Dave Zeltserman won the 2010 Shamus Award for Julius Katz, Ellery Queen’s Readers Choice Award for Archie’s Been Framed, and is the acclaimed author of the ‘man out of prison’ crime trilogy: Small Crimes, Pariah and Killer, where Small Crimes was named by NPR as one of the five best crime and mystery novels of 2008, and Small Crimes and Pariah (2009) were picked by the Washington Post as best books of the year. His recent The Caretaker of Lorne Field received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, calling it a ’superb mix of humor and horror’, and was shortlisted by ALA for best horror novel of 2010. Outsourced (2011) has already been called ‘a small gem of crime fiction’ by Booklist and has been optioned by Impact Pictures and Constantin Film.

His latest book is Julius Katz and Archie (Top Suspense).

You can visit Dave’s website at www.davezeltserman.com. Connect with him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Zeltserman/1434849193.

Welcome to Book Marketing Buzz, Dave.  Can we begin by having you tell us a little about your book?

‘Julius Katz and Archie’ is a charming and fun mystery based on the characters from my award-winning stories. Julius Katz is Boston’s most brilliant and eccentric detective, who is also incredibly lazy, and must be pestered by his sidekick, Archie, into takes cases, and will only be willing to do so when his funds reach anemic levels. Archie, while he has the heart and soul of a hardboiled PI, isn’t the usual sidekick. In fact, he’s probably the most unusual sidekick in the annals of mystery fiction.

‘Julius Katz and Archie’ starts with a famous writer telling Julius that he wants to hire Julius to discover who’s planning to kill him, and this soon plunges Julius and Archie into a murder investigation and the world of publishing.

What is the first thing you did to promote your book once your publisher accepted your manuscript?

I’m putting this out myself, and the first three things I did was get copies to interested authors for blurbing, organize a blog tour and buy an ad in Boston Magazine.

I’ll  answer this also for a book that Overlook Press is putting out in the Fall titled, A Killer’s Essence. The book is a gritty crime thriller that has an interesting sports angle—a large part of the book plays out duing the 2004 ALCS between the Red Sox and the Yankees—the series where the Yankees suffered a monumental choke job (I’m from Boston and am a diehard Red Sox fan). I started contacting Boston sports media and am finding people interested in this book.

After that, what happened?

For ‘Julius Katz and Archie’, I’ve been getting a great response from early readers, am getting ready for the Boston Magazine ad to run in beginning of June, plus preparing for my blog tour.

For A Killer’s Essence, the ARCs are now available, and Overlook is sending them to the Boston sports media who’ve expressed interest.

What did your publisher do to promote your book?

For  A Killer’s Essence, the first thing my publisher did (as far as I know) was get the book to a film company that the publisher is friendly with, which has worked out very well as I’m now negotiating with this company for a film deal and for me to write the screenplay, and I should have a deal worked out by the time this interview runs. If the film is made, that will end up being an invaluable promotion for the book.

My publisher is also lining up reviews, both trade, newspaper and online, and they did a great job doing this with my previous book with them, The Caretaker of Lorne Field.

What’s your opinion on blogging?  Do you see that it is helping sell your book or is it not making much difference in terms of sales?

With print books, I don’t think it helps much. What matters most with print books other than external events, like making prestigious best of year lists or media spotlights, is bookstore events. Over the years I’ve developed relationships with booksellers who’ve also become fans of my books, and they end up hand selling 100s of my books.

I’m still trying to get a handle on e-books, but from what I can tell there are certain recommendation sites, both paid and unpaid, that trigger most of the initial sales.

I understand using the social networks to promote your books is also an effective marketing tool.  Do you find it is or isn’t?

For me social networking has been effective in connecting with my already existing readers, but not really in finding new readers.

Some people besides blogging and using the social networks to promote your books, what other ways are you promoting your book?

For print books, the very best promotion that you can control are both book events and developing relationships with booksellers.

E-books are a completely different ballgame. I’ve had B&N recommend two of my e-books, and in both cases that triggered a lot of sales. Otherwise, there are recommendation sites—both that are paid advertising and are free, that can drive 100s of sales if they list your ebooks. So far I haven’t found reviews or blogging helpful with sales, but hopefully that will change as the e-book market matures.

If you had to pick just one book marketing tool that you’ve used to promote your book, which would you say has been the most effective?

Getting a bookstore, like B&N, to recommend your book. This is something outside your control, but B&N recommended two of my print books, Small Crimes and Pariah, and two of my e-books, Bad Thoughts and Blood Crimes, and in all these cases it triggered a lot of sales.

What are your experiences with offline promotions such as booksignings?

In the past, this is what authors had to do to slowly build a readership. And the great thing of doing that, other than supporting bookstores, is as you develop relationships with these booksellers and they become fans of your books, they start handselling you, and one bookseller can sell 100s of your books doing that.

But we’re in a different world now where publishers aren’t necessarily going to give you the time to slowly build a readership, so a lot of us authors have to figure out different approaches. Or get lucky and get several film deals.

Thank you for this interview, Dave.  We wish you much success!

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