Delin Colón is a writer and researcher with an undergraduate background in French and a post-graduate background in Clinical Psychology. She began writing poems and short stories at the age of eight. After working in psychiatric settings, owning a construction company, starting an agency pairing writers with clients, and working as a technical writer for Sociological Abstracts, she spent over a decade researching the claims of her great-great uncle (Rasputin’s secretary) that Rasputin advocated equal rights for oppressed Russian Jews. Her book, Rasputin and The Jews: A Reversal of History is the result of her research. While nearly every book on Rasputin mentions his advocacy for the Jews, whether with admiration or derision, hers is the first to specify and substantiate those claims as the reason he was demonized by the Russian aristocracy.Having lived in cities along both the east and west coasts of the U.S., Colón currently resides on the Pacific coast of Washington state with her husband, David Colón, a writer and fine art photographer whose work has been exhibited nationally. She is also an artist who creates what she calls ‘minimalist collages’.
Delin strives for minimalism which she had the opportunity to practice as a technical writer for Sociological Abstracts. “I like to structure sentences, using the fewest words possible, for the greatest impact. This, of course, requires rigorous editing.”
She says she would love to delve into fiction and screenplay writing. “Non-fiction comes easily to me due to my love of research. The characters and plot already exist in non-fiction, so the writer needs only to create logical segues linking the bits of information, in an appealing fashion. Fiction requires the writer to invent characters and plot, along with the ability to pace the story in a way that grabs the reader. Screenplays require a very specific and structured format. I have the greatest admiration for writers of fiction and screenplays.”
Delin says promoting and marketing are the most challenging aspects of being an indie author. “Of course, the pitch is everything. Many reviewers won’t even look at an indie book, although I believe that attitude is slowly changing. ‘Rasputin and The Jews’ was recently reviewed in The New York Journal of Books which, typically, does not review self published work. Promotion of one’s published work is a never-ending task that can take time away from work that’s in progress. I devote a portion of my day to promoting my published book, while being mindful of the time I need to do the research for my current project.”
Her strategies for connecting with readers include placing her book in local bookstores and joining online forums, targeting her market: readers of non-fiction, history, Jewish groups, Russian history groups, those interested in Rasputin and those concerned with anti-Semitism and social injustice. “I have Google and Yahoo alerts set up for these categories and, whenever a forum or article appears on any of these, I take the opportunity to comment, mentioning my book. My book is also listed in many of the bibliographies of these special interest sites.”
She also has a website and a Facebook page devoted to the book, its background and historical context. “Reviews are my favorite way to reach readers, especially since they’re published in multiple places. I’ve been very fortunate to have garnered some great editorial and reviews. Of course, interviews, such as this one, are also very instrumental. Booking speaking engagements with relevant groups, and in libraries, is a much more personal way to connect with readers but, being based in a relatively rural area, I have to admit I haven’t done a lot of this.”
Delin has also published articles on Ezine, Yahoo Voices, Sirgo, GoArticles, History In an Hour, and a number of other sites, relating to the subject matter of her book. She says these have driven traffic to her website, as well as resulting in sales.
Although initially resistant to joining online groups, Delin says doing so has been invaluable. “I belong to LinkedIn groups, Goodreads, SheWrites, and a myriad of others. Support for indies is increasing at a phenomenal rate. It’s, at times, difficult and time consuming to keep up with them all but they’ve been instrumental in providing leads for reviews and interviews, as well as forging productive relationships with other authors. In fact, one such author, Bryna Kranzler has written a non-fiction book (“The Accidental Anarchist”) which covers the same time period and issues of anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia that complements my book so well that we’ve been linked in reviews. We often trade promotional opportunities since our books target the same audience, and have reviewed each other’s work. In the process, we’ve also become close friends, which has been of the greatest value to me as both a writer and a human being.”
Delin feels the indie image has improved. “I remember when self-publishing used to be called ‘vanity publishing,’ promoting a negative stereotype of this format. The implication was that, if you didn’t have a traditional publisher, the work couldn’t be worth much. The indie author movement has removed the stigma by changing its name, and has given self-publishing credibility by producing some wonderful, well-reviewed and lauded books. Traditional publishers are now keeping an eye on the indie market and occasionally making offers to those with skyrocketing sales. I’m proud to be an indie author (and glad to keep a greater share of the royalties).”
Her advice to aspiring writers? “I don’t generally like to give advice to writers, as each has his or her own idiosyncratic process. However, I do find that it’s not productive, during the process of writing, to worry about the business of writing. Concerns about publishing, audience, marketing and reviews will only remove the writer from the process, which is counterproductive. One has to be fully immersed in the work. Once it’s completed, edit. Then, edit again, again and again. Hire a professional editor, if need be. I’ve read a number of fine, self-published works that were diminished due to technical issues such as spelling, lack of verb tense agreement, confusing sentence structure, pronoun problems, and anachronisms.”
Rasputin and The Jews: A Reversal of History is a well-documented account of Rasputin as a healer, equal rights activist and man of God, and why he was so vilified by the aristocracy that their vicious rumors became accepted as history. For nearly a century, Grigory Rasputin, spiritual advisor to Russia’s last Tsar and Tsarina, has been unjustly maligned simply because history is written by the politically powerful and not by the common man. A wealth of evidence shows that Rasputin was discredited by a fanatically anti-Semitic Russian society, for advocating equal rights for the severely oppressed Jewish population, as well as for promoting peace in a pro-war era. Testimony by his friends and enemies, from all social strata, provides a picture of a spiritual man who hated bigotry, inequity and violence. The author is the great-great niece of Aron Simanovitch, Rasputin’s Jewish secretary.
This title is available in print or Kindle edition from Amazon. Learn more about author Delin Colón and her writing from her blog and the book’s Facebook Page.
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I don't read a lot of non-fiction but this is one on my list.
This book sounds fascinating. It's on my goodreads to-read list.