MARCH 20-26, 2023 SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 9 home to Springfield to take over his father’s business, Glenstone Block Co., in 1973. He ran the concrete block manufacturing company for 35 years before retiring, he said. “The commonality throughout my life was writing,” he said. “I started that back when we were in Evansville, and I just never stopped.” The freelancer life was not for Harrison, he said. Rather, he wanted regular, reliable income, so he worked full time until he sold the block company in 2008. “I’ve written full time pretty much since then,” he said. Harrison is not one to brag, though he could be – not many living people have an elementary school named after them, but he has Springfield Public Schools’ Harrison Elementary. “Among my writer friends, that’s something that comes up all the time,” he said, adding in a singsong tone, “Nanner, nanner, I have a school.” Though he declines to offer specific numbers, Harrison’s literary output does well. “Over my lifetime, I’m certainly in the seven figures, total, but I’m always leery about giving an annual figure – it fluctuates so darn much,” he said. Like Allen, Harrison still gets money from reprints. “The Book of Giant Stories,” which in 1972 won the Christopher Award for content that values the human spirit, sold 700,000 in hardback then went out of print, but it was translated into a dozen languages and eventually found a second publisher. Every year, he said, he gets one or two requests to reprint a story from the collection, each at $1,000 a pop. “That’s money that comes from work I did 50 years ago,” he said. Additionally, 30% of his income is from appearances – “dog-and-pony things,” Harrison calls them. He charges $2,000-$3,000, typically, but he said he doesn’t seek those out. “Even though writing time per hour is probably nowhere near as lucrative, I’d really rather sit home and write,” he said. Harrison, who is 85, said each new book contract is an occasion to celebrate. His most recent title is his memoir, “This Life: An Autobiography,” published in December. “I’ve got one now that an editor has expressed interest in,” he said. “She hasn’t said yes yet, but I think she’s going to. If that happens, I’ll do a victory dance, or in my case a shuffle.” The cozier, the better Susan Keene lives in an orchard in Niangua, where she writes in a tiny blue cottage with her dachshunds by her side. Keene writes cozy mysteries, a subgenre in which a handful of suspects are known to the reader. Often, cozies have offpage murders solved by quirky, amateur sleuths. Keene’s detectives are a restaurateur in her Arizona Summers series and a private investigator in her Kate Nash Mysteries. The Arizona Summers mysteries also include a bonus feature: recipes of dishes mentioned in the book. In publishing with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited model, authors are paid for each page that’s read, and Keene said that’s where she makes most of her money. Keene’s publisher is Springfield-based Paperback Press, which prepares manuscripts for print-on-demand or digital release. “The most I ever had was 80,000 pages read in one month,” she said, noting she hopes to reach 1 million. “I’m going to get there, I have no doubt, if I live long enough.” Keene enjoys teaching the art of the cozy mystery, and her fee varies. She, like Harrison, likes to spend the bulk of her time writing. “The key to success in my opinion is to keep writing. That’s why I’m writing two books at the same time right now – I don’t usually do that,” she said. Writing series books is also a difference-maker, she said. “Readers want to see the character grow,” she said. “They will tell you what they want more of. I think you could write a series and have a hundred books in it and get more popular with each one.” • FAMILY SHOW BENEFIT SHOW FOR April 29 7:00 PM Meridian Title Performance Hall Nixa, MO TICKETS ON SALE AT AETOSCENTER.NET MADAGASCAR THE MUSICAL June 18 at 7:00 PM SILHOUETTES May 13 at 7:00 PM Re-live the glory days of Nineties Boy Bands with the music of NSYNC, BACKSTREET BOYS, NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK , as well as JONAS BROTHERS AND ONE DIRECTION From Golden Buzzer Act from America's Got Talent The Champions 2020 and First Runner-Up on AGT Season 6 Show Sponsors: & Cox College David Harrison: Every new book is its own reason to celebrate. Susan Keene: Readers like seeing how characters in a series grow and change. MURDER IS SERVED Nancy Allen’s writing studio is her dining room, which she said she happily vacates for Christmas and Easter.
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