Recently I finished teaching a six week workshop where one participant asked a tough question that has haunted me. “What shouldn’t I do as a writer? What mistakes can you help me avoid making?” I stumbled through an answer. I like to focus on the positive things writers can do to improve their writing and yet the question was a legitimate one. And in my line of work I’ve seen a lot of mistakes. So I thought I would share a short list of do’s and don’ts. Know your genre Many writers suffer from genre confusion. Fictional memoir doesn’t exist. Knowing your genre is important because bookstores need to know where to shelve your book. As a writer, it’s even more important because each genre has its own literary conventions. Within the genres of romance, mystery, thriller, suspense, and science fiction there are well-defined subgenres. Know precisely where your book fits because readers bring certain expectations to each. There are lots of love stories, but not all of them belong to the genre of Romance. Know your reader There is no “general reader.” Have you ever gone into a bookstore and library asked for a book that could be for anyone? No, me neither. Write with a specific audience in mind. Read I often hear writers say they don’t want to be influenced by what they read. Do artists avoid museums and galleries? Do musicians surround themselves with silence? Do you know any chefs who ignore their passion for food?…
Let’s skip the stories about famous books that were rejected thirty, forty, or fifty-seven times before getting published and becoming well-loved classics. And forget about Stephen King’s nail on the wall that became so heavy with rejections it pulled loose from the wood. Intellectually, we all know rejection is a part of the game, but emotionally… well, emotionally, it’s a different story. So how can… [Read More]
Filed Under: constructive criticism, feedback, On Writing, Rejections, Stephen King
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The hardest part of my job as a book development editor is delivering bad news to a writer. An agent is not interested in offering you representation. An acquisition editor decides to pass after reading your proposal and sample chapters. You failed to make necessary editorial revisions. Rejection is a hard message to deliver. And it happens to be a task I do more often… [Read More]
Getting your writing published in a literary journal is an important way to improve your chances of getting your nonfiction (or memoir) book manuscript published. When your writing is published in a literary journal it provides a publisher with evidence you can meet professional standards and others find your work compelling. Literary journals are often considered gatekeepers to the publishing community. Which literary journals should… [Read More]
So you’ve just finished the latest offering by James Patterson, Robert Ludlum, or Pitticus Lore, and you’re wondering if it was traditionally authored, co-written, ghosted, or something else entirely. Good question. In the case of Patterson, who has put out 140 novels thus far – 15 in 2014 alone – he pays others to write the books for him. These writers don’t receive royalties, but… [Read More]
Two novels. Both are set during the Second World War and yet neither is a war story. Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See, won the Pulitizer Prize for fiction this year. Read it to gain an appreciation for what editors mean when they say “character-driven plot.” This is much more than a story about WWII. Marie-Louise is a blind 14-year-old girl… [Read More]