Finders Keepers (33 page)

Then Scrivener Press closed its doors.

Which brings me to the present, and my brand new e-book partnership with Mark Leslie Lefebvre, a terrific writer and a wonderful guy. Mark’s knowledge of the world of digital publishing is encyclopedic, and he currently works in the field. And if Mark had said no when I asked him to helm this pursuit, I’m quite certain I would have shelved my writing career and gone back to managing garage bands.

So welcome to Red Tower Publications and the re-release of one of my favorites,
Finders Keepers
, a dark-comic foray into the world of luck, greed and rough justice. It’s got a brand new look, and has been lovingly tweaked by its creator. Here’s hoping you had as much fun reading it as I did giving it life.

Sean Costello

January, 2015

––––––––

In my role as Director of Author Relations at Kobo, I travel around the world giving talks to writers, particularly those interested in learning more about self-publishing. One of the facts that I enjoyed sharing during my sessions in 2014 was that I had been self-publishing for the past ten years, with my first effort in that arena appearing in 2004. I talked about how, even though self-publishing is popular and accepted in many writing circles today, this simply wasn’t the case ten years ago, or even five.

So I’m proud to say that I was an early participant in the indie-author movement; it’s a fun thing to let people know, particularly given my current position.

Another thing I like to share with groups (though I only do so when the talks I’m giving allow me to share even more of my personal experience as a writer), is my inspiration in deciding to self-publish in the first place.

It was meeting for the first time a writer I had long admired: Sean Costello.

I was visiting my home town of Sudbury, Ontario, for the weekend and my Mom had kept a clipping from the local paper announcing that author Sean Costello would be doing a book signing that same weekend at the local Coles. Having loved his first three novels from Pocket Books, I was excited to check out his latest effort, and even more thrilled at the chance to meet him in person.

At the time, I worked for Chapters/Indigo, Canada’s largest book chain, and was responsible for the data feeds from publishers to our master database that fed the Chapters/Indigo website and the internal system used to order books for the Chapters, Indigo and Coles stores across the country. So, when meeting Sean and getting his autograph, I asked him who his new publisher was, wanting, of course, to make sure we had the title properly listed in our system.

That was when Sean informed me that he’d self-published
Finders Keepers
, and that he’d used Print-on-Demand (POD) to make it happen. He described his frustration with the lack of control he’d experienced with the release of his previous three novels, and explained how, with just a little hard work, any author could do the same without having to wait for the New York publishing establishment to grant its approval.

That meeting with Sean was the genesis of two things. One, a friendship, in which this talented and experienced writer took me under his wing and offered support, valuable critiques of my work and encouragement. And two, the will to take control of both my writing and bookselling careers.

You see, having only sold to short fiction markets, I’d been toying with the idea of doing an anthology of my previously published stories. But an unknown author trying to sell a short story collection is a difficult challenge.

So, after hearing about Sean’s experience with self-publishing, I decided to publish
One Hand Screaming
using the Ingram POD service, Lightning Source, and launched the book in 2004. It was the first of many self-publishing experiments, and it allowed me to better understand the power of POD.

It was this understanding which led me ensure that the McMaster University bookstore, (where I worked from 2006 to 2011), became the second location in Canada and only the ninth in the world to purchase an Espresso Book Machine, a device that produces a perfect bound trade paperback with a color cover and black and white interior in about five minutes flat. Using this machine, not only did I help students to save money on textbooks, but I also started a self-publishing service called
Titles on Demand
and helped dozens of local authors realize their dream of having a book published.

The self-publishing operations at McMaster, and the steady rise in popularity of digital in the book world, kept me experimenting with both POD and eBook publishing, which eventually led to my taking on the role of Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations for Kobo, where, in 2012, I headed up the creation and launch of
Kobo Writing Life
, a free self-publishing service that has helped tens of thousands of authors to sell their work in over 180 different countries via Kobo.

I also strongly believe that several of my traditional publishing opportunities came about only because I had a proven track record of professionalism and tireless self-promotion; prompted by that kick in the pants Sean’s example gave me. Among those opportunities was being asked to edit
Tesseracts Sixteen
, and having the Toronto based publisher, Dundurn, accept my one-page proposal to write a non-fiction paranormal book about the city I live in (
Haunted Hamilton
, 2012), which, in turn, led to Dundurn wanting a new book in this vein from me every year.

So this past fall, while I was doing a book signing for
Tomes of Terror
at the very same Coles in which I had first met Sean in 2003, he dropped by and asked me if I’d be interested in collaborating with him on the re-release of some of his backlist, as well as a few potential new titles he had kicking around in the back of his mind…and I had to restrain myself from jumping on him and going to town on his leg like a dog in heat.

“Are you kidding me?” I wanted to shout. “Me, collaborating with THE Sean Costello?” Sure, it was cool that we were friends, and I was honored to have had Sean read some of my work and make helpful suggestions, not to mention the thrill of being published in the same anthology as him a few years earlier; but the thought of working closely and collaborating with him on writing projects was a whole other level of excitement. Imagine how you might feel if Stephen King asked you to do him a favor. It was kind of like that for me.

So here I am, collaborating on publishing projects with a writer I idolized when I was just starting out, and living the dream in ways I couldn’t even imagine when I was thirteen years old and pounding out stories on my mother’s old Underwood typewriter. I’m working on my own projects, I get to help writers interested in publishing to Kobo, and now I’m ensuring that the world is made richer by placing Sean’s works into the hands of as many new readers as I can.

I imagine, since by definition an afterword appears at the end of a book, that you’ve already read
Finders Keepers
and can now understand the magic of the worlds that Sean Costello brings to light. To me, this novel represents the come-back of a truly gifted writer, one who holds his readers spellbound in a tight-knuckled grip and doesn’t let go until the very last page. And I am so very pleased to have worked closely with Sean to help bring this new, 2015 edition of the book into the world.

Mark Leslie Lefebvre

Author of
I, DEATH
,
ONE HAND SCREAMING,
and
TOMES OF TERROR
.

Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations, Kobo

Did you love
Finders Keepers
? Then you should read
 
Squall
 by Sean Costello!

Bush pilot and family man Tom Stokes is about to face the worst day of his life. On a clear winter morning he sets out in his Cessna 180 to do some repairs on a remote hunt camp, leaving his five year old son and very pregnant wife snug in their beds.

On the return trip, a squall forces him into an emergency landing and he winds up—quite literally—in the lap of petty criminal Dale Knight. Dale, now a fugitive from the law—and worse, from a merciless drug lord who just happens to be his brother—draws Tom into a web of mayhem and treachery that puts not only his life at risk, but the lives of his wife, son…and unborn child.

SQUALL is a fast-paced, darkly-comic tale of murder and gang-style retribution that grabs the reader on page one and simply does not let go.

PRAISE FOR COSTELLO’S PREVIOUS NOVELS

HERE AFTER
“Costello…keeps the action moving and the suspense ratcheted up tight.”
    —Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

EDEN’S EYES
“The best horror novel I’ve read since Stephen King’s own Pet Sematary. …Costello knows how to tantalize his readers, priming them for the horrors to come…”
       —Rave Reviews

THE CARTOONIST
“A wonderful blend of horror, psychology and the power of suggestion that leaves you guessing right up to the very end!”
      —The New Jersey Grapevine

CAPTAIN QUAD
“Sean Costello is one of the horror genre’s brightest new stars, and…Captain Quad will only enhance his position.”
       —Other Realms