Las Vegas View staff writer

The Handy Guy, otherwise known as Mark Whalen, is hanging up his hammer and taking on the Internet full time in an effort to build his fledgling Web-based business, PresMark.com, featuring a book he wrote on how to quit smoking.

Whalen, along with wife Sharon, have owned and operated a successful home-remodeling business, The Handy Guy, since 1998, most recently working in the Southeast and Sunrise Mountain areas. Despite their success, the Las Vegas couple have decided to quit their business at the end of this month to focus on promoting and selling Mark Whalen’s book, "How to Quit Smoking Without Willpower or Struggle."

Whalen, who started smoking when he was 13 and quit at the age of 35, was inspired by his daughter to write the book in 1996.

At the time, his 35–year-old daughter had been smoking since she was 14. She told Whalen she wanted to quit and asked for his advice. So Whalen started writing his daughter a letter about some of the things he used to quit smoking.

"I would come home (from work) everyday and write a little," Whalen said. "One day Sharon said, "What are you doing, writing a book?"

One publisher appeared to be interested, Whalen said, but turned him down after a year. But he didn’t let a few rejection slips stop him.

"When they turned it down, I said, ‘They don’t know a good thing when they see it. I’ll do it myself’" Mark Whalen said.

He and Sharon printed the cover on their home computer and took the book to a copy center for binding. Then came the decision on how to market it.

"I thought this was something I could sell on the Internet," Mark Whalen said.

A friend read the book, liked it and gave them enough money to start a Web site. Since they first started in 1996, the Whalens have sold about 4,500 copies. The book retails for $24.95 on the PresMark Web site, www.NoWillpower.com.

The book is the best-selling book on Fred Kelley’s Web site, www.quitsmoking.com.

"His book presents an immediately understood message, and I think that’s why people buy the boo," Kelley explained in an email. "There’s a sample chapter from his book on our Web site…and I believe that it instantly draws people to the simplicity and effectiveness of Mark’s method or plan for quitting. As an ex-smoker, Mark is able to provide smokers with a plan that he used himself, to end his own smoking habit."

The couple hope to take advantage of the rising popularity of the Internet. They also hope that smokers looking for advice on quitting will choose Whalen’s book over the dozens of other books and audio tapes devoted to kicking the habit.

"We were looking for a home-based business," Sharon Whalen said. "Something to get out of construction. We thought this would be a lucrative way to get started."

Mark, 55, and Sharon, 44, have been married for 19 years. The couple, originally from Los Angeles, moved to southwest Las Vegas eight years ago.

Sharon is also a former smoker. She started at the age of 17 and quit eight years later.

Mark Whalen said he believes people who start smoking as kids do so because they want to fit in with their friends who smoke. They also think it will make them look sexy and more mature, he added. As they age, people continue to smoke for the same reasons.

"If you attack those three reasons at the core, you’ll be able to quit," Mark Whalen said.

Whalen suggests smokers become more aware of what it physically feels like to smoke a cigarette. The best way to do that, he said, is for a smoker to switch cigarette brands.

The couple said they believe would-be non-smokers can benefit from the advice in Mark Whalen’s book because it uses an approach other books don’t.

"This is the only publication I’ve seen that says it’s not about smoking, it’s about wanting to," Mark Whalen said. "If you dismantle the core reason you want to smoke, you’ll never do it again."

Whalen offers a 300 percent money-back guarantee to anyone who buys the book, tries the methods and can’t quit smoking within a year.

"We’re really impassioned about this," Sharon Whalen said. "This has so much meaning for us and it can have such a social impact."

Said Mark Whalen: "I think that’ll be a good merit badge to have. To say ‘We helped save lives; we helped people quit smoking’"