PM: You've been developing toys, games, and items as diverse as personal portable air conditioners and electric sanders since you were a child.

JM: My electric sander was made when I was in grammar school. I was always carrying electronic parts to school and had batteries in my desk. One day we were making plaster hearts for our Moms for Valentine’s Day. Sanding the hearts by hand was boring and tedious so I quickly put together the sander from parts I had in my desk. Before long, the whole class was lined up at my desk but the teacher confiscated the device.

PM: Ever take your inventions to market?

JM: I got better at designing things as I got older and actually sent several of my game inventions to a game design agency. They were all returned, not that they weren’t good, but they were lacking what the game companies were looking for. The game companies were looking for something they could market, something with a gimmick that looked good on TV that people would see and buy. If checkers and chess were invented today, they would never make it to production. The sander was a great invention for that day in that classroom but it had no marketing gimmicks that a big industry would be interested in. That's why it's hard for artists. They see their work up close and for that day and that situation it is very good but it may be lacking that marketing gimmick that attracts the sales the big industry wants to see. To be both the creator and the marketer, you must be able to see a larger picture. I’ve taken Maze Zing further than any of my other creations. Even though I slipped a bit on the marketing end, I hope I’ve learned enough to save it. I think it has all the pieces it needs both in creativeness and marketing ability.

PM: You self-published this book. Why didn't you take the more traditional route?

JM: I tried the traditional route and sent my work to publishers and agencies. I even drove to Washington, DC to attend Book Expo America. Every person who saw my book was amazed and very interested but none interested enough to sign a contract. I think it is too risky for the publishers to invest in something so new and unproven. They didn’t want to take the chance with me and I didn’t want to wait. Self publishing was the best way for me to get my book out. I am hoping a publisher will pick up my next book. I have several books planned and I am halfway through my second book Maze Zing: Scavenger Hunt.

PM: Has marketing the book yourself been challenging?

JM: Creating the book was fun. Self publishing it was easy. Self marketing is very difficult. It is the most challenging part of the whole process. My budget was spent on creating and publishing the book. Since then I learned that you have to leave about half of your budget for marketing. I am trying my best to come up with creative ways to promote the book. I think this is hard for me because it takes a different type of personality. One personality type creates the book and another personality type markets the book. I’m not both. I’ve learned that free publicity is very hard to get. Just the fact that I wrote a book doesn’t make me news worthy. I have to think of a maze to create that will attract the news reporters. I thought about creating a very large maze out of bicycles or motor cycles or something similar and hiring a helicopter to take my up high enough to take the photograph. That might get me some news coverage. Other than crazy stunts like that, it takes meeting people and talking about your book. Go to the libraries, the schools, the camps. Email people, call people, write people. Get out there and talk! Nobody knows who Jeff Montanye is now, but they will if I get out there.

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