South Portland author Gerard Bianco has logged plenty of miles in an effort to sell his new book “The Deal Master.”

Bianco has traveled from Maine to New York to sell the book, going anywhere he can find an audience.

His engagements have included everything from the Scarborough Rotary Club to bookstores, restaurants and book clubs. Bianco says he is merely doing what is necessary to be a successful author.

“Unless you’re a Grisham or a Dan Brown, publishing companies don’t put money into authors,” he said.

If his book is selling, it’s because Bianco isn’t shy about creating opportunities to sell it. With a thriving jewelry store in the Old Port called Porte 4, Bianco is a natural salesman.

In order to sell his book, Bianco said he realizes his product must look good on the outside, be substantive on the inside and that as the author, he is part of the package. He said the talk he gives to audiences, “How to Commit to Writing the Perfect Murder Mystery,” is more of a stage performance than a lecture.

He gives a historical perspective on murders, bringing to mind the most forgettable and unforgettable murders in history and defining murder.

“The Deal Master” is actually a reprint of a story he published two years ago called “Dying for Deception.” The revised version has been wrapped in shinier paper with a new cover and new name and the inside has been polished up with some rewriting, said Bianco.

The first version sold about 1,000 copies. Bianco is now hoping the adjustments will help sell this version to a larger audience.

In order to do that, he is talking to large and small audiences all over Maine and also New York. He’s given lectures for 60 people and he’s also lectured to one.

This week, he spoke to the Scarborough Rotary Club, where he sold seven copies of his book to an audience of 20. That ratio spells success to Bianco. “That’s seven people who never would’ve had that book,” said Bianco.

The nearly 250-page murder mystery was inspired by a number of bad movies that Bianco saw with his son. He said the poorly executed stories challenged him to create a murder mystery more compelling, more lively and more satisfying for audiences than he saw on the silver screen.

His story is about a New York detective trying to catch a serial killer targeting redheaded women.

Bianco, who grew up in Brooklyn, placed many of the story’s events in real New York settings, which is helping him sell the book there.

Bianco recently returned from New York where he leveraged his local advantage any way he could. He approached the restaurant manager at the Duane Park CafA?© in the Tribeca section of New York City. The restaurant is mentioned in his book, so the manager hosted a four-course mystery dinner, where adventurous diners were surprised at every course.

In Bay Ridge, the neighborhood where Bianco grew up, he approached another restaurant where one of the crimes in the book was committed. That restaurant’s management agreed to a book signing.

Before he left for New York, Bianco approached the Borders in South Portland, where he spoke on July 18. The store’s management agreed to carry copies of “The Deal Master” as well.

The work to sell his book dovetails with Bianco’s philosophy on life. He doesn’t wait for things to happen for him, he makes them happen. “It’s like anything, you are what you think you are,” he said.

Bianco is many things, a jewelry designer, author, painter and now his own marketing agent. His life is anything but the conventional grind. Bianco said he is not singly defined by any one aspect of his life, and he likes it that way. “People like to take you and put you in a box as if you can only be one thing,” he said.

Just as Bianco isn’t putting himself in a box, he won’t box his book in either. He has visions of his story someday being turned into a movie better than the ones he watched with his son that inspired him to write the book in the first place.

Bianco also plans on writing a sequel to “The Deal Master.” “It’s already written up here,” he said as he touched his index finger to his forehead.

South Portland resident Gerard Bianco at his jewelry store in the Old Port called Porte 4. Bianco is traveling around Maine and New York selling the second release of his book retitled “The Deal Master.”Gerard Bianco