Selling Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker

Along with my shipment of novels, iUniverse supplied digital press and sales kits.  The press kit consisted of sample news releases, sell sheets, and suggestions for getting my book noticed by the media.  The sales kit included pdf files for printing posters, book marks, and post cards announcing the publishing of Ikons.  Armed with this arsenal of material I set out in earnest to publicize my work.

My first targets were friends and relatives, which actually netted sales.  After depleting that resource, in short order I was forced to take a more traditional rout.  Book stores at this time had not yet been inundated by indie writers looking for shelf space and I was fortunate enough to have a few Mom and Pop stores agree to carry Ikons.  It was at this point I found out I made a grave mistake with my title.

 Ikon of Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker

While the name "Ikons" was well thought out (Humor me) the subtitle wasn't. Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker turned out to be a bad idea.  While I understood the significance of the sub-title, few others did.  Of the indie book stores I talked into displaying Ikons, one ended up placing Ikons in the religious section.  A buyer tracked me down and informed me of such.  He didn't want his money back, just wanted me to know.

My space at the Joliet Author Fair

My nest step was an author fair and I secured at spot at the Public Library's in Joliet, Illinois.  Since my story took place in Joliet's suburb of Rockdale, it was a prime spot.  I sent a sell sheet to the local paper and a letter detailing my story and how it related to the area.  A reporter from the paper called and interviewed me and did an article for the local section called, "From Russia to Rockdale."

In addition to book sales, I met the renown indie writer J. A. Konrath who gave me tips on selling self-published books.  Check out his site after reading mine.

Book Club "Meet the Author"

Even better was a woman who bought my novel and later suggested it to her book club.  She invited me to speaking engagement and do a signing.  I agreed and was surprised to find her club met at the village recreation center.  They had decorated the room in a Russian motif and offered a wine and cheese spread.  I gave my talk, sold my books, and was quite impressed.  My ego had definitely been stroked.

Book Club "Meet the Author" display i

The Book Mouse in Ottawa, Illinois

                                                                        My next stop was a small book store in Ottawa, Illinois, the Book Mouse.  There I did another meet and greet, told my stories, topping it off with my ghostly tale of the Voltuno.  My sales were not overly impressive, but the crowd was receptive and I think a good time was had by all, or at least enough.

Display at the Book Mouse

The next venues were the local author event with Dayton Metro Library and later the Dayton Book Expo.  Both events were open to authors residing in the Southwest Ohio area, but there was a limit to the number of authors who could participate.  My previous video productions for the library got me a prime spot.  I attracted a crowd by giving away old VHS tapes of programs I had created.  The lure of free stuff, no matter how useless, still attracts a crowd.

Book Expo - Dayton, Ohio

Book Expo display

Each stop was another opportunity to sell books and spread my fame.  I believed I was actually getting the hang of this author stuff.

Publishing Ikons

When I started the Ikons series in 1990, my options for publishing were: the traditional agent route, unsolicited queries to publishers, or vanity press.  The latter was too expensive, so I choose the former two.  My pitch to both was that one hundred years of Eastern European immigration to the US had produced tens of millions of Slavic descendants all of whom I was convinced, would want to purchase my book.  I obtained a copy of the Writer's Digest Guide to Agents and Publishers, highlighted likely candidates, followed the query format guide and sent off a series of well-polished letters and waited.  And waited and waited.  The few replies I received were of the "Thanks, but no thanks."

There is no one in the world more optimistic than a novice writer, but even they can lose hope. Which I did. Then enter the digital age and Print-On-Demand (POD).  The idea of POD was presented at one of my writer's meeting and I saw its potential.  While not offering the big money of a well established publisher, POD did give you a way to turn your dreams into reality.  I studied the many companies springing up in the late 90's and vacillated between a few.  I choose iUniverse when Barns and Noble prodded me with a $300 signing stipend.  Spurred by their three week dead line, I sped through the final editing process leaving a few errors in my wake.  Somehow the singular word "woman" kept replacing the plural word "women."

I saved my completed digital manuscript to a floppy disc (remember them?) and took it to the library to transfer it to iUniverse.  Why the library?  Because 15 years ago I was using a dial-up home modem running at 50kps (Slow) and the library had a dedicated T-line running in the megabytes (Much faster).  Through numerous emails telephone calls and iUniverse associates, I was actually got my book ready for printing.

One features I neglected  was cover design.  It never occurred to me my book needed a cover. After some suggestions from iUniverse, I sent digital copies of Massey and Akulina's picture and requested a Russian motif.  After two iterations, this was the final design.

Ikons cover - Front Cover

Back Cover - I cheated a little with my picture. I'm not that good looking.

There is probably nothing as exciting to a writer as seeing their published work for the first time.  The thrill of slicing opening the FedEx box and being greeted by the aroma of fresh print and the sight of several dozen, carefully stacked volumes.  After twelve years of labor I cradled one of my newborns and beamed with pride.  There it  rested - my book, my title and my name.  Then reality set in.  How do I sell them?   

Writing Style

Surprisingly, Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker was well received by an audience I did not anticipate -- women.  Somehow they found it to be a romance novel.  I do not understand how this happened since I do not consider myself romantic at all.  All I wanted to do was tell the story of the people who risked everything, albeit they had little, to come to a totally different world to make a better life for their wives and children.  The story should be familiar to any decedent of immigrants who identifies with the foreign words, foods and places.  Everyone has ancestors who endured hardship, insult, and heartbreak to bring us the lives we now lead.  We owe them enough to tell their story.

Sue Grafton of the The Antioch Writers Conference and members of my writing groups influenced my writing style.  Thanks to Ms Grafton, I always try to use strong verbs and nouns and shy away from adverbs unless absolutely necessary.  She and a gifted writer named Rik Newman, convinced me every action has an associated verb and there are dozens of way to describe walking, looking, standing, etc. without attaching an adverb.  I also learned to end each sentence with its main thought.  But these are just mechanics, how do you write a story someone will read.

My favorite historical-fiction writer is Leon Uris and I would like to do nothing better than emulate his prose.  I chose using the third person, omniscient and told my characters' story from multiple points of view, mostly Massey and Akulina's.  It's a relay race where each character carries the plot for a time before handing it off to the next.  Since Ikons is historical fiction, I added narration describing events outside the sphere of the principle characters.  In Banners and Slogans, I made use of newspaper articles and wire reports to fill in the reader about the era.  Because Ikons was never meant for a wide audience, I included anything I thought was interesting.  The result was more than I expected.

Ikons consists of 21 chapters.  When buying a book, I'll thumb through and check out the index or the chapter headings.  Usually, the they consist of Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, ... Boring.  I thought I would give my book an edge by having alluring chapter titles.  I used quotes from within each chapter and hoped they captured the novel's content as well as the buyer's curiosity.

Examples of my chapter headings are:

. 4

Chapter 4: "Why Does the Hen Run From the Rooster?". 4

Chapter 6: “Everyone Has a Cousin in America". 4 
Chapter 8: "An Act of Moral Turpitude"

Chapter 9: "We Go Rock-a-dale" 
C. 4

. 4

Chapter 20: "Mama, Mama, Help Me". 4

Chapter 21: "I Saw Skulls"

Whether this helped or not, I really can't say, but I thought it was cool.  Now armed with a two hundred plus page Word document, I began my search for a publisher.

. 4

Help From the Beyond

Some authors believe their works are a singular accomplishment; their work the result of sitting alone at the word processor and turning glorious thoughts into prose. They are convinced they and no one else should get credit for the finished novel. I was one of those authors and I was wrong. My story is a collaboration of too many to count or even remember. There are those I know helped me out, but others who are lost in time provided those seeds that grew into sentences, paragraphs and chapters.

In addition to those people who helped, I received aid from other sources. Some may even say, help from beyond. I believe my constant attention to my dead relatives opened a portal between their existence and mine. Bare with me here. There were several incidents that cannot be explained by coincidence. Such as information I obtained concerning Massey's second trip to America.

During my original research for Ikons, I found Massey’s citizenship application where he claimed the ship he came to America on was called the SS Ventura. I found a book in the Dayton library listing steamships and their history. It turned out the Ventura was a lumber boat hauling wood between Yokohama, Japan and Spokane, Washington. This caused me to wonder, what the heck was a Russian immigrant doing a lumber boat?
I also noted that Massey’s date of crossing was very close to the date of the Titanic sinking, 14 April 1912. I figured I could add the Titanic sinking to my story by placing the Ventura in the shipping lane and have it look for survivors. So I dug into the library’s basement and looked for old volumes about the Titanic. I wanted to get a book from that time period so I could write about the sinking using the language of the period.

I found a book on shipwrecks, took it home and started reading about the Titanic.  For some reason, I set the open book down on the kitchen table and went to get a drink of water.  While getting my water, the pages of the book started turning.  I stood there and watched the pages flip until they stopped.  The hair on my arms rose (really) as I walked over to the table and looked at the section where the pages stopped.

The chapter read, “Disaster on Immigrant Ship.”  The story told of a ship called the SS Volturno, which caught fire and sank in the Atlantic in 1913 killing over 136 people.  The story said the Volturno was an immigrant ship running between Rotterdam and Halifax.  Massey’s papers said he came in through Halifax.

I wrote to the Port of Halifax and asked if it was possible Massey came in the Volturno in April of 1912.  A month later I got a package from Canada verifying Massey had indeed landed there.  They sent me a copy of the ships original manifest listing Massey and a few other Russians on board.  It said it was his second trip to America and was headed to Rockdale, Illinois.

SS Volturno

For the longest time I thought it was Massey helping me out from beyond the grave.  But the more I thought about and remembering my father telling me Akulina had the “gift,” I decided it was she assisting the grandson she had never met.  There may be more logical explanations, but I prefer this one.

The Plot

The basic plot of Ikons: Saint Nichols the Wonder Worker is man against a hostile world.  Since the story is based on history, the sequence of events are set.  However, concrete happenings merely provide the framework upon which my story hangs.  I can still shape the characters and events according to my version of what happened. By combining fact, semi-fact, and fiction an historic narrative can be created.

Fact:  Russia in 1905 was in a state of transition.  The traditional feudal society was giving way to an industrial based urban culture.  The absolute rule of the Tsar had been challenged and peasants, once tied to the land, move to the industrial cities.
Semi-fact:  Massey and Sam leave their domineering father and search for work in the iron works of Belarus.  Massey's experiences in the mill are based on my own.  I worked in a manufacturing plant during summers making ceiling tile.  My ability to add, multiply, divide and subtract got me promoted to assistant foreman.  I gave Massey the same ability.
Fiction: Both brothers find employment with the Glebov Iron Works.  Massey learns a trade and rises through the ranks.  Sam embraces the socialist cause leading to conflict between the two.

Fact: Russia and Japan went to war in 1905.  The war created a demand for iron rails.  Russia was humiliated in defeat.
Fiction: Massey enjoys increased wages from war production and rises in the worker hierarchy.  Sergei follows the war through the railway station telegraph.  Massey believes he can now afford a wife.

Fact:  Massey marries Akulina.
Fiction: Massey and Akulina's courtship is based on the village culture of the period.  The wedding and feast afterwards are culled from weddings I experienced growing up in Rockdale, Illinois.  Akulina's problem adjusting to life outside the village is a combination of events I've read about or experienced.

Fact: Peace brings a down turn in production resulting in wide spread layoffs.  Riots and strikes spread across Belarus and the government cracks down hard.
Fiction: Massey inadvertently takes part in a riot and he and Akulina are forced to flee back to Hutava.  Pure fiction since I have no experience with a riot.

Fact: Massey immigrates to America via Canada and finds employment in the steel mill.  I have since learned he did not leave by himself, but traveled with three other men from the village to the promised land. 
Fiction: Massey sails on the SS Arabia and arrives in Ellis Island.  After Ellis Island, Massey and his new-found friends travel by train to Rockdale where they find work in the Wire Mill.  Massey plans for a family life in America when he finds out he is a father.

Fact: Massey's son dies and he returns to Russia, only to return two years later.
Fiction: Devastated by his sons death, Massey returns to Hutava.  His name his passed on to the secret police as an agitator and he is forced to flee to America.

Fact:  World War begins in 1914.
Fiction: In the final chapter Akulina foresees the coming war as she harvests onions.

Ikons ends at this point and the story continues in Banners.

ADDITIONAL NOTE:  If you want to find out about your family's history, write a book based on them.  Relatives and friends will come out of the woodwork to tell you what you got wrong.

The Era

Information concerning my story's era was prolific.  By time I was finished researching I had several three-ring binders, cards, and computer files filled with newspaper clippings, hand-written notes, photos, government records, maps, personal accounts, some of which may even have been accurate and true.

Akulina and Massey's Wedding Certificate - Courtesy of Homeland Security

Joliet newspaper from the 1920's.

1920 Census for Rockdale, Illinois

Each bit of information open a door and led to a bit of information.  But sometimes traditional methods were not enough.  Hard as it is to believe, I actually had my characters come to me in dreams and chastise me for the way I presented them.  My character Boris Koscik was the worse.  He never appreciated my efforts to soften his methods.  He was tough and wanted to be remembered that way.  But of all my characters' manifestations, the one dealing with the SS Voltono had to be the eeriest.

The Women of Hutava

Every story needs romance and fortunately my grandfather and grandmother provided me with one.  I never knew much about Massey's love affair with his wife Akulina, but considering he remained true to her from the time they were married in 1906 until his death in 1949 says something.

Akulina A. Pribish circ 1913

This is the only known picture of my grandmother, Akulina A. Pribish.  She had it taken in Russia sometime around 1913 and sent it to her husband Massey Pribish in America.  This would place her age at approximately 27.  For a younger Akulina, I used a combination of my sisters, all three Slavic beauties.  My final version of my grandmother looked something like this.

Idealized Akulina

Although I knew little about Akulina, I was raised to admire her as a courageous, young mother facing the horrors following the Russian Revolution.  But before she could get to this section, I had to get her married.

I did considerable research into Belarus traditions and customs.  Most of them had to do with young women and their relationship to love and marriage.  This led to the scene dealing with the use of her wreath tossed into the water to find the man of her dreams.  This event also allowed me to introduce her special "gift."  Akulina was described by my father as the village seer, a fortune teller of extraordinary talent.  Whether her talent was a paranormal power or one based on an astute understanding of human nature is left up to the reader.  However, based on events which occurred  during the writing of these novels, I tend to believe the former.

Belarus girls placing wreaths in the water

The other village women were based on memories of my relatives, neighbors in Rockdale, and people I met in Russia.  Akulina's main friend, Nora, was real and was actually my father's godmother.

Akulina's little sister, Kataya was also a combination of my sisters, tilting mostly towards my youngest and feistiest sister, Jayne.