Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Mystery and suspense writer Betty Sullivan La Pierre found a publisher for her works online.
Solving the publishing mystery
Local author finds success after online search
By Daniel Hindin
Sunnyvale author Betty Sullivan LaPierre has finally hit the jackpot. After more than 30 years of writing, her first book, The Enemy Stalks, has been published.
After graduating from Oklahoma University, LaPierre moved to California with her husband in 1960. After her husband's untimely death in 1967, LaPierre says, "I just started writing a bit."
In the meantime, she also began a rare book business from her home called Betty's Books. The business ended up lasting 10 or 15 years, but she slowly became more involved in her writing. "I let the business taper off about three or four years ago," says LaPierre. "It was too time consuming, and it was taking away from my writing."
Soon LaPierre had completed several full length books. Mystery and suspense are her specialty. Every time she finished a book, she would start calling up publishing companies. And every time she called up the publishing companies, they would call her back and tell her that they were sorry, but they couldn't do her book.
LaPierre kept persevering, but eventually, she says, "I grew tired of the big publishing houses." Then one day, while online at her computer, LaPierre realized there was another route: e-books. "I just started surfing," she says. "I printed out a list of e-publishers and went by random."
The latest in nontraditional publishing, e-books are purchased online and downloaded to personal computing devices.
Within a month she had received offers on two of her books. The first book, The Enemy Stalks, has already been published by E-Pub2000. The second, Murder.Com, will be available from Crossroads Publishing next month.
LaPierre couldn't be happier. The new market of e-books has allowed her dream to come true. She has already written a sequel to The Enemy Stalks and another publishing company is now considering it for publication. LaPierre hopes to write even another sequel in what she is now calling, The Hawkman Series, based on the name of her main character.
The book has received rave reviews on the E-Pub2000 website from both casual readers who took a few minutes out of their day and from professional critics such as JD Masters of Booktrees, Etc.
LaPierre, an "interesting and colorful character," according to her publisher Chuck McNeal, has lived in Sunnyvale for 30 years. She is now remarried and has three sons.
Once a week, LaPierre hosts the Wednesday Writer's Group at her home. The group consists of herself and four friends. Together, they work on their writing and try to help each other get their work published. The other members of the writer's group hope to take advantage of the new ebook business to break into the often frustrating and overwhelming world of publishing. With the growing popularity and convenience of ebooks, their hopes are certainly rising.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
