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Digging Up Death Certificates Was The Easy Part
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
International Cemetery and Funeral Management Magazine

 

ICFM talked to M.F. (Michael) Steen, superintendent of Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California, about his book, "Celebrity Death Certificates."

 

Where did you get the idea for this book?
There was a similar one about 20 years ago, about 50 or 60 pages long and featuring celebrities, captains of industry and a few presidents. It was a "vanity press" printing but was well done, and it sparked my interest.  I wanted to focus on celebrities and include more information.

 

How did you get the death certificates?
I ordered them from the county health department.  I have about 600 in my collection now and am adding more all the time.

 

Is your collection a hobby or just research for the book?
I would call it a hobby. Until I make money on it, it's not a business.  I'm hoping to make a few dollars on this book, but that's not why I did it.

 

It's a real challenge to see a creative project through from the idea to reality, whether it's a book or a movie or screenplay.  The book was done and copyrighted in 1998 and finally scheduled for publication in mid-August 2003.  I shopped it around to publishers for five years, and it's a joy to see it all come together.

 

I know people who have written books and not found publishers; it's not easy.
Especially with all the computers these days; everybody is writing a book!  The average publisher gets 100 submissions a day, so it could easily by nine months to a year before you hear back that they don't want your manuscript.  When I sent mine to McFarland, I heard back in 10 days, so I knew they were interested.

 

My initial book proposal included photographs and famous quotations, some serious, some whimsical.  I envisioned it as a coffee table book.  McFarland wanted all that out, wanted more to focus on its value as reference material, because the thrust of their marketing it to libraries.

 

I kind of wrinkled up my nose and said, "libraries?" until somebody reminded me that there are 70,000 libraries in this country -- a pretty good-sized market.  My book is in their fall 2003 catalogue, which is quite well done.

 

Of course.  And I'm working on getting it on Barnes and Noble's website.  I think the book has wide distribution possibilities and will make it into the retail side;  I think it's very marketable.  Everyone who has looked at it has been enthralled.  The say, "I fell guilty, but I can't put it down."

 

I'm not really interested in celebrity gossip, but when I opened the book and read one certificate, I just had to read one more, then one more....
That's it exactly.

 

If you do promotional appearances, will you do them at book stores or at cemeteries and funeral homes?
Probably book stores, simply because I could reach more people.  But I would love to do a book signing as a fund-raiser for the endowment care fund of the cemetary in my hometown in Nebraska.  Nobody has so much money in their endowment fund that they couldn't use a couple of extra nickels.  I'm open to that sort of thing.

 

So are you going to make a lot of money, like Stephen King?
I did not get an advance.  I'll make 10 percent of the net profit (after expenses) on the first 1,000 books sold and 12.5 percent on everything after that.

 

How many books in the first printing?
McFarland prints in increments of 1,000.  They're printing 1,000 to start with and I'm buying 500, so they'll come out fine!  I'm going to give them away to friends, use them for marketing, sell them myself -- do whatever I can think of to get the word out.  I'm going to have a lot of them in my living room if I don't!

 

You just need to get a mention on one of those celebrity news shows and they'll be printing more in no time.
I'm going to send these books out far and wide.  I hope you see me on "Oprah" talking about "Celebrity Death Certificates" someday.

 

And I have enough material already collected for volumes two and three if this one is a success.  It's really a timeless book.