In 2010, Wilton-based Tony Garritano launched Progress in Lending, a trade publishing endeavor focused on the mortgage industry. Garritano put forth print and online media resources and coordinate industry-focused trade shows for financial services and real estate professionals, and over time he became one of the most respected figures in the mortgage industry media niche.
But while Garritano was satisfied with his Progress in Lending activities, he secretly harbored another career path that he was never able to actively pursue.
“I’ve wanted to be a mystery novelist since I was probably about eight years old, when I read my first Agatha Christie novel,” he confided. “It’s not something that I talked about a lot. But it’s one of those dreams that I felt like I had to fulfill.”
Garritano was not a total stranger to the fiction realm ”“ he authored plays in high school and short stories in college ”“ but his journalism career did not offer the opportunity to pursue this passion.
“When you become a journalist and you’re writing every day, it’s really hard to write creatively because it’s just a different mindset,” he continued. “When your whole day is about writing about the financial services industry, it’s hard to disconnect and then write creatively. But it’s something that I did a lot in my youth, and I wanted to get back to doing it.”
Garritano set time aside in his schedule to turn off the mortgage news and turn on a new track for mystery fiction. And not only did Garritano create his first mystery novel with “I Saw What I Saw,” he also launched a new fiction imprint called Cozy Books LLC as the publishing house for his new writing pursuit.
Subtitled “A Harmony Neighborhood Mystery,” Garritano”™s debut mystery novel is focused on Sheila Sammartino, a crime reporter-turned-blogger residing in the small town of Harmony. After she witnesses a murder in an alley, the local police try to dismiss the crime as a mugging gone awry. But Sheila decides to take investigative matters into her own hands and begins to probe the murdered man”™s past to determine why someone would want to kill him.
In creating “I Saw What I Saw,” Garritano quickly discovered significant differences in the fiction writing process versus his financial journalism.
“I went through multiple revisions and I had some beta readers that gave me notes,” he said. “I edited it myself after I was done with the first draft, then I had some of the beta readers give me their feedback. Then I had a literary coach that gave me her edits. And then I had a developmental editor that gave me his notes as well.”
Although Garritano had significant experience in B2B media, he was an unknown quantity as a mystery writer and he quickly realized it would be difficult to sway book publishers.
“I did a lot of research on what it takes to traditionally publish a book with an established publishing company, and it takes a long time,” he stated. “Most publishing companies will not even speak to you unless you have an agent.”
And even if one gets an agent, he continued, the new writer is assigned an in-house editor tasked with both scrubbing the book to meet company editorial standards and advocating for resources to properly promote and distribute the book. Since Garritano planned to spin his debut book into a series of mysteries, he felt uncomfortable subjecting himself to the lengthy and unpredictable process of working with an established publisher.
“Most traditionally published authors publish one, maybe two books a year,” he observed. “Given that, I started my own publishing company ”“ I think I can definitely publish two books a year, maybe even three or four. The stories are in my head fill, and they’re just waiting to kind of get on the page.”
Garritano”™s Cozy Books company released “I Saw What I Saw” in November, and the book quickly snagged several independent publishing awards and found its way to the top of Amazon.com”™s mystery best-seller list.
Garritano is open to the idea of expanding Cozy Books to include mysteries written by other authors, but at the moment he plans to use it as his platform. However, he actively encourages others with a penchant for mystery stories to consider trying their hand at the genre.
“Make sure that it’s something that you genuinely love and it’ll be a great experience,” he said. “It has been for me. If you have an idea and you really have a desire to say something, start writing.”
