Bio

Richard J. Schneider is a long-time Denver writer, winning numerous awards for his journalism, script writing and media production. He reported and wrote for United Press International and the Rocky Mountain News and is a former Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford University in energy affairs. He served as the initial public information officer for the Colorado Office of Energy Conservation before co-founding a Colorado firm that pioneered the development of interactive media systems for training, education, communication, and voting. That same long-running partnership provided creative services and communications consulting to many corporate and government clients.

Richard has written a bajillion words in the form of short stories, essays, newspaper columns, articles, brochures, scripts, white papers, training and education programs, and multi-media presentations. He engages in post graduate studies of political science and American Government at the University of Colorado at Denver. An avid sailor, bicyclist, fly fisher, and veggie gardener, Richard exercises his recessive nerd gene as an Extra Class Amateur Radio operator. A Chicagoland native, he has made Denver, Colorado, his home since 1969. He has three sons, one daughter and five grand-children.

Over the years, Richard has studied and practiced the short story form. However, his participation in master writing classes with James Michener, Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving spurred his desire to write novels. An acute interest in mysteries and his background in journalism drew him to the mystery genre as a fiction writer. Who Killed Porkchop? began as an exercise in developing a longer fictional narrative with more complex character development than short stories allow. It grew into a fun mystery novella worthy of sharing with mystery fans. Richard’s debut novel, WATER A Vic Bengston Investigation, a murder mystery set in Colorado, introduces the character Vic Bengston, a Baby Boomer who returns to his first love, investigative journalism, after working in the corporate world for a quarter century. In the second book in this popular series, VOTE A Vic Bengston Investigation, Vic unravels the suspicious death of a billionaire computer entrepreneur and uncovers a computer encryption secret sought by governments, businesses, politicians, terrorists, and criminals.

A Word About Henry David Thoreau

I am a huge fan of H.D., as we used to call him around those chilly nighttime campfires outside his cabin next to Walden Pond. I have read him in the past and I re-read his works today, as they remain relevant. However, I have neither written nor edited any books about Thoreau. That was done by Richard J. Schneider, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of English at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. Prof. Schneider and I enjoy the same name. Many of the robots that run the book publishing world, list both my works of fiction and Prof. Schneider’s scholarly work on Thoreau on the same page. I have attempted to get the two of us pulled apart, but have you ever spent much time trying to talk to or reason with a robot? It is not pretty. Some have suggested that I change my byline, maybe to Richard Schneider or Dick Schneider. Well, since I began writing for UPI in 1969, my byline has been Richard J. Schneider, and I ain’t about to alter it to compensate for the inadequacies of Interweb robots. So the world will just have to sort it out on its own.” –RJS

Interview

Q – Who is the target audience for your Vic Bengston Investigation series?

The primary reader target is the adult reader, 35 and up. Vic Bengston is a baby boomer. He is 59 years old in WATER. As a boomer myself, I know how my generation thinks about things, and how we feel when nursing our aches and pains. But the series is far from stodgy, and it is populated with younger characters. I am finding that more and more younger readers are enjoying the exploits of Vic Bengston.

Q – Who else do you write for?

Myself. Working on a book is like reading a book. I disappear into the story, into the world I am creating. The world is very much like the one I live in here in Colorado, but I am in charge (most of the time) so I can tweak it a bit. That’s what makes it fun for me.

Q – Why so little blood and gore?

It gets a little old, doesn’t it? The Vic Bengston Investigation series is more like noir lite, or a little heavier cozy, or a malice domestic. Vic finds himself in physical danger from time to time, but there is not a car chase or gunfight in every other chapter. I have more fun with the character interactions. I thought about it and wrote back that WATER is a “malice domestic,” meaning not much blood and gore; the main character is in physical danger occasionally, but he is not beaten up every other chapter; the murder occurs in a brief opening chapter and is not graphic; and (sorry in advance to you fiends out there) no sex in WATER. (Vic does develop a bit of a love interest in the second book – VOTE – out in the summer of 2015.)

Q – How much of what Vic does is like real journalism?

It is fiction. But the Vic Bengston Investigation stories do reflect how many reporters pursue their stories, or at lease “used to.” Remember, Vic is sort of a neuvo relic. He returned to journalism after working in the private sector for several decades. When he first worked in Denver journalism, there were far more reporters working stories than there are today. They had time to chase down leads, follow hunches, and dig through the boring paperwork that often reveals good news stories. That’s what Vic does, and the reader gets to follow along.

Q – What else have you done as a writer?

Writing mystery novels will be my fourth professional writing career, following 1. Journalism. 2. Public Affairs, and 3. Corporate communications consulting. So why tackle the multiple jobs of coming up with a mystery series character, writing the books, rewriting the books, then marketing them? Well, I had always wanted to write novels so I figured no time like the present. The “present” was a little late in life – after my business partner and I wound down our creative communications agency and when I had some time on my hands. I was stepping into my sixth decade on Earth. I decided to go with what I knew: journalism, Colorado, plus a number of other locales. I also knew baby boomers, since I am on the leading edge of that crowd. They are a vibrant demographic that, while aging, remain active. And they read. I spent about a year or so “building” the Vic Bengston character. Is he based on me? Of course! But Vic cuts more corners, takes more risks, and has fun pitting his age and experience against the youngsters he works with. Still, he gets into trouble.

Q – Why take the route of an Indie Author?

First, I spent a year studying the publishing industry. That included running stats on eBook readers. I saw tens of millions of e-readers sold and rapid expansion. Add to that millions of tablet computers, software that lets readers open eBooks on computers, and apps that let you read books on smart phones. I read books, both contemporary and classics like “Great Expectations” on my cell phone! In just a few years there will be billions of eBook reading platforms around the world. Sales of eBooks are exploding each year, and readers are buying twice as many eBooks as mass market paperbacks. Sales of all paper-based books are declining, although all my full-length novels are available in print.

Second, The Big Five publishers, which have absorbed the dozens of brands that were used to perceive as publishing houses, must take drastic measures to survive as businesses. They go for home runs. That means John Grisham’s latest book will turn a profit; mine will not. James Patterson and the late Tom Clancy set up factories to crank out their books – with other writers penning novels under the big well-known brand names. Ian Fleming died in 1964, the year I read the dozen James Bond books available at the time; two other Fleming books were published posthumously. But new “authorized” 007 books regularly have regularly hit the bookshelves during the subsequent half-century, written by other authors – because the books turn BIG profits for the publishers, guaranteed. The bottom line: the publisher’s attention, money, marketing and promotion will be directed toward the sure bets. Pittances are doled out on start-ups like WATER. That means I will need to market and promote myself anyway, even if one of The Big Five published my book. If I am doing all the work, why not reap more of the benefit?

Third, in a traditional publishing deal, the author loses virtually all control of his or her book and gets paid relatively low royalties. If The Big Five Publishing called me tomorrow and offered me a contract, it might be two years before the book sees the light of day. That is because my book becomes the publisher’s property and the publisher can do whatever it wants to with the book, within the confines of the contract. I would rather spend those two years building a fan base while writing and publishing more novels in the Vic Bengston series. Now, if the offer included a big advance…well?

Fourth, I make more money on each eBook than traditionally published authors make on the eBook version of their hardback/paperback. That means I can offer the reader extreme value – a fun mystery at half the price – and I make a little more on each sale. Go figure. I also can publish much sooner and begin generating cash flow sooner. Granted, a traditional deal gives you an advance, but for start-ups like me, the advance would be small.

In short, it is a numbers game – odds, time and dollars. The odds against catching the fancy of the elusive literary agent let alone publisher are extremely high no matter how good the books are. As Ben Franklin said, Time is Money; if I have to invest so much time in the effort, I would like to be compensated for it. And then come the dollars; I can offer lower cost eBooks to avid and budget-conscious readers and make more money per unit doing it. I do not begrudge The Big Five; I understand their situation. After all, it is a business.

Q – Who are some other self-published authors?

According to selfpublishingseminars.com, I am in good company:

Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn; John Grisham, A Time to Kill; L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics; Irma Rombauer, The Joy of Cooking; Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass; Richard Paul Evans, The Christmas Box; Jack Canfield and Mark Hensen, Chicken Soup for the Soul; James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy; Beatrix Potter, creator of the Peter Rabbit Classic Series.

Want more Indies who self-published?

Thomas Paine, Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Elliot, Carl Sandberg, Gertrude Stein, Deepak Chopra, Upton Sinclair, D.H. Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw, e.e. cummings, Henry David Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood, Tom Clancy, Stephen Crane, Andy Weir (The Martian), and Hugh Howey (SILO).

How about this modest start: Hemingway’s first book, Three Stories & Ten Poems, was published in a small 300-copy run by friend and supporter Robert McAlmon.

Honors

Video/Multimedia/Script Writing

Telly Award. “Yellowstone National Park” Travel Documentary. Rand McNally/Videotrips. Writer.
Telly Award. “Silhouette: Behind the Scenes” Sales Training. Hunter Douglas Window Fashions. Writer/Co-Producer.
Telly Award. “Glacier National Park” Travel Documentary. Rand McNally/Videotrips. Writer.
Silver Key Award. Business Marketing Association. Disc-Based Communications. “Hunter Douglas Window Fashions Shoppe” DVD. Sales Training. Writer/Co-Producer.
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. “IBM AS/400 Interactive Video Demonstration” Honored for collaborating with the IBM AS/400 Development Team. Writer/Co-Producer.
Gold Peak Award. American Marketing Association. “The Silhouette Story” Corporate Image. Hunter Douglas Window Fashions. Writer/Co-Producer.
Best of Show, Gold Peak, Silver Peak, Bronze Peak Awards. Media Communications Association-International/Denver Chapter. Several product training videos and DVDs. Hunter Douglas Window Fashions. Co-Writer/Co-Producer.
Best Marketing Videotape Award. International Association of Business Communicators. “On The Move” PLM Financial Services. Writer/Co-producer.
Award of Excellence. International Television Association. “Introduction to the Electrophotographic Process” Animated Technical Training Video. IBM. Writer/Director/Producer.
Award of Excellence. International Industrial Film Festival. “Introduction to the Electrophotographic Process” Animated Technical Training Video. IBM. Writer/Director/Producer.

Journalism

Professional Journalism Fellow in Energy Affairs. Stanford University.
Colorado Journalist of the Year/Top Hat. Sigma Delta Chi (University of Colorado).
Rocky Mountain Journalist of the Year. Rocky Mountain Center on the Environment.
McWilliams Award/Honorable Mention. Denver Press Club. Investigative Article Series: Land Development.
Certificate of Appreciation. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental Writing.
Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition/Honorable Mention. Magazine Article: Alaska Pipeline Boom.