by John S. Munday

One of the best readings I have enjoyed took place in Stillwater, Minnesota, when my book Justice for Marlys: A Family’s Twenty-Year Search for a Killer was published. The true crime book tells the story of our efforts to solve the murder of our daughter.

The trial took place in Stillwater in 1998, and the book came out in 2004. One of the jurors came by to thank me, and two of the investigators involved with a case did as well. One of those cops later read the book to discover that he hadn’t done a good job investigating the crime. Well, it is a true story, based on more than 4,000 pages of court testimony. The judge’s clerk also bought a copy. It was like a reunion. This book is now a textbook in several college-level criminology classes, and that seems to be the sustaining market, though we recently got an e-mail from a person in Turkey who was reading the book and following the story on Google geography.

In terms of marketing, one would think that my book Hate Is the Sin: Putting Faces on the Debate Over Human Sexuality would be of some interest to the Lutherans, given the fuss over their own debate. But the Lutheran magazine declined to review the book. No reason given.

Now that my novel, Cilantro, Not Coriander, has been published, which is set in Philadelphia and El Salvador in 1988–90 and deals with events related to the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, we have been reconnecting with people we have known over the past 20-plus years in the solidarity movement with El Salvador. I will be doing a book signing in San Salvador in March 2010, and that will be interesting.

Some things are certain, like death, taxes, and the fact that one has to market one’s own books. Since I spent my early years making the mistake of not writing books, and since I have promised myself that I will spend the rest of my life correcting that mistake, I will continue to look for ways to sell the books. Any help I can get, such as ideas from this project at the Loft, will be greatly appreciated.

John S. Munday is an attorney in Minneapolis, MN, and author of several books of nonfiction on church politics and surviving grief. He has participated in and facilitated many bereavement support groups. Cilantro, Not Coriander is his first novel.