Technology has created a wide variety of ways to reach audiences all over the world. It takes is a little thinking outside the box and you can market a self-published book in creative, affordable and impactful ways. Consider book tours! Tours are a great way to connect with your readers and technology has made them easier and more cost effective than ever!
Author Lance Anderson is taking his latest book Life in the Morgue, on tour — a Virtual Book Tour with Outskirts Press. This will allow Lance to take his book into the far corners of the globe, all from the comfort of his own home! Keep an eye out for Lance’s book as he will be featured on several blogs over the weeks and months ahead!
Luckily for us, Lance was kind enough to answer a few questions as the tour was getting started so that we can give you a sneak peek into the mind of the creator of Life in the Morgue.
OP: Tell us a little bit about Life in the Morgue. What is it about?
Lance: The best way I can describe this book is it’s not what you think it is. It is not a horror or gross, it is more focused on the people that actually work in the morgue, and their quirks and about the things that they had to deal with. The office itself and how things were run, the inter office politics and even some state and local government shenanigans. There was another saying at the office “dead people don’t vote” so sometimes things could get out of hand. With that being said the people that I worked with in real life always treated the deceased with the same respect whether they were famous or well connected with lots of money or a drug overdose found in an alley. The doctors there were all top notch and knew what they were doing. Greg the main character is just a normal blue-collar guy who managed to get this job and it so much more than he expected it to be. It becomes an all-consuming life for him, he sees and experiences things he or most people never thought about in his normal regular life.
OP: Why did you decide to write this story?
Lance: I wrote the book because no matter where I go, once people find out where I worked they all want to hear stories about what happens there, or specific cases, and some of the types of things that I had to deal with. I was at a friend’s backyard cook out a few weeks ago. A young married couple had arrived, and the husband walked right past the hosts and came and sat next to me and started talking. His wife came over and told him it was pretty rude to not say hi to the hosts first. He responded the only reason I came is because Lance was going to be here, he is going to make this an interesting day.. A woman that had recently started dating one of my other friends was sitting next to me. I had only met her on one other occasion chimed in with “what’s going to make it more interesting?” He looked at her and said, “go ahead, ask him where he used to work!” She did, so I told her, and spent most the rest of the afternoon telling morgue stories and talking about cases. It only took a few minutes when I noticed most everyone in the back yard was now standing around the table I was sitting at listening to the stories. People find the stories intriguing, funny, sad and dramatic, and are always asking for more. I had been asked by countless people to write about it over the past several years, so I think it will appeal to lots of people.
OP: How did you get your book published?
Lance: I did a lot of internet research on going to a major publisher vs. self-publishing and decided that Outskirts Press seemed to offer everything I was going to need to turn this into a book. Outskirts made it very easy to go through the whole process.
OP: What types of readers would be interested in this story?
Lance: The book is written as a fiction, but I think it will appeal to anyone that enjoys the inner working of what happens at a morgue or specifically the medical examiner’s office. The story has drama, humor, some office politics and action. I think the story crosses several genres and will appeal to many different types of people.
OP: What is special about your book?
Lance: Well I think it is written from a perspective that hasn’t been seen before. Greg Benson is just an ordinary guy getting through life as best he can. He suddenly finds himself dealing with things and situations that never would have entered his mind that this stuff could happen. The book is written as a fiction but, I used the basis of real situations in the storyline. Some of the situations are twisted around a bit and I did not use real names or locations. I used a Steven king quote in the beginning of the book “Fiction is just the truth wrapped in lies” and I think there is a lot of validity in that statement.
OP: What differentiates it from other books in the same category?
Lance: I did a lot of research trying to find a book to compare it to and really did not find one that I could match it with. Most of the other books I have seen about Morgues or Medical Examiners seemed to be non-fiction case studies or were highlighting the deceased and what brought them into the morgue. This is a good story about a few years in the life of someone who was not really trained or equipped to deal with what he saw, but he managed to excel anyway. Everyday people never think about this stuff and what can and does happen on a daily basis.
OP: Have you published any other books?
Lance: I have co-written a movie script with a friend and it was shopped around and picked up by a major production company and they asked if I could write a sequel, so I did, and they loved that as well. Currently they are sitting in a holding pattern, but we are still in contact and they say they are going to produce them but won’t put a date on when.
OP: Do you plan to publish more?
Lance: Well I am an active paranormal investigator as well and have plans to write about a particular ghost hunt, I was on as well as another book that covers many other investigations I have done over the years. Who knows, if Life in the Morgue does well. I have enough stories and scenarios to write a sequel to that, maybe even a third.
OP: Thanks for your time, Lance! We look forward to learning more about you as you visit other bloggers!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lance Anderson spent most of his life as an ironworker until he decided it was time for a change. He took a job at the medical examiner’s office, where he worked for six years and assisted in more than two thousand cases until he was forced to retire due to vision problems. Life in the Morgue is his debut novel, but he has also written two movie scripts that are in the process of being produced.
For more information or to contact the author, visit https://www.outskirtspress.com/lifeinthemorgue
This author purchased the Virtual Book Tour marketing option, which allows self-publishing authors to connect with bloggers and harness the power of the blogosphere by taking their book on the “virtual road.” Learn more about this service by visiting your Publishing Center and reviewing the available marketing options.
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