By Parker McKenzie
The last time the Star Mail spoke to Dennis Luke in early 2022, he was busy selling his self-published book at the Upper Gully Market.
Now, the ‘Aussie truckie’ turned author has republished the now-titled Wild Night at McKenzie’s Bridge, after landing a deal with Aurora Publishing.
Mr Luke said he couldn’t put into words how exciting it was to have his mystery thriller book published.
“It’s very difficult to get your book published, especially if you’re not known. People will get their book published because they’re politicians or sports stars,” he said.
“Someone like me who has come from obscurity, I guess you could say, has difficulty. When I first published the book as Aussie Fury: a Truckee’s Tale, I got two responses from publishers, but they wanted an exorbitant amount of money to publish it.”
He said after self-publishing his book, he began selling it at local markets.
“Since then, I’ve sold over 730 copies at markets and to friends, family and work colleagues,” Mr Luke said.
“After being published with Aurora, it was given professional editing and around 10,000 words were removed.”
The novel is set after Cyclone Yasi in 2011 and follows three families, a murder and a search for the truth in Queensland.
Mr Luke said after a two-week promotional period with Amazon, the results looked positive.
“I got to number one in disaster fiction, number one in conspiracy thrillers and number two in psychological thrillers during that two weeks,” he said.
“You could say I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by that, I’m not going to find out for a few months as to how many sales though because they only give out numbers like that quarterly.”
He said if sales are strong and the novel is successful, he plans to continue writing a sequel he has begun work on.
“A number of the characters from Wild Night at McKenzie’s Bridge are in the second book, but they’re 10 or 15 years older,” Mr Luke said.
“I’m also looking at doing an audiobook. Maybe that’s an opportunity that might find itself to give me some sales.”
Mr Luke’s book can be found at amazon.com/Wild-Night-McKenzies-Bridge-Dennis-ebook/dp/B0BTBYFN8M/
