Review: Storming Las Vegas

This is the extended text of the review of Storming Las Vegas that was published in The Miami Herald in May 2008. A few weeks later, this version was broadcast on the South Florida Arts Beat show on WLRN-FM, the Miami NPR station. I'll post the audio file (eventually), but the book is due for release soon as a paperback with new material, according to an e-mail I just received from the author, the amazing John Huddy.

Intro (Ed Bell): "Crime and criminality. Narrative styles. Steve Martin’s career turning-point, where he was convinced that he shouldn’t quit comedy. And the story of the Cuban military officer trained by the Russians who unleashed a brutal series of casino robberies on some of the biggest hotels in Las Vegas. Our reviewer, Richard Pachter, explains."

When you think about it, it’s pretty creepy. Why are otherwise law-abiding, peaceable people like you and me interested in violence and criminality? Solid citizens who wouldn’t even dream of squishing a stray palmetto bug seem inextricably attracted to bloody murder mysteries and detailed nonfiction accounts of criminally insane serial killers and their brutal sprees.

There’s no obvious answer but I’ll guess it’s because these acts present a crystallized, concentrated dose of extreme human behavior and emotion. In the hands of a really smart writer, they become more than just a recitation of the facts on a police blotter. The visceral aspects of the violence are also often less sensationalized and vulgar in this context.

Veteran TV producer and former Miami Herald writer John Huddy, while visiting Las Vegas, caught a whiff of a tale of a Cuban refugee — a Marielito, in fact — in custody after leading a succession of ultra-violent robberies at some of the city’s best-known casinos. Having started his career as a cops-and-courts reporter, Huddy knew that law enforcement personnel are usually fairly circumspect about their cases. Most prefer not to blab too much, but there was something about this case that piqued Huddy’s interest.

And Huddy’s interest is, itself, an interesting thing. Who is John Huddy?

For those of us who were Miami Herald readers in the mid-to-late 70s and early 80s, John Huddy was one of those writers like Edna Buchanan, Carl Hiassen and others who made that paper the legend that it still is today, to a great extent. Steve Martin recently gave props to Huddy in a memoir of his early stand-up comedy career, "Born Standing Up."

He wrote: "In Florida one night, it was balmy and I was able to take the audience outside into the street and roam around in front of the club, making wisecracks. I didn't quite know how to end the show. First I started hitchhiking; a few cars passed me by. Then a taxi came by. I hailed it and got in. I went around the block, returned and waved at the audience — still standing there — then drove off and never came back. The next morning I received one of the most crucial reviews of my life. John Huddy, the respected entertainment critic for the Miami Herald, devoted his entire column to my act. Without qualification, he raved in paragraph after paragraph, starting with HE PARADES HIS HILARITY RIGHT OUT INTO THE STREET, and concluded with: 'Steve Martin is the brightest, cleverest, wackiest new comedian around.' Oh, and the next night the club owner made sure all tabs had been paid before I took the audience outside.

"Roger Smith had told me that when he came to Hollywood from El Paso to be an actor, he had given himself six months to get work. The time elapsed, and he packed up his car, which was parked on Sunset Boulevard, where his final audition would be. Informed that he was not right for the job, he went out and started up his car. He was about to pull away, away to El Paso, when there was a knock on his windshield. 'We saw you in the hall. Would you like to read for us?' the voice said. He was then cast as the star of the hit television show, '77 Sunset Strip.'

"My review from John Huddy was the knock on the window just as I was about to get in my car and drive to a metaphorical El Paso, and it gave me a psychological boost that allowed me to nix my arbitrarily chosen 30-year-old deadline to reenter the conventional world. The next night and the rest of the week the club was full, all 90 seats.”

So Huddy has a lot of weight and credibility. Just do a Google search on him, if you like, and see.

"Storming Las Vegas" is an amazing and absorbing story. The leader of the gang, Jose Vigoa, was a Cuban national trained by the soviet military, who fought in Afghanistan and Angola as a Special Forces officer. He came to Florida during the Mariel boatlift, and joined a relative in Las Vegas. After several menial jobs, he dealt drugs, got caught and went to prison. Upon release, he formed a gang and in a 16-month period, hit five high-profile casinos: the MGM, the Desert Inn, New York-New York, the Mandalay Bay and the Bellagio, netting millions of dollars. Though the crimes were meticulously planned and Vigoa claimed to be attempting to avoid violence, two security guards were killed during one robbery. A task force was assembled, and well, Huddy had the cooperation of almost all of the major players in the story, including Vigoa and the Las Vegas police detective who led the investigation, so the story is well told and suspenseful.

Interestingly, all is recounted in the present tense, which an old writing guru once told me added immediacy and impact. Wonder if Huddy attended the same class… or taught the guru in the first place.

In addition to the great narrative, I learned some things about Huddy I didn’t know, including the fact that he grew up in Cuba before Castro at Gitmo, where his father ran the base’s telephone system.

"Storming Las Vegas" doesn’t provide any answers to the question of why crime fascinates non-criminals, but in addition to the story of Jose Vigoa, the book also brought me back to those days in the late seventies, when I’d get up every morning, trudge barefoot across the white gravel in my driveway on Loquat in the grove, crouch down, pick up my Herald and wonder what wonderful writing I’d soon be reading from Huddy, Hiaasen, Buchanan and the rest...

For authors, marketing is mightier than the pen

(above, novelist Joseph Finder)

It's not enough to write a great book. Authors are now expected to play an active role in book marketing and promotion. In this brave new world of always-on media, scribes are expected to either pursue or make themselves available to every potential reader.

Though there have always been opportunities for interviews, reviews, in-store signings, book fairs, seminars and broadcast appearances, now publishers want to make sure no avenue for multimedia exposure is overlooked as a book competes with every other form of entertainment.

Most book companies have full-time staff devoted to pursuing publicity for their books and authors, but nothing is guaranteed.

"Publicity departments are too small and stretched too thin," author Joseph Finder (pictured above), author of "High Crimes," "Company Man" and "Paranoia," said in a telephone interview from his Boston office. "They do their best, but there’s always another book coming out and I want to make sure that mine gets the attention it deserves before they move on to the next one."
But he notes his publisher, St. Martin’s Press, "was extremely cooperative when I came up with the idea of including an audio CD” to promote his current book, “Killer Instinct.” “From the CEO on down, they’re totally behind my books. In fact, the marketing director is a fan," he said.

Still, Finder felt the need to do more. “I paid for my Web site josephfinder.com, hired someone to design it and someone else to run it. It’s impossible to gauge, but I see more and more response from reviewers, journalists and booksellers, and readers communicate with me, too,” he said. “Everyone likes to get inside information and have a connection.”

Making that connection also includes putting up special Web sites in countries where his books sell especially well, such as the Netherlands.

Edna Buchanan, a Miami Beach novelist and one-time Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for The Miami Herald, said she works closely with her publisher’s publicity department and will do book tours and almost anything else they suggest to sell her books.

"But I hate to leave Miami," said Buchanan. "I’m basically a shy person but also I don’t want to miss anything if I’m out on the road. Plus I don’t like to go anyplace where they only speak one language and don’t have Cuban coffee."
But with her new book, "Love Kills," which brings her recurring character Britt Montero together with the Cold Case Squad, due out in June, she expects to hit the road again if that’s what her publisher wants.

Lissa Warren, senior director of publicity for Da Capo Books, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., said authors should first try to figure out how much of a priority their book is to the publisher. "Is it in their catalog, and if so, how does it compare to other books? Is there a two-page spread? Is there a large print run? A big advance? A tour? Have they sent out galleys to reviewers?" are the questions that should be asked, she said.

"They should at least be able to secure reviews from the Big Four trade publications — Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist and Library Journal — too,” said Warren, a poet herself and author of "The Savvy Author’s Guide to Book Publicity: A Comprehensive Resource: From Building the Buzz to Pitching the Press.”"

"Some authors may initiate their own campaigns, often with the knowledge and blessings of their publisher, but sometimes without," Warren said, adding that independent public relations firms may also be hired to work on a project.

"It’s big bucks," said Les Standiford, author of the series of novels featuring South Florida-based sleuth John Deal, as well as several historical works, including “Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America."
"The plain fact is that in an industry where $25,000 is a substantial advance, after your agent’s commission, taxes and a little money to live on, how much is left? My publishers have always been collaborative and like to see me tour and do signings, but do you know how many books you usually sell at a signing?" he asked. “Six to eight."
"So if you do a 10-city tour with average expense of a thousand dollars a day, how much does that work out to be, per copy?"
Standiford, who heads the creative writing program at Florida International University, chuckled and added, "But the publisher thinks it’s worth it and that it helps with word of mouth, which is how most books sell anyway. I’m fine with that, because it’s the most valuable and effective thing I can do to help sell my books."
Does Standiford teach his FIU students how to promote their work? "No," he said. "That would be more of a business course, I’d imagine, but we do cover how to present material to an agent, which is an important step in the process."
Investigative author Edwin Black, who wrote “IBM and the Holocaust,” “War on the Weak” and “Banking on Baghdad,” is a skilled and tireless promoter for his books.

After conducting the substantial research behind his current book, "Internal Combustion" — which chronicles the history of the energy industry and the suppression of alternate technologies, Black became a road warrior.

"Publishers know that in addition to getting a book, they’re getting me," he said several weeks ago while in Broward County to launch the campaign for “Internal Combustion." "I’m out there, meeting with people at schools, organizations and other places that make sense."
Black, who lives in Washington, wrote and helped produce a video trailer for his book that was completed with the assistance of volunteers, packaged on DVD and distributed online through YouTube. He also works with his publisher to secure reviews in print publications, as many authors do.

Major online booksellers such as Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com also get into the act by inviting customers to contribute reviews and some have become quite prolific, with devoted followings.

But there are no editors or gatekeepers to ensure the authenticity of the reviews and the legitimacy of the reviewers. Political books, for example, are often critiqued on the basis of the author’s personality or party affiliation rather than the content of the work in question.

By far the most influential television venue for books is Oprah Winfrey’s syndicated weekday show. Her mere mention of a title sends thousands to bookstores.

"When that happens, publishers have to make sure that there are books in shops to capitalize on it," said Da Capo’s Warren.

Some authors are particularly savvy about using the electronic media to promote their work.

Prolific British fantasy writer Warren Ellis ("Planetary," "Transmetropolitan," "Fell"), sends short email messages several times a week, under the heading “Bad Signal,” to fans and others who sign up to receive them. He comments on life, asks questions that come up as he writes his stories and scripts, and announces upcoming projects as well as on-sale dates of books. He even mentions quantities of distributor stock since a number of retailers and other professionals are also on his list.

Ellis rarely makes personal appearances, but his postings to his own website and on other online venues project a presence well beyond his British home base.

Writer and marketing guru Seth Godin’s books are often accompanied with clever marketing campaigns. A colorful cereal box, boldly announcing, Free Prize Inside, contained not a decoder ring or tiny plastic soldier, but a copy of Godin’s book of the same name.

Each of his books is foreshadowed and accompanied by a flurry of online promotions, special offers, podcasts, and blog postings from myriad Web sites. Godin, who lives outside New York City, is also a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences and has deftly managed to keep his message consistent while offering fresh nuances and new insights to cultivate and retain a devoted following.

In response to an e-mail asking about how he markets his books, Godin wrote: "The unspoken truth is that except for perhaps 250 giant books every year out of 75,000 published, the publisher is expecting the author to do 100 percent of the sales and promotion. Because authors don’t understand that, they end up bitter, angry and perhaps destitute.
"The most successful authors drive from store to store in a sort of perma-tour, selling books out of the back of their car or just working with individual stores to make their titles stand out," he wrote. "Oliver North made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling his remaindered autobiography at speeches to right-wing groups. This approach is antediluvian and time-consuming, but it works."

Godin said he works closely with his publisher, Portfolio, to create and market his books. "Once we hammer out a plan, they do a terrific job in supporting it. There are other publishers who are far more conservative, far more certain that the tried and true is the only path. The problem with that approach is that it is wrong," he wrote.

Godin said he doesn’t have a blog to sell books — but rather to spread ideas. "I don’t flog the blog that hard, which certainly costs me short-term book sales. But that’s OK, because the point is to keep the ideas moving around. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the investment in the blog has certainly paid off in increased book sales over time," he wrote.

His advice to authors is to get out and really work for their books: "You need a platform to make a published book work. If you don’t have a platform yet, you should self-publish your first book and give away enough copies to get a platform, and then use that platform to engage your readers so that you can sell the second one to a publisher and quit your day job."
Originally published in The Miami Herald, November 2006

© 2006, 2008 The Pachter Family Trust