Outskirts Press 2013 Top 10 bestselling self-publishing author Ed Kienzle, 56, was inspired to pen The Last Buffalo after the ongoing slaughter of diseased buffalo in parkland near his Bar Nunn, Wyoming, home. The juvenile fiction, which chronicles a young boy’s mission to save the majestic buffalo, was some 15 years in the making, but the book is beginning to catch fire with readers.
Ed states he has sold thousands of copies of The Last Buffalo just since last August, and he continues to promote it in his own time with the help of his wife, Beth. “My market is usually schools and students, like 11-13 year-olds, so we picked schools [in and around Bar Nunn] and sent out 40 or 50 copies to a number of 
schools in the area, along with press materials,” he says. “We got a few spikes in sales after that.”
In addition to issuing a custom press release to announce the release of The Last Buffalo, along with a professional Outskirts Press book marketing video to promote it, Ed personally drops in KOA campgrounds and specialty stores to get the word out about his book. “I always keep books in my pickup,” he says. “I bet I’ve made a hundred or so sales that way, just talking to people. We go on a road trip somewhere and I’ll talk to a few people everywhere I go.”
Ed learned a great deal about taking advantage of promotional and marketing opportunities with his 2002 book Partners in the Wilderness, which garnered a few independent publishing awards. The experience taught him that success in book sales is an ongoing process. His advice for self-publishing authors with a new book to promote? “Jump on it,” he says. “If you get a chance to talk about your book, don’t be shy. And don’t be too unhappy if you don’t have a lot of results right away — just keep at it.”
“The biggest fear a writer has is that they’re going to put their story out there and nobody’s going to like it, or someone’s going to hate it,” says Ed. “Get over it — it’s your passion. Go forward. Once it’s done, you can’t think ‘I should have.'”
The Last Buffalo
Little Kettle sadly watched the last buffalo fall lifeless to the ground in what he had come to call “The Winter of the Red Snow.” Sanctioned by the Interagency Bison Management Plan in Yellowstone National Park, the ongoing slaughter threatens the great beast’s very existence. Educated as a lawyer, Little Kettle has been waging a legal war to protect the buffalo but has been unable to stop the carnage.
When his nephew Wyman is born, Little Kettle proclaims the boy the “Keeper of the Buffalo” and instills in him a deep love for the animal that once ruled the Plains. But the youngster struggles under the weight of the mantle he’s been asked to bear.
At 12, Wyman sets out on a great adventure in the wilderness of Yellowstone to save the buffalo – a journey driven by vivid and compelling dreams. With help from friends, a peace pipe, an Indian maiden and a mysterious shape shifter, Wyman is determined to discover the secret of his dreams and fulfill his role as the Keeper of the Buffalo.
Hardback
Format: 5.5 x 8.5 hardback w/ jacket, 213 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Jul 10, 2013)
ISBN10: 1478709448
ISBN13: 9781478709442
Genre: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General
The Last Buffalo can be ordered by retailers or wholesalers for the maximum trade discount price set by the author in quantities of 10 or more from the Outskirts Press Direct bookstore at the OutskirtsPress bookstore. The book is available worldwide on book retailer websites such as Amazon and is being aggressively promoted with a focus on the juvenile fiction, action/adventure and nature categories.
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