Author Gambles $100,000 On Debut Novel

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - Sept. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- A few years ago, Peter Michael Diamantopoulos was ecstatic. He had a fresh story idea with an incredible ending—something never before attempted in fantasy fiction. He had a literary agent and an interested editor from Random House waiting for the second draft of his manuscript. But then the agent lost patience and abandoned the project. Soon after, the editor inexplicably left Random House without forwarding his new contact information. On the verge of a publishing deal, Diamantopoulos (pronounced “Die-man-TOP-oh-luss”) was left high and dry. So he did what any passionate artist would do.

He quit his job.

This wasn’t the first time Diamantopoulos took the road less traveled. When he was only ten years old, he begged his parents to homeschool him. (The flexible schedule proved invaluable when he pecked out his first novel in high school.) Then during his junior year at Penn State, he flipped his major to English education so he could study the literature he loved. Instead of hovering close to home after college, he moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia with his wife to teach in Stafford County, and they joined a small start-up church that met in a local high school.

Still, the decision to leave the classroom and depend solely on his wife’s income was the hardest of his life. His teaching salary wasn’t impressive, but in the three years it’s taken to plan his saga and write Cornerstone (the prelude of the Touchstone series), Diamantopoulos has forfeited about $100,000 in wages. Never mind the extra few thousand dollars he has spent on editorial services, cover art and marketing.

It perhaps doesn’t help that his debut novel also blazes an unusual path. “Cornerstone is an epic fantasy novel without the usual fantasy clichés,” Diamantopoulos explains. “There are no elves or dragons. No lengthy expositions and spell descriptions. There’s only simple, terrifying magic, and headstrong characters desperate enough to risk using it. This world has a fascinating history with ancient cities and millions of inhabitants, but the Cornerstone is powerful enough to threaten everything, even the very fabric of reality.”

Cornerstone was only just released on Amazon paperback, Kindle, and Nook, so it’s too early to predict if the investment will pay dividends, but Diamantopoulos is confident. “I have to average 40 sales per day, or I’ve lost the bet,” he muses. “Still, it’s better than teaching. And if I’m successful, I’ll be able to offer something that hasn’t been seen in a long time.”