Martin Herman

Martin Herman Author

Martin Herman was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and for the past two decades has been living in Connecticut. For more than forty years he led a series of start-up and troubled businesses to profitable success.  

Although he has written and published articles and short stories under a series of pen names since his early teens, it was not until he approached his 75th birthday in 2015 that he published his first full length mystery novel, a historical murder mystery, The Jefferson Files (now in its 8th printing). In 2016 he published a contemporary thriller, The Hidden Treasure Files followed by The Sweet Revenge Files, and The Return to Sender Files. In May, the fifth mystery in this series, The 1st Tuesday of the Month Murder Files, was released. Each of his fiction novels is a careful blend of actual people, places, and historical events populated with his own interesting characters and situations designed to keep the reader's interest until the very last page.  

He believes that almost everyone has an interesting story to tell and has been on a mission to encourage and help both young and old put their stories to paper.  He currently teaches a writing course at U-Conn in Waterbury, as part of their OLLI senior learning program, to give guidance to those who have always wanted to write their own story.

Martin and his daughter Aimee collaborated on a book of short stories, titled A Very Special Dress and Other Stories. He also recently completed a non-fiction biography of Howard M. Hill, a 93-year-old Hartford musician who played with Billy Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole, among so many other jazz and pop music luminaries, and still plays regularly with an 18 piece live big band.

Martin was signing books at the 2019 Westchester County Home Show.

What inspired you to begin writing? 

I had a 6th grade teacher who was very supportive.  She encouraged me to write and before I entered 9th grade, I sold my first short story to a magazine.

How did your career evolve from business turnaround and consulting to historical fiction writing or “factional” writing?

My work required a great deal of travel – domestic and foreign - some years as much as a couple hundred thousand miles.  I often passed the time on long airplane rides, in far off airports, and hotel rooms, by writing.

At times I submitted some of the short stories and essays for publication, most times, I just tossed them into a large box in my basement after I returned home.  When the box was full, I dumped it out into the garbage and began filling it up again.

One of the stories that escaped the box became the outline for The Jefferson Files, which my daughter found, read and pushed me to publish.   

Can you define “faction” as a type of historical fiction?  Why did you choose to specialize in that genre?

I am an avid reader and have been filling my mind with assorted ‘facts’ for years.   After a while I found myself incorporating what was real with what was pretend in my writings.  

I learned that there was a word for this – faction – the blending of real with imagined.  Not wanting to confuse my readers or make them guess what is real and what is not in my books, I now include a section in the back of my books where I go chapter by chapter and identify what is true and what is not and give one or two sources for what is true.

I think the inclusion of real people, places, and events add value to a story.

Why did you decide to come up with your first full length mystery The Jefferson Files, a historical murder mystery that takes place in 1806, during Thomas Jefferson’s second term in office?

It was on one of my business trips.  My plane was stuck on the tarmac at LAX for more than an hour.  I was growing bored and took out the USA Today that I picked up in my hotel that morning.  A small news item grabbed my attention and my interest.  It was about an FBI sting operation where a group of elected officials – mostly local and state but also a U.S. Senator from New Jersey – were under investigation for taking bribes.

Thomas Jefferson has been my hero since childhood and all I kept thinking was, what would he have done if someone offered him a bushel basket of money for some of his influence???

Thomas Jefferson was in debt most of his life.  In fact, when he died his home and everything in it had to be sold off in order to try to pay off his debts.

Because he was my hero, I would have hoped that he would have thrown the would-be briber out of the nearest window – but who knows – he was human, as was each of the elected officials caught up in the FBI sting.

I pulled out my legal pad and began crafting what eventually became The Jefferson Files.

How did the Will James Mystery Series come to life? 

As with many things in life – it was the result of many other events.

The Jefferson Files was never meant to be published, much less a series.  When my daughter pushed me into publishing it, I thought that would be a stand-alone book.

While writing it I remembered that I had read, somewhere about a 15-year-old who hacked into the computer system – the highly secret, computer system - of the Department of Defense.

I thought a character with such a talent could add value to the storyline and bridge the gap between the 1800’s of Jefferson with the solution in modern times. 

The mail that poured in after the book was published kept asking about this character.

I wrote the second novel in what became the series just to respond to the reader’s comments and questions.  By then, I was hooked and wanted to keep the characters in the earlier books alive.

What were some of the challenges you faced on the road to publication? 

I made a few inquiries to try to interest a possible agent or publisher and quickly realized that there was no interest in taking on a 75-year-old, new writer, and so I connected with one of the many “vanity press” companies – so called publishers.

I looked at the experience from the viewpoint of a businessman.  The economies were one sided and I, as the writer, was definitely not on the right side of the percentages.  I never expected to make money as a writer, but I didn’t see any benefit from losing thousands of dollars just to see my name in print.  And so, I began researching what a publisher does and how I could do what they do, as effectively and more efficiently, for my books.

I found the person who did my first cover for the vanity press people and hired her to do every one of my covers since that first one. 

Next, I wanted a good editor and learned that the really successful writers have multiple editors – one for concept… one for spelling… grammar… fact checking… and formatting the raw manuscript to fit the pages of a finished book.  

I found and dropped several editors and am still searching for one who can handle spelling, grammar, research, and formatting for me. I was fortunate to find an extremely talented concept editor to work with me on the last few books.

There were a couple painful and costly associations with printers until I found my current printer who is a joy to work with.

Although I sell some books through Amazon, most of my books are sold one at a time at public appearances, such as the one where I met your Mom.

In the past two years I have appeared at more than 150 events each year and sold close to 14,000 books, which makes it so much easier to afford the team I listed above.

Because of a growing reader base, I now earn my living as a writer - who would have guessed?

Are you working on anything now? 

I am currently working on a business “self-help” book based upon almost a half century of business turn-around experience. My hope is that it will be published sometime this summer.

If you could tell your younger self anything what would it be? 

Follow your instincts.  Don’t let anyone convince you that you can’t do something – if you are willing to put in the work – you will succeed… GUARANTEED!

What advice can you give young aspiring writers of today? 

Write each and every day.  Write about what interests you.  Keep challenging yourself.   Don't be too critical of yourself, you will get better as long as you write each and every day.

Is there anything else that you would like to share? 

I have skipped around and through your website and I am impressed with what you have to show for yourself. 

You show initiative and drive – DON’T GIVE UP!

All art/photos belong to Martin Herman and are used with his permission.