By Bruce Miller
After the initial run in local bookstores last holiday season of “The Golden Ring,” Maryland author and businessman John Snyder is anticipating even stronger sales this year for his novel. Snyder published 5,000 copies of the Christmas novel last year, just in time for the holidays. This season, Snyder increased the number to 32,000. And he is taking his book nationwide.
“My reason for getting it out last year, he said, “was the story was inspired by my grandmother and she was getting up in years. I wanted to make sure she got to see it. I’m glad I did that because literally days after I gave her the copy, she passed away.”
The Christmas tale was a result of a two-and-a-half hour conversation Snyder had with his late grandmother, Anna, about a memorable Christmas she had when she was a girl. I took him nearly three years to finish the 164-page novel, which centers around the relationship between the main character, 9-year-old Anna and her father, Joseph.
“I often talked to my grandmother about her early life and what times were like when she was young,” Snyder said. “One particular day, I asked her to tell me about her most memorable Christmas. I was so taken with the story, I really wanted to write down for my family.”
But then, he decided, it would make a wonderful story for all families. And so the book was born.
“The reaction from the public has been overwhelming,” he said. “I’ve even had people come up to me crying, telling me how much the book touched them.”
Snyder, who is owner of The Snyder Group, a public relations and advertising firm, published the book himself ($15.95, Mountain Breeze Publishing) and is also doing his own marketing for the book. He began touring in October and has 91 book signings nationwide scheduled before Dec. 24.
“You just have a lot to overcome when you self-publish,” he said. “The chains don’t want to let you in, but I’ve overcome that. My book is being carried by all the major chains coast to coast.” In addition, an excerpt of the book was published in the current edition (Dec. 12) of Family Circle magazine.
Snyder decided to self-publish after not receiving what he thought were adequate offers from the large publishers in New York.
“I know the potential of this book,” he said. “I did a lot of test marketing and I’ve approached this from a business standpoint. I turned a profit last year and I see the potential for hundreds of thousands of copies being sold, but it’s going to take me awhile longer to get there than it would for someone with the backing of a major publisher.”
Snyder, who with his wife, Ruth Ellen, and two daughters, Nikki, 21, and Carli, 9, lives in Gambrills, said that he originally wrote the book with adult women in mind as purchasers. But men, women and even children have ended up buying it.
“I don’t consider it a masterpiece of literature,” he said, “but I think that people, with all that is going on in the world, want to cuddle up with a nice, heartwarming story every now and then, and I think Christmas brings out the best in all of us.”
Now that Snyder has his first book under his belt, he hopes to begin writing another book after the first of the year, possibly another Christmas story.