Lucky Larry in ILLUSION OF LUCK. I am totally flattered to have been the inspiration for such a twisted lunatic as Larry. Hopefully it won’t be the last time!

Thanks so much for visiting us here at the Online Book Review, and enjoy today’s interview!

–Stacey Cochran

STACEY COCHRAN: Tell us a little about the Greg Tenorly Suspense Series.

ROBERT BURTON ROBINSON: As a fiction writer newbie, we are advised to “write what you know.” And because one of my many jobs was music minister, I created a series around a guy I named Greg Tenorly, who is a part-time music minister and part-time private music instructor. And I have lived most of my life in East Texas and Southeast Texas, so all of my stories are based in that part of the country.

Before the first book even begins, Greg’s faith is shaken when he discovers that his wife has been cheating on him. The end of their marriage forces him to step down from his full-time music position at a large, thriving church. Eventually, he finds a new life in a small East Texas town called Coreyville, which I created for the series.

When a beautiful, mysterious woman named Cynthia drops by his office at the church and asks for marital advice, he is more than happy to help. But then she makes a pass at him. He resists—but not easily.

Now Greg is torn. He wants to help Cynthia, but he’s attracted to her—and she’s a married woman. Little does he know that a murder spree is coming to his small town. And that Cynthia is drawing him right smack into the middle of it.

Each of the four books in the series has a completely separate storyline. The ongoing relationship between Greg and Cynthia is what ties the books together.

STACEY COCHRAN: You are really a pioneer of online book publishing. Tell us about how the series was first published.

ROBERT BURTON ROBINSON: When I started writing my first novel in July 2006, it wasn’t even intended to be a novel. I had this crazy idea about writing a serial story online like a blog. I would write and post approximately 1,000 words, three times per week. Then, when I picked up enough traffic, I would put ads on my site and eventually earn a living.

Well, the earning a living part failed miserably. I learned that ads don’t work very well alongside fiction. But the writing part worked out better than expected. I began to pick up followers. Many of them emailed me, raving about my story.

The funny thing is that I was making it up as I went along. I had no idea where the plot was going. After twenty or so posts (chapters), I decided that I needed to figure out how the story would end. I felt I had a pretty good beginning and middle. But it was going take a lot more work to come up with a satisfying ending.

Originally, I named that first story, “Private Music Teacher.” But after a while I realized it was a poor choice that sounded more like an advertisement than a fiction story. So, I changed the name to “Bicycle Shop Murder.” And, beginning with chapter 21, I increased the size of my chapters from 1,000 to about 1,500 words.

By the time I finished the story, I had 44 chapters and over 56,000 words—a small novel.

Fans were begging me to write more, so I started “Hideaway Hospital Murders,” a much darker story, with several murders and numerous sexual situations. It actually turned into to somewhat of a soap opera. Meanwhile my fan base continued to grow.

For my third book, I created my most twisted villain to date, Lucky Larry. And the inspiration for this character came from a real-life novelist.

And I will now reveal for the very first time the identity of that real-life novelist. It’s YOU, Stacey. The inspiration for my evil, twisted, but highly intelligent villain was Stacey Cochran. Are you surprised, Stacey?

When I first began to post “Bicycle Shop Murder” on my website, I discovered J.A. Konrath’s blog, “A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.” That’s where I learned of you, Stacey, a regular commenter on J.A.’s blog. There you talked about writing ten novels and about your thousands of rejection letters from agents and publishers. (J.A. Konrath had a similar story, but he had finally secured a publishing contract.)

But Stacey endured the rejections. He would never give up. He would just keep writing and encouraging other writers to fight the good fight. And now it is paying off. Stacey is having great success with his Kindle versions of The Colorado Sequence and Claws.

So, I started thinking: What if a guy had everything in the world he could possibly want but a book deal? And what if after being rejected so many times, he decided to take a new approach and go directly to the public by posting his book online? (Much the way I did.) And what if he believed he had a supernatural kind of luck? And what if he decided to push that luck to the limit, doing whatever it took to get what he wanted, daring the god of luck to fail him? And what if he was a psychopath?

The result of all those “what ifs” is Lucky Larry. Thanks, Stacey, for giving me the seed of inspiration for this character. You might say that Lucky Larry is Stacey Cochran gone over to the dark side. (evil laugh)

I’ve never had a book contract either. I’ve never made a serious attempt to find an agent or publisher because I know my books are shorter (56,000 to 63,000 words) than what publishers want. That alone is enough to get me rejected.

Book four of the Greg Tenorly Series is “Fly the Rain,” which is a novella (about 35,000 words). It was intended to be novel-length, but my readers got impatient when I had to take a break from writing for a few weeks. My day job takes precedence, and I was working overtime.

So, I cut the story short, just to finish it. But I’m very proud of the book. I even wrote a song for the fictitious all-girl band in the book. The setting for most of the story is my hometown of Orange, Texas. I might revisit Orange and some of those characters for a future novel.

STACEY COCHRAN: What are some of the best strategies you’ve found to draw folks to your website, so that they discover your novels?

ROBERT BURTON ROBINSON: To offer my novels free on my website. There are plenty of free novel directory sites that will link to you, which will bring in visitors right away.

Most writers don’t want to do this. They think they’re writing the next Great American Novel, and they’re not about to give it away. Plus, they fear it would jeopardize any hopes of getting a publishing deal.

But when I first started posting “Bicycle Shop Murder” online, I didn’t even know whether I could write a simple story, much less a novel. Or whether anybody would like my writing. Or whether I could keep people coming back for more.

People did like my writing. They found my characters believable. They said things like, “Read it in one sitting and I stayed up way too late in order to finish it.” And when each book was finished they said they loved it, and asked me to please hurry and write another one.

The wonderful comments of my readers from all over the world are what kept me going. They helped me know I was on the right track. Did everybody who read my books like them? I doubt it. But many people did. And they were not my relatives or people I knew in any way.

So, posting my books online for free worked for me. But it might be all wrong for other writers. They’ll have to decide for themselves.

I also took a shot at writing a whodunit mystery with my novella, “Sweet Ginger Poison,” which is posted on my site. I’m very happy with how it turned out, but in the process of writing it I confirmed that suspense rather than mystery is truly my favorite genre.

So, for my next novel I am back to suspense, with the tentatively titled, “Rebecca Ranghorn,” who is a private investigator I created for my novel, “Illusion of Luck.” I am writing the entire book offline, and will not post this one on my site. It will be available as a paperback and as an eBook for the Kindle. I plan to it finish it by the Fall of 2009.

I feel that I’ve given away more than enough of my writing for readers to know whether they like my style. Now I need to earn income.

STACEY COCHRAN: Your Greg Tenorly Series are available through Amazon’s Kindle store. What are your thoughts on digital publishing with Kindles, in contrast to traditional publishing and distribution?

ROBERT BURTON ROBINSON: When Amazon introduced the Kindle reader I didn’t believe it would sell very well. Even now, only a very small percentage of the public has bought one. However, the percentage of READERS who have purchased a Kindle is significant. And now it looks like this number is growing ever faster.

This is opening up a great opportunity for authors to take their works directly to the public. And while it’s true that it will result in a lot of junk books in the Kindle Store, I believe that the cream will rise to the top.

It will be great for both writers and consumers of fiction. Prices can be lower while writers earn the same or a greater cut of the profits. And there will be no returning of books to the publisher. No burning or pulping of books that didn’t sell. No waste.

STACEY COCHRAN: In what ways do you think we’ll see traditional publishing change in the next 5 or 10 years?

ROBERT BURTON ROBINSON: The only publishing companies that will survive are those that remake themselves. They won’t have big fancy offices. They won’t have a large staff. They’ll be lean—VERY lean.

Publishers will still need editors to determine what books to publish. But they will be able to accept a wider variety of book lengths, genres, etc., since they won’t have to invest money in printing, storing, and shipping physical books. They will still make physical books available, but only via print on demand.

Publishers will still need graphic designers to create book covers, because covers influence sales, even for digital editions. But graphic design can be outsourced, thereby reducing staff.

Publishers will still need copy editors to proof the text. This work may also be outsourced.

Publishers will need someone to prepare digital versions of the books and work with Amazon and other websites/distributors/retailers to make the books available.

And, of course, publishers will still need to promote. But they’ll need to do it more cost effectively. They won’t have huge budgets.

If publishers attempt to keep the price of digital books artificially high, they may destroy their business by encouraging consumers to opt for free bootlegged copies of the books rather than pay exorbitant prices. Yet if they lower the price too much, they won’t have enough profit margin to stay in business.

It may prove just as difficult to stay in the book publishing business as it is to stay in the newspaper business.