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FEATURED AUTHOR: ROGER VIZI

 

 

Roger Vizi began his writing career when he accepted his first publishing contract with the McGraw-Hill Company to write a nonfiction work on heating repair. He was selected as one of only 5 writers in the United States to write for this series. His book, Forced Hot Air Furnace Troubleshooting and Repair was published in May of 1999, and is still selling well today.

After the release of his first work, Roger Vizi made a decision to begin working on fiction works. Writers Club Press published Profile of a Murder in October of 2001. His second novel, Angels on my Wings was released in December 2001.

Roger is also the host of "The Author's Den" radio show, where he will interview authors and discuss their work.

 

 Fiction Books:

Profile of a Murder:

Owossa is a small, quiet town in the Midwest, the type of town where you know everyone and you aren’t afraid to work down the streets at night. Al this changes when, on the morning of July 12th, a call comes into the 911- dispatch center reporting a body being found in the woods. This one call, and the circumstances arising from the investigation bring attention to this town like it has never seen...

Angels on my Wings:

When an explosion on board Transcon flight three seven disables the flight control systems, they are doomed to crash into the Atlantic Ocean until their calls for help are heard by a flight of "angels"...

 

Roger, your first book was with a traditional publisher, your fiction books with Print on Demand, what have you found to be the main difference? The good and bad points of each?

I guess the main difference is the support that you receive from a traditional publisher. There are many more people you are working with from the time you send in your proposal to the finished product. The bad point of being published with a traditional publisher is the dead lines that you must meet. You are under a lot of pressure to have the manuscript complete by the due date because they are doing advertising and marketing based on the dead line.

With POD, you have more freedom to complete the work when you have the time. The down side is that you are alone from beginning to the end. Most POD publishers don't offer you any assistance other than printing the finished product, so you have to make sure it is edited correctly so you have the best product for the readers.

How do you find the change working in fiction, as opposed to non-fiction?

With fiction, you have a lot more freedom to write. While you want to make sure the facts that you are presenting are correct such as how to investigate a murder, you are also free to write the way you feel.

Who is your favorite author, or who has influenced your writing?

Stephen King, but he is not the main influence in my writing.

I just like to write, and I didn't want to write like another author. I want the books that I write to be my voice and my thoughts so they don't sound like I am copying another author’s style.

Where do you get your ideas from?

The ideas come from everyday events. Profile of a Murder came from watching how people interact in Internet chat rooms and listening to the stories in the news about some of the problems that can happen.

Angels on my Wings come from watching all of the Airport movies. I love flying and I wanted to write a story that had not been written before. The events that take place in the book, and the rescue could happen. I talked with airline pilots to make sure the facts were correct and they told me it is conceivable that it could work.

How do you handle real life interruptions?

When I get interrupted, I just stop and take a few minutes to collect my thoughts, and then start again.

Have you found it difficult to be taken seriously as a POD author?

Yes! Most people want to know where they can buy your book. When you tell them it is not in stores, but it can be purchased on the Internet, or it can be ordered at any bookstore they look at you differently is if you are not good enough and you are one of "those" authors.

Have you any tips to share regarding the hurdles POD and e-published authors face?

Write the best book you are capable of writing, and then find a quality editing service to go over your work. If you can't afford to pay for the editing, have several other authors read the manuscript and give you constructive criticism of the work. Don't rush to get the book into print. That is probably the hardest thing to do, but the time that you take after the book is written to make sure it is the best it can be is worth the wait.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently doing the research into my new work that will be titled My Sister’s Twin. It is the story of a murder that took place in Florida in 1981. The killer was married to my sister for a year, He was such a violent person that she went into hiding after the divorce. He swore he would find and kill her.

On New Years Eve 1981 he found a young woman that could be my sister’s twin and killed her. He was arrested 4-1/2 years later and was convicted of the crime.

What gave you the idea for your radio show, "The Author's Den" (formerly"Buy the Book")?

Buy the book was started to give POD published authors a place to introduce themselves to the world. The show is broadcast over the Internet and reaches a vast audience. I had hoped to find a sponsor for the show prior to the last show airing, but that didn't work out. I was looking for a sponsor that had the same ideas that I have for a show to help authors get discovered. Just because you make the decision to self publish, or go POD doesn't mean you're not a great writer with a wonderful story to tell. You just need to be able to prove to a traditional publisher that people are interested in your work, and this is one way to do that.

Matt Miller, who is the President and founder of Authorsden is a visionary. He has a passion for helping authors so when I approached him about sponsoring the show, it was a perfect fit. We changed the name of the show to The author’s den sponsored by authorsden.com and we will use the same basic format as Buy the book but we will have some extras for the listeners. Although the show is featuring authors, are goal is to attract more readers to the site as well. Right now, the log over 250,000 hits to the site every month. So if you are an author, and you want to get you works noticed you need to sign up with authorsden.com.

And finally, what advice would you give to writers just starting out?

Spend some time talking with authors that are writing the same things that you are. Join some groups on the web where you can share ideas. Things are much better today then when I started. You didn't have a lot of people using the Internet like they are today. Check out groups on Yahoo and other sites, and by all means sign up or at least visit authorsden.com. There are over 6,000 authors signed up on that site and every one of them would love to talk to a new author about what it takes to get started. The bottom line is you are not alone to make the same mistakes we did, join some discussion groups and get started.

Thank you, Roger!

You can visit Roger at www.authorsden.com/rogersvizi

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