By Laura Koenig | Echo
To keep ahead in the writing world, Dennis Hensley advocates the best of two venues. Wander into a bookstore and crack open a fresh-printed book-this is the bookstore experience. With the arrival of technology like the Kindle and Nook, however, readers are allowed to hold the bookstore in their hands. Hensley, the director of the Professional Writing department, has become adept at both of these reading options as he publishes and markets his eighth novel.
As he has worked through the publishing process with his novel "Pseudonym"-to be released January 2016-he has noticed differences between traditional and modern publishing.
"People are confusing being printed with being published," Hensley said. "Typing something up and printing it does not make you a novelist. Publishing involves quality writing, quality editing, good book design and promotion. That kind of stuff we are promoting through the professional writing department."
Some of the courses offered in the professional writing department teach students how to use social media, build a platform and create a network to enhance their writing careers.
"I want to keep a couple steps ahead of the students," Hensley said, laughing. His schedule certainly shows it. While collaborating with co-author Diana Savage toward the June 2016 release of "Exposure," a sequel to "Pseudonym," Hensley has also worked on the second book of the "Jesus in the 9 to 5" series, titled "Jesus in All Four Seasons."
Inspired by a real-life crash between a small private plane and a commercial jet over an oil field in Oklahoma, he wrote about a woman who is supposed to be on board but misses her flight. The passengers are incinerated, and the woman is declared legally dead. The novel, "Pseudonym," follows the journey of this young woman as she creates a new identity and begins to live under her pen name, Dove Alexander.
"Readers want the plausibility of truth. It really could possibly happen," Hensley explained. "It's crazy and wild, but it really could have happened."
Whether through a fresh-printed book from Barnes & Noble or the glossy screen of a Kindle or Nook, Hensley has both embraced new publishing as well as utilize the old. Traditional publishing makes up most of his work, and he recently began converting the mystery-romance novels he published as Leslie Holden in the '80s into eBook form. Hensley uses modern technologies to make his earlier novels accessible to a larger audience. He understands the market writers face and pushes through the challenges-always keeping a couple steps ahead.
