GREGORYAFOURNIER.COM Author Website Running

Photo: Nicole Fribourg

Spring 2016 was busy for me. I completed Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked (TIY) and re-edited Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel for a revised 2nd edition commemorating fifty years since the civil unrest of July 23, 1967.

As if that was not enough, I also earned my cyberpunk badge learning to build and maintain my new author website. Starting today, I am open for business.

Terror in Ypsilanti will go to print in mid-July. Advanced copies are available at gregoryafournier.com. Expect four to six weeks for delivery until books are in the pipeline. All orders must be within the delivery reach of the United States Postal Service.

The final page count for TIY will come near 480 pages including a map commissioned for the book, several reader supplements, a photo gallery, and a subject index. I have not been told the final price point, but I have seen an Author Review Copy of the book and am pleased with the end result. I'm certain the book version won't be listed under $24.95 because of its length and quality.

I am direct marketing TIY on my website for $20 plus $4 postage and handling. An e-book Kindle edition will be available on Amazon.com in the near future as well as the paperback edition. Discounted bulk and library copies will be available soon from my publisher Wheatmark.com. They honor a one-year return policy to vendors for unsold books.

The publishing business is notoriously slow.

In January 2016 at the San Diego State University Writer's Conference, I met literary agent Chip MacGregor. After reading my manuscript, he was interested in representing my book. 

MacGregor was optimistic he could place the book with a traditional publisher but warned it would take two years to see TIY in print. Waiting two more years was unacceptable.

When he told me I would lose creative control beyond the manuscript, I decided to independently publish through Wheatmark. I did not want to see my vision for the book corrupted. By independently publishing, I made all the decisions. My researcher Ryan M. Place in Detroit and I have worked too long and hard to make compromises and cede creative control to a publishing house concerned primarily with the bottom line. 

Building an audience and keeping readers interested is not open-ended. Five years is a long time to ask readers to wait. Several key people who helped me tell this story have died and others anxiously await the book's release. I wrote the best account I could with what I had to work with. Now, it is time for the book to find its audience.

--My author website link: http://gregoryafournier.com