Secrets of Successful Writers
Darrell Pitt
Copyright 2012 Darrell Pitt
Published at Smashwords
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Greetings from Darrell Pitt!
I am the author of the young adult novels, “The Steampunk Detective”, “The Last Days of Earth” and “Diary of a Teenage Superhero”. I also interview authors and blog about life, the universe and everything else on my site www.darrellpitt.com
This is what just a few people have had to say about my novels:
…an entertaining read that flies by, filled with action and intrigue.
Mena Grazie
I loved this book! The author has created engaging characters and the pace of this adventure is spot on. I could not stop reading…
Anonomous
Without a doubt this was the best dollar I have ever spent! I could not put it down and was starting to get behind on things I should have been doing. Thank you for the wonderful adventure.
Curtis McCully
I love to hear from my readers, so please make contact with me by:
Email: darrellpitt@gmail.com
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Dedicated
To the Forty-Nine Kent Street Gang
Table of Contents
Welcome to Secrets of Successful Writers!
Robert J Randisi – Author of 500 Novels. Believe it or Not!
Heather Killough-Walden – A Passionate Story Hits Amazon’s Number One
JR Rain – Writing Good Books is the Best Marketing Tool
John Locke – One of Amazon’s Most Successful Ebook Authors
Michael Prescott – Four Bestselling Ebooks on Amazon Kindle At Once
Richard Zimler – The Power of Myth
Matthew Reilly – Write What You Like to Read
Mark Edwards – Two Bestsellers Hit Top of UK Amazon Kindle Chart
Micaela Wendell – Young Ebook Writer Makes Waves on Amazon
Richard Jay Parker – Writers Need to be Sociable to Succeed
John Marsden – 1000 Words a Day Leads to Successful Writing Career
Saffina Desforges – 700 Book Sales a Day and in the UK Amazon Top Ten
Loucinda McGary – Free Kindle Bestseller Hit Number One
Jack Dann – Award Winning Author Shares his Keys To Writing Success
Chris Smith – An Overnight Success – And it Only Took Twenty-seven Years
Bill Gourgey – One Million Readers and Counting
Steven Savile – Dr Who & Torchwood Writer Makes it Big on Kindle
Adam Wallace – How to Write Children’s Books – that sell!
Dale Brown – Taking Flight with a Bestselling Author
Stephanie McAfee – Ebook sales Leads to Three Book Publishing Deal
Jeff Bennington – Goodreads, Kindlenation and Blog Tour Promotion
Michael Robotham – Ray Bradbury and Empty Cradles led to Writing Success
Jennifer Bacia – Making her Own Luck
Christopher Buecheler – 70,000 Downloads of his Ebook and Counting
Gemma Halliday – Want to Be a Successful Writer? Write More Books.
Marisa Mackle – How to Write a Bestseller Without Knowing How to Type
Richard Phillips – Kindle Ebook format Leads to Bestseller Status
Dakota Banks – First Published Book returns as a Successful Ebook
Dolores Durando – A Bestselling novel – at age 90!
Andy Briggs – Write More Books to Become a Successful Author
Tessa Gratton – Writers Need Adventure As Fuel
Gordon Ferris – Over 250,000 Kindle Ebooks Sold
Richard Harland – Liberating the Writer Within
Linda Wisdom – Sixty Published Novels and Counting
B.V. Larson – Ebook Publishing Giant
Stephen Leather – Ninety-nine Cent Price No Barrier To Ebook Success
Anna Campbell – Want to be a Successful Author? Here’s how…
Blake Crouch – Good Writing Pushes Ebook Sales
David Lender – A Financial Thriller
Ricki Thomas – 'Gentle' Author is Knocking 'em Dead
William Campbell – Writing Persistence Leads to Amazon Top 100
Debbi Mack – Book Cracks New York Times Bestseller List
James LePore – Free Kindle Ebook hits Amazon Number One
Stephen Carpenter – Entertainment Weekly calls Killer an "ebook blockbuster"
Kat Martin – Over Fifty Published Novels and Still Writing
Stephen Knight – Self Discipline a Key to Writing Success
Sara Rosett – Connect with Readers through Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads
Patricia Gragg – Facebook and Twitter Relationships Led to Bestseller Status
Michele Scott – Rejection From Major Publisher Created Ebook Success
Darrell Pitt – What Does it Take to be a Successful Author?
Welcome to Secrets of Successful Writers!
It’s an exciting time to be a writer.
We now live in an era where writers can both create and publish their own work and make a living out of doing what they love.
Contained within Secrets of Successful Writers are interviews I conducted with fifty authors. They talk about their writing, how they became published authors and how they market themselves in this brave new era of ebooks. These interviews came about as a result of a series of interviews I conducted on my website www.darrellpitt.com
Some of the writers contained within are traditional writers, having built their careers by seeking an agent and a publisher before finally seeing their books in print in the bookshops. Others are building successful careers as self-published ebook authors. One of the most famous of these is John Locke, the first self published ebook author to sell a million copies of his novels.
And he did it in only five months.
They are all writers. None of them will tell you it’s an easy path (what worthwhile things in life are easy), but within this book they offer tips and techniques on what has worked for them – and what has not.
I believe this book will save you both time and money. I’m sure it will most certainly give you a clearer indication of how to set your sail and adjust your rudder to achieve your writing goals.
It has been said that there are as many different types of writers as there are writers. That is certainly true of the writers contained within this book. There is Micaela Wendell who was thirteen when she wrote the first draft of her book The Branding. There is Dolores Durando who wrote and published her first book when she turned ninety.
That’s right. Ninety.
You will find authors who write detective stories, westerns, romance, thrillers and children’s books. Some of them are writing genre fiction in areas you would not have thought possible.
There are writers who have written one novel. There is the amazing Robert J Randisi who has written over five hundred of them (amazing, but true).
As a writer myself, I have certainly experienced the pain of trying to build a writing career. I have written stories that I have had repeatedly rejected. I have had crushing, soul destroying critiques that have emotionally flattened me.
Still, I have picked myself up, dusted myself off and continued forward, reminding myself that this is what writers face all the time. It can be a tough business, but all businesses are tough in their own ways.
There is a lot of information contained within Secrets of Successful Writers. I urge you to read it, re-read it and talk to your writer friends about it.
Sometimes a piece of advice you skimmed over will suddenly jump out at you when you look at it again six months later. I am serious about this. Suddenly the importance of a single line will make a synapse fire in your brain and you will shake your head and wonder why you didn’t realise its importance in the first place.
Most of all, it’s important to realise you are not alone in your writing endeavours. Other writers have faced the same difficulties you are facing. Others have walked the same path. If you follow their trail you may find it takes you to your destination.
In the meantime, keep writing.
Darrell Pitt.
Robert J Randisi – Author of 500 Novels. Believe it or Not!
Robert J Randisi has been called many things. He has been described as “the last of the great pulp writers”, he has been called “a living legend” and he has been called "the world's biggest private eye nut.”
Whatever words you use to describe him, it would be accurate to call him prolific. To date he has written, and published, over five hundred novels.
Whassat?
Yes, strange, but true. While most writers struggle to write that one book they’ve always wanted to write, this amazing writer has written over five hundred novels during his incredible career.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he made his first sale at age twenty-two. He co-founded and edited Mystery Scene magazine and co-founded the American Crime Writers League. He also founded The Private Eye Writers of America in 1981 and created the Shamus Award.
Robert has written in many different genres, but most of his books have been westerns and crime stories. His adult westerns are now being distributed from Speaking Volumes LLC. They will be distributing 200 of the books from his Gunsmith series as well as all of his Angel Eyes, Tracker and Mountain Jack Pike novels. His books will be available as both POD trade paperbacks and in audio form.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing (and do you have a word limit per day)?
Robert - No word limit. I used to have a page limit of 20 a day, but that was when I was working on one book at a time. Depending on my deadline, I'll do anywhere from 10 to 40 pages a day on a book. As for a schedule, I usually wake up at 11 am, have breakfast, start writing until dinner (5, 6) then nap for two hours and write all night until 4 am or so. Then I read until 5 am and go to bed. The nap usually bridges the gap from one book to another when I'm working on two at one time.
Darrell - Do you plot a story out completely first or do you let it lead you in certain directions if the need arises?
Robert - I have never plotted a book from start to finish, and I've written and published over 500 of them. There is too much that can happen to change that, so why waste time? I usually follow the plot along with the main character, experiencing what he experiences.
Darrell - It's easy to imagine that mystery books will still be around for years to come, but do you think Western novels still have a long life ahead of them?
Robert - I do. Our history is always there, it doesn't go away. There is a dedicated western readership in this country. Sometimes they have to carry the banner alone, sometimes they get some help. But they'll always be there.
Darrell - There's often a debate about 'literary' books as opposed to 'popular' novels. Why do you think this is?
Robert - What's the debate? Which to read? Which to write? It doesn't make much difference to most readers. A book is a book. As far as writers are concerned literary books get you notice but no money, popular books get you money but no notice. The word "literary" pretty much means you're going to read a book where nothing happens.
Darrell - If you had a single piece of advice to hand to someone trying to become an author, what would it be?
Robert - Write every day, as many hours as you can. Don't worry about page count. You'll have to worry about that soon enough, when you start writing to a deadline.
Darrell - Where do you see the future for writers now that ebooks have arrived?
Robert - I'm not a big fan of e-books. I like the way real books feel and smell, too much. But a book is a book, and you'll always need a writer to produce them. E-books are threatening to publishers and book stores, but not to writers.
Important Links:
The Speaking Volumes website address is:
And Robert is contactable on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/randisi.Gunsmith
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Heather Killough-Walden – A Passionate Story Hits Amazon’s Number One
Heather Killough-Walden is the author of some nine novels including “The Spell” which recently reached number one on the bestselling romance novels on Amazon. In this interview I asked Heather about how she became a writer, her thoughts on writing stand alone novels as opposed to writing a series of books and what she believes are the best ways a writer can promote themselves.
Darrell - What made you want to become a writer in the first place?
Heather - I suppose the writing itself is what made me become a writer. I learned to read at what is considered a very young age, and the ability to write came clinging to its coat tails. I’ve never been good at spoken communication; I get nervous, fumble over my speech, and suffer from horrible foot-in-mouth disease. As a result, I realized early on that if I wanted to communicate effectively, I would need time to think before I spoke. What gives you more time to think about what you’re going to say than writing it down? By the time you’ve put your thoughts into words, they’re more or less edited. It’s the safer bet.
But because I was quiet and preferred time to myself, I wasn’t the most popular girl in school. Hence, I used my writing as a bridge between this world and one that wasn’t quite so painful. This other world was of my design. I drew its landscape, colored its people, gave it depth and dimension. It was filled with beings who were larger than life and indomitable because that was what I wanted to be. They could defend themselves, stick up for others, and even defy gravity to literally leave their troubles on the ground.
I almost flunked out of high school because of this other world. Instead of paying attention in pre-calculus, I sat scrunched in my desk and furiously scribbled stories about vampire and werewolf gangs clashing on a deserted, bon-fire lit beach. I suppose that in the end, those stories did have more to do with my career choice than did exponential functions and logarithms.
Darrell - What's a typical day of writing like for you?
Heather - I wake up to writing and I fall asleep to writing. There is a quote by Eugene Ionesco that I keep on the front page of my website: “A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” That couldn’t be more true. The moment I wake up, I use mouthwash. Then, while my daughter is still asleep and before hitting breakfast or even a cup of coffee, I am at my computer, responding to personal feedback from readers.
My daughter normally wakes up somewhere in the middle of this and I rush to fix her breakfast, give her a bath, get her dressed, and prepare her for homeschooling. As she does her assignments, I sit across from her with my laptop to get back to work on any one of the seven novels I am currently writing and on the administrative work that comes with keeping up some kind of presence in the literary world. I hit the FaceBook messages, blogs, sales copy, cover copy, synopses, edits, more edits, and so forth with all I’ve got.
Somewhere in there, I do the laundry, vacuum, take out the trash, clean the bathrooms, and make phone calls for doctor’s appointments, hair appointments, and dental appointments. All the while, however, I’m noticing people and places and music and movement and cataloguing everything around me for use in my books. Sometimes I’m doing the cataloguing in a literal sense – writing notes in a small leather-bound notebook I carry with me everywhere I go.
Family is important (obviously), so I try my best to make time with them every night. We sit together for an hour and read from the Kindle or a paperback; Terry Pratchett, Wendy Mass, Frances Hardinge and the Monk series by Lee Goldberg are some of our favorites. But I’ll be honest with you…a lot of the time, as we’re reading, my thoughts are drifting to my own stories. I have always (and most likely always will) existed half in this world and half in that other. It is both an escape and an inescapable prison, perhaps gold gilded, but a prison nonetheless, and as soon as both my husband and my child are back in bed, I’m once more seated before the computer, my fingers flying across the keyboard. If not there, then I’m tucked into the couch with throws all around me like a nest, a leather journal in my lap, the quiet night air filled with the sound of my pen scratching and the next door neighbor’s dog barking at god only knows what.
At some point, I fall asleep. But even in my dreams, I’m writing. Almost the entirety of The Game came to me in a dream, as did the lead characters in The Patrick Sinclaire Story, The Third Kiss, and Sam I Am, along with the plot for Hell Bent.
And then, four or five hours later, I wake up and do it all again.
Darrell - You have a number of series for sale as well as a number of stand alone novels. Would you recommend a new writer start trying to produce a series?
Heather - I recommend that a new writer write what he or she knows and what he or she is comfortable writing. If that’s a stand-alone novel, then fantastic. If it’s the first novel in a series, then also fantastic – but be prepared. If the book sells well, it means you actually have to write the next books in the series. There’s no going back.
Writers have to stick with what they know and what they are passionate about. Whether this turns out to be a paranormal romance series or a single thriller, if it is filled with passion and knowledge, it will be wonderful and people will read it.
Darrell - What do you think are the best ways for a writer to promote themselves?
Heather - Be nice to your readers. That’s the number one rule. They’re priceless; you aren’t a writer without someone to read your words, and it’s your readers who purchase your books, spread the news about you through word of mouth, and continue to come back for more.
Create a stark, eye-catching cover that draws readers to your book out of all of the books surrounding it on the Amazon or Barnes and Noble page. A book is always judged first by its cover, no matter how the saying goes. This is essential. Also, pricing is very important for eBooks. EBook readers don’t want to pay the same price for an eBook that they would have to pay for a physically tangible object such as a paperback. So, price accordingly or they’ll walk away.
On the second tier of importance in the marketing arena are of course all of the tools most indie authors already know how to use: Twitter, FaceBook, guest blogs, etc. Remaining active on these fronts is fairly important. Plus, it can be fun. It’s a gift to be able to interact with your readers, to feel their excitement over something you’ve created. The fact that you’ve touched someone’s life with your words – well, that’s immeasurably cool. It’s why we write professionally, isn’t it?
Important Links:
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JR Rain – Writing Good Books is the Best Marketing Tool
JR rain has had amazing success with his writing. He has written numerous books with many of them ending up on the Amazon Bestseller list. He is the author of the Vampire For Hire series, The Jim Knighthorse series and The Spinoza series just to name a few. Today he speaks to us about the process of writing and how he connects with readers.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
JR - I generally write throughout the day, often wrapping things up around 7:00 p.m., but I have also been known to write well into the night. One of the reasons I moved up to a little island in the northwest was to spend the majority of my time writing in solitude. For the most part, I’ve been able to do that. My day usually starts at 6:30. I make coffee, feed the dog, read and meditate...and then start writing at 8:00 a.m. I love getting an early start to the day. I will then write until about 7:00 p.m., taking time during the day to walk my dog, go to Starbucks, eat and nap. I’m in bed by midnight every night.
Darrell - You've had some ups and downs in your personal life over the years. Do you think the good and the bad times have contributed to your success as a writer?
JR - I certainly appreciate the good times because I’ve known the bad times. I think most writers have known the bad times. For me, I call those the “bleak years”. I think struggling through the down times helps create focus. Personally, I prefer the good times. ;)
Darrell - Other members of your family are also writers. In what way have they influenced you as a writer?
JR - My mother encouraged me at a young age. She had so much confidence in me. God bless mothers. Also at a young age, I watched with interest my father’s early forays into writing. I was just enthralled to witness the whole writing/selling/publishing process. My father, sadly, never broke into major print, but his efforts left an indelible mark on me. My mother had success writing non-fiction, especially articles for magazines. She was also a journalist for a small newspaper. Just watching the two most important people in my life making an effort to write and publish was really all I needed to see. I was bitten by the writing bug at a young age and I’ve never looked back.
Darrell - You've had several bestselling books on Kindle. A lot of them are priced at $2.99. To what degree do you attribute pricing to your success?
JR - Early on, when I first started on Kindle in 2009, I actually priced my books at $9.99. I believed in my books and felt they were worth the price. I would go on to play with pricing for the next 6 months before I settled on $3.99, which I think is a fair price. But in general I charge $3.99 for novels, and $2.99 for short story collections and novellas. I would suggest play with the prices until you find your comfort zone.
Darrell - What do you think are the best ways to market yourself in this modern era as a writer?
JR - Good question. There’s no easy answer to this and things are changing so rapidly that it’s all some people can do to keep up. In general, though, you always want a web page and Facebook page. I also have a Myspace page and Twitter account. Having an email list for monthly newsletters helps, too, but you want to make sure this list only includes readers who have voluntarily opted in. Otherwise you’re going to irritate a lot of people. Having a running blog helps, too, although I no longer have one. (Why not? I decided I would rather spend my time writing books than blogs...One running blog, updated weekly for a year, is about one completed novel.) Anyway, those are the basics.
Now, your goal as a writer is to get your books in front of as many people as possible. So that’s your challenge: how to find the greatest amount of readers? I would even suggest take it a step further: how to easily find the greatest amount of readers? There’s no right or wrong way to do this. There are hundreds of ideas to do this, but I would suggest finding ways that take the least amount of time and yet still generate the greatest possible results. You don’t want to spend all your time marketing, and in the end, a good book goes a long way to selling itself.
Darrell - If you had one piece of advice to give to someone trying to make it as a writer, what would it be?
JR - Write what you know. Your home town is more interesting than you might think. Unless you really are an ex-CIA operative, writing about what you know makes your books unique and stand out. Many of my characters are insurance claims investigators or private eyes (both jobs I’ve had). Almost all my books are set in cities I’ve lived in. And almost all my characters have my own traits and quirks, good or bad. For instance, Jim Knighthorse suffers from severe color blindness. So do I.
Important Links:
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John Locke – One of Amazon’s Most Successful Ebook Authors
John Locke has quickly become a legend in the ebook self publishing industry. He was the first independent author to sell one million ebooks on Amazon. When this interview was conducted, he was working on the seventh book in his Donovan Creed series, Vegas Moon, as well as his second Emmett Love western, Don’t Poke the Bear. John lives in Kentucky, USA.
Darrell - Your biography on Amazon says that, "Every 7 seconds, 24 hours a day, a John Locke novel is downloaded somewhere in the world." That's pretty impressive. How did you become a writer and how did you become so amazingly successful?
John - I always thought it would be a great achievement to write a complete novel. Whether it made money or not. I never acted on that idea because I was too busy with my work. But a few years ago I found myself with some free time and some stories to tell, and thought it would be fun to give it a shot. Just write, all the way to the end, without quitting. My first manuscript was titled, “Killing Hailey.” It was absolutely dreadful. Seriously bad. No one needed to tell me that. When it’s bad, it’s bad. So I set it aside and thought about it a few weeks, and came to the conclusion there were some great characters in that book. All they needed was a better author. So I started over, with the characters, and let them tell the story.
Darrell - Your covers are a little reminiscent of the old Carter Brown books. Is he one of your influences?
John - I was not familiar with the Carter Brown books before you posed the question. I checked out some of the covers and am not sure I see the similarity. However, his covers are certainly unique. I think if your covers are unique, they become a symbol for your work. Last year my publisher, Claudia Jackson, of Telemachus Press, came up with the idea of using women’s legs for my covers. I loved it. It was a great branding idea.
Darrell - Your kindle books are priced at only 99 cents. Has this been a successful strategy for you?
John - Yes and no. Yes, because it was a great way to draw attention to my books. No, because if I had started at $2.99 and lowered my prices I’d be a hero, while now, if I raise my price from 99 cents to $2.99, I’m a goat.
Darrell - Where do you see the future of ebook publishing as opposed to print publishing?
John - I think print books will become an experience, and ebooks a staple. Going to a bookstore, browsing the books, is an experience. There’s something special about it. You don’t have to buy your books that way anymore, but it’s fun. The movie business is similar. You can rent or buy the movies you want to see, but the actual movie experience is different. It’s more expensive, but there’s something special about seeing a movie when it first comes out, in the format it was intended to be presented.
Darrell - Follow the Stone was a sideways step into the world of the western. It seems to have been just as successful as your other books. What made you write a western?
John - I love the idea of westerns. It’s a simple dynamic: a man or woman overcoming hardship to carve out a meaningful life in a savage land, while maintaining their integrity.
Darrell - What advice would you give to someone about to publish their first novel as an ebook?
John - The minute you send it out into the world, start writing the next one. Don’t worry if your first one is going to sell, because it probably won’t. And if it does, your public is going to want the next book anyway, and you’ll have nothing in the tank to give them. Your readers want to know you’re committed to providing them with content. In this regard, writing is like a friendship. Do you want to be my friend? Then BE there for me!
Important Links:
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Michael Prescott – Four Bestselling Ebooks on Amazon Kindle At Once
Most authors would be over the moon if they had one bestselling book on Amazon Kindle Bestseller List. Michael Prescott has had four. Here is a sample of recent rankings:
Shiver - #23 in Paid Kindle, #16 in Literature & Fiction, #3 in Suspense
Mortal Pursuit - #29 in Paid Kindle, #2 in Action & Adventure, #2 in Police Procedurals
Stealing Faces - #38 in Paid Kindle, #27 in Literature & Fiction, #6 in Suspense
Riptide - #95 in Paid Kindle, #3 in Psychological Thrillers, #4 in Police Procedurals
This is obviously pretty amazing. In this interview, Michael speaks to us about his writing and the best ways other writers can market themselves to get their books into the bestseller lists too.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
Michael - In my thirty or so years as a professional writer I've tried various approaches. When I was writing horror novels in the 1980s, I forced myself to do four double-spaced pages a day. Usually I wrote at a specific time and treated it like a job. I had to work fast because I wasn't being paid much! Later I became more relaxed in my approach and gave up on the idea of a daily schedule or a targeted number of pages. However, I always had a sense of the deadline and how many pages I needed to complete each month.
Everything changed a few years ago when the mass-market paperback end of the business started falling apart. Like many midlist writers, I was shown the door. I thought I could find a new home at another publishing house, but with the industry in transition there were no takers. At that point I switched my focus and started making money in ways unrelated to publishing. However, I still wanted to self-publish a thriller called Riptide, which I'd shopped around unsuccessfully to print publishers. It was basically a vanity project. I was mainly interested in bringing it out as a print-on-demand edition, using CreateSpace. Doing it as an ebook was an afterthought. I figured as long as I had the book proofread and formatted, I might as well put it out as a Kindle edition too.
As it turned out, the print on-demand version has sold relatively few copies, while the Kindle edition is doing much better. Eventually I decided to do ebook versions of some of my out-of-print titles, since the rights had reverted to me. When the ebooks starting to sell, I realized -- somewhat to my surprise -- that this was actually a viable market.
Now I'm doing some original writing for the first time in a while. But it's different from my earlier stuff. What I'm working on is a short comedy novel specifically for the ebook market. There's no deadline, so I write when the spirit moves me.
I guess the short answer is, there's no typical day of writing for me. Sometimes I get inspired and write a whole lot of pages, and other days I focus on other things. And this was true even for much of the time when writing was my only job.
Darrell - You started out writing a number of scripts for movies, but switched to novels. Do you think of yourself as a 'visual' writer?
Michael - To be honest, I probably wasn't visual enough to be a good screenwriter! Only one of my scripts actually got made into a movie, and it was awful.
The main difference between screenwriting and novel-writing is that in a screenplay everything has to be condensed. Plot developments and character motivations have to be reduced to a few lines of dialogue or a little bit of action or a single meaningful image. In a novel, on the other hand, you can explain things at length. You can get inside the character's head and show exactly what he's thinking and feeling. For me, it's much easier and comes much more naturally.
I don't think my style of writing is particularly visual. I think it's more oriented toward dialogue and interior monologue. In fact, sometimes the first draft of one of my scenes consists only of dialogue. I fill in the action and descriptive details later.
Darrell - You mentioned on your website that you had problems getting your book "Final Sins" published. How did this come about?
Michael - It was actually Riptide, not Final Sins. Final Sins was the last book I did for a print publisher, and it concluded a loose trilogy that began with Dangerous Games and Mortal Faults. All three books featured a pair of heroines, Abby Sinclair and Tess McCallum, who had an interesting dynamic. But because mass-market paperbacks were on the decline, sales for each book were lower than for the previous one. After I finished Final Sins, I couldn't find anyone to publish either Riptide or another book I wrote on spec, which I'll bring out as an ebook eventually. Nobody was buying fiction unless they thought it was going to be another Da Vinci Code.
Frankly, I think The Da Vinci Code ended up doing more harm than good to the book industry. It's an entertaining book, but its success was, to some extent, a fluke. It's not the kind of thing you can repeat at will. Even Dan Brown couldn't repeat it. And yet publishers became obsessed with finding the "next" Da Vinci Code. In the process, they lost sight of the less splashy books that had been making money for years. They weren't interested in "small" stories anymore. Everything had to be high-concept, over-the-top, international in scope. But not every writer can do that kind of thing, and not every reader wants to read it. So they ended up losing a lot of perfectly good writers and alienating a lot of formerly dependable readers, all in the quest for another mega-hit.
Darrell - You currently have four books in the Kindle top 100 "paid" bestsellers. How did you achieve this amazing feat?
Michael - I'm not entirely sure! But the basic strategy is one I learned from a good friend of mine, J. Carson Black, who used it to get several of her books into the top 100. And I think both of us are indebted to Joe Konrath, whose blog about ebooks has provided a lot of inspiration and solid, practical advice.
For me the strategy has two key points: First, price your book at $.99. There's a whole subculture of ebook readers who look for these bargain books. Second, promote your book using Amazon's discussion boards, which can be accessed toward the bottom of any Kindle book's sales page. Include a link to your sales page in any comment you post. Visit, say, five boards at a time and post your sales pitch. Do this only on boards that specifically request sales pitches and book recommendations. Don't do more than about five at a time, because some people subscribe to multiple threads and get irritated reading the same ad over and over. Wait a few days or a week, then visit five new boards and repeat the procedure. Keep track of which boards you visited so you don't place duplicate ads on the same thread. It doesn't take much self-promotion to start getting some sales. As the book moves up in the rankings, sales may snowball.
I've also made my books available in Nook editions, but those aren't selling well. Barnes & Noble does not have the same resources available for indie authors to make themselves known.
Darrell - What do you think is the best way for writers to market themselves?
Michael - The best way is to use the Amazon discussion boards, as mentioned above. But it's also good to have your own Facebook page -- not just a personal page, but an author page devoted exclusively to publicizing your books. You should also have your own website with links to your sales pages. If you have a mailing list of readers, send them a note when you put out a new title. Many people use Twitter, but I don't. I'm too damn old to tweet.
Darrell - How do you feel about self publishing for writers? Do you think this is where the future lies?
Michael - I think the days of the big publishing houses, which take 90% of the book's earnings and allow the author a royalty of 10% or less, are coming to an end. I'm not saying they will all go out of business, but I think they'll be less important in the future. As it becomes increasingly clear that authors can find a large audience through ebooks and keep 35% or 70% of the income, while writing only the books they want to write, it will be tough for the big houses to stay competitive. Even now, they're pricing their ebooks too high and taking too long to bring out digital editions. They don't seem able to adapt nimbly to changing conditions, and I think this is going to be a fatal flaw for some of them.
I'm sure big bestselling authors will continue to have nationally distributed print editions of their books, and there will also be a market for children's books, graphic novels, art books, and other books that are given as gifts or intended for collection or display. It's not the end of print, but it is the end of print's monopoly, and that's a good thing.
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Richard Zimler – The Power of Myth
Richard Zimler was born and bred in New York. After a successful career in journalism he turned to teaching and then writing. He has now written some seven novels over the last twelve years. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists in 12 different countries and he has won a swag of awards over the years. His latest book is The Warsaw Anagrams, a mystery written about a series of murders that take place within the Warsaw ghetto.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
Richard - I usually wake up around 7 a.m. and eat breakfast with my partner. My partner leaves for work around 8 o’clock. Once I’m alone, I go upstairs to my work area and begin working. I start a page or two before I left off the day before, so that I can work myself back into the rhythm and structure of the book, and – above all – get back inside the head of my narrator. I try to always focus on both the quality of my sentences – their rhythm, in particular – and on moving the story forward. And I re-write constantly. If something isn’t working, I keep at it for as long as I have to until I get it just the way I want it. If I need to do more research while I’m writing – to add an historical detail, for instance – then I consult the books in my library or do a search on the Internet. I stop for lunch around noon and usually make myself a sandwich. While I’m eating, I watch a bit of television – maybe an NBA basketball game or an episode of CSI. Then I go outside and walk around my neighborhood. We live near the sea in the city of Porto – Portugal’s second city – so I often walk along the ocean. We have a kind of boardwalk in Porto, with cafes and restaurants. On a sunny day, with the ocean sparkling, it’s gorgeous. When I get back home, I make myself a cup of tea and go back to work. I usually quit around 5 or 6 p.m. When I was younger, I could go on longer, but now that I’m fifty-five years old, I don’t have the stamina. After about six or seven hours of writing, I’m done for the day. I’ve come to realize that pushing myself too hard only hurts the quality of my writing.
Darrell - You worked as a journalist and taught journalism prior to establishing your writing career. How has your journalistic writing helped or hampered your fiction writing?
Richard - I think it has mostly helped me. First, because writing articles trained me well in the mechanics of writing: in the need to pay attention to every word and to work toward a good rhythm in my sentences, for instance. Second, it got me used to sitting down and writing for a few hours every day. Third, it helped me see the value in finding the telling detail: the tone of someone’s voice, for instance. Fourth, it made me more observant and more aware of the importance of getting everything right in my descriptions of people, places and events.
On the other hand, training in journalism can also have negative effects. First, because reporters tend to write very quickly and, largely because of that, to become easily satisfied with mediocrity. I’m not blaming them, because there is usually so little time for developing a story, but it is an occupational hazard. That hasn’t been a problem for me, because I love working on the poetry in my prose, but I see it in other novelists – in those, for instance, who feel that they have to write a certain number of words per day. That seems to me a very negative concern. It’s more important to write five great sentences per day than five mediocre pages.
Also, journalists tend to think that there are hard and fast rules about how one should write. They become very limited in their approach to structure and rhythm. And they can easily lose sight of the poetry of language. They tend to become very judgmental about anyone who writes in a different style or who has a different approach – as if they are doing something wrong.
One journalist I would highly recommend is Ryszard Kapuściński. He is by far the best reporter I’ve ever read. He is observant and intelligent, and he brings an astounding wealth of knowledge and experience to his articles and essays. He is a wonderfully sensitive writer, and he shows an enormous solidarity with the people he writes about. I would recommend that potential writers start with The Shadow of the Sun. It brings together all his writings about Africa. It is a brilliant book.
Darrell - What do you think is the future for hard copy books as opposed to ebooks?
Richard - I think that readers who are under 25 years old have a different relationship with technology than readers like me, who are older. They grew up with sophisticated personal computers, cell phones and computer games. So they like being able to store 50 books on a small device and carrying it with them wherever they go. They like having access to email everywhere they go. They don’t see it as odd. And they probably don’t mind reading a 400-page novel on a screen. In general, for someone my age – fifty-five – that would be nearly impossible. After about twenty pages, my eyes get tired and I long to have a hard-copy book in my hands. I like the feel of a book. I like to see their covers. I like to browse in bookshops and search through the stacks in the library without knowing what I’m after. So I think that for at least the next 20 years or so, until my generation of readers is in its 70s, physical books will still dominate. After that, ebooks will probably take over, at least in the developed world – in Western Europe and America – where high-tech devices are easy to purchase and affordable to the middle class. What all this will mean for countries that are less developed, or ones that are developing quickly – like India and Brazil – I haven’t a clue. Perhaps all this will lead to a more egalitarian world, in terms of access to books and other forms of cultural transmission. That would be wonderful. But if the gap between the rich and poor remains huge, unequal access to books and information may remain a big problem and may only be exacerbated by the advent of ebooks.
On a more personal note, “The Warsaw Anagrams” is currently #8 on the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.co.uk, so it seems as if the advent of ebooks is helping my novels find new readers! I’m grateful for that, of course.
Darrell - What advice would you have for someone trying to succeed as a writer?
Richard - I have two possible answers. If what you mean by “success” is the possibility of selling a lot of books, then I would suggest to any aspiring writer that he or she only write a novel after first becoming famous. Celebrity almost always guarantees success in terms of sales, because famous people who write books get a great deal of publicity. In Portugal, for instance, the novelists whose books sell the most originally became famous as newscasters and television personalities. Unfortunately, their novels are abominably written, and they have virtually no talent. In addition, their novels are usually “clones” – re-worked versions of books that were successful in America or Great Britain, such as the bestselling novels of Dan Brown. But they get coverage in all the newspapers and magazines and sell extremely well.
If becoming famous seems unlikely, then the next best bet for an aspiring writer who wants a lot of worldly success would be to write superficial books about trendy topics – novels that don’t require readers to have much experience of the world. Also, it would be best to write for a target audience of readers between 15 and 30 years old.
If, however, you measure success in terms of the quality of the book, then I have a different answer. In that case, novelists who want to write great books they should read all sorts of books, and both fiction and non-fiction. They should read great storytellers like Doestoevski, Faulkner, Henry Miller, Philip Roth, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. They should read works from many different countries, since there are widely varying styles and traditions of storytelling. They should sample a bit of everything: historical novels, science fiction, love stories… They should read anything and everything that is well written. And they should read poetry. That way, they will develop their sensibilities and they will come to see that there are the infinite possibilities for their own writing. They will feel invigorated by the great books, as well. And they will come to feel part of a community of writers all over the world.
They should also write every day. They shouldn’t wait for inspiration. Carpenters don’t need inspiration to make a table. It’s their profession. If they waited for inspiration to hammer in a nail or sand a plank of wood, they’d never make anything. The same holds true for writers. The aspiring writer needs to sit in front of his or her computer and start writing, no matter how he or she feels. The amazing thing is that a kind of magic occurs when writers are working – they get inspired by their own characters and sentences! The secret is this: inspiration is to be found in one’s own writing, in a wonderful sentence or a great metaphor or a surprising character! I suspect that for carpenters it’s much the same – they get inspired by the beauty that they create.
I would also suggest that aspiring writers avoid thinking about selling their book while they are writing. Their only goal should be to write the best novel they can. That is hard enough to do! If they are telling a story that they feel passionate about, then that passion will carry them through to the end of the project, even if it takes five or more years. So novelists should only pick a topic – or characters – that they feel passionate about.
Once a writer has finished a novel, he or she can then start thinking about selling it. First, they should try to get a good literary agent. And by “good,” I mainly mean someone who understands their work and loves it. There are many places to find lists of agents. It may help to identify the agents of your favorite writers and approach them. After all – in theory, at least – those are the people who share your taste.
Which leads me to the last attribute any potential novelist needs: patience. It can take one, two, three years or more to write a great book. And it can take another couple of years or more to find a publisher. And there is no guarantee that once it comes out it will be reviewed in the media or stocked by the best bookshops. And no guarantee that it will sell well – which means that almost no author can count on his or her publisher wanting the next book. There is very little loyalty these days. So all writers need to develop an enormous amount of patience. Otherwise, they tend to become nervous wrecks!
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Matthew Reilly – Write What You Like to Read
Matthew Reilly is one of Australia’s most successful authors. After self publishing his first book at age nineteen, he has since been published in over twenty countries and sold over 3.5 million books. In this interview he spoke about his writing career and his advice for anyone trying to succeed as a writer.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
Matthew - I usually work from about 9am to 1pm. I find I think best and work best in the morning. I used to write all day, but as with anything, the more you do, the better you get, and so now it doesn’t take as long. That said, I am still just as exhausted mentally after half a day’s writing as I used to be after a full day’s work.
Darrell - I know that when it comes to writing, action is your middle name (and possibly even your first and last name). Do you normally plot out your novels in advance or do you allow the characters to lead the way?
Matthew - I plot out each novel in full before I even start page 1 — I use big sheets of cardboard to map out the whole story. Plot, pace and action are very important to me, and I can only see that when I have the whole story in front of me. I have done this since CONTEST and continue to do it: I still have the cardboard sheet for SCARECROW AND THE ARMY OF THIEVES beside my desk!
That said, action without good characters is meaningless, so once I have laid out my plot, I then “people it” with characters that I believe readers will cheer for or find interesting. Of course, villains play a big role, too, and in the new Scarecrow book, the choice of villain was pivotal.
Darrell - You've had some of your books optioned for movies and you've even had some interest in small film making yourself. Do you think we'll get to see a Matthew Reilly book turned into a feature length movie?
Matthew - I’ve had a few false starts with Hollywood — I optioned ICE STATION to Paramount, but that never got made; and I sold a TV script called LITERARY SUPERSTARS to Sony and ABC that had Darren Star producing and Jenna Elfman starring, and that fell through because of the ’07-’08 Writer’s Strike. But I sold HOVER CAR RACER to Disney a few years back and they’re still keen on it, and SCARECROW is currently under option with a big production company, so there is still hope.
The key thing about Hollywood and my books is this: money. My books are very big in scale and that means it’ll take 100 million bucks to even think about turning one of my novels into a decent movie. Which means getting a top director and big movie star. So in the end, that means waiting and being patient. I hope that one day, a movie of one of my books will be made, but I don’t sit by the phone waiting for it to happen. I just get on with writing the next novel and entertaining my fans.
That said, I still write screenplays in between the books, and that keeps me in touch with people in Hollywood, which can only help.
Darrell - What do you think is the best way a writer can promote themselves and their books?
Matthew - When you’re starting out, do every interview you can, even for the local newspaper — because you never know who reads the local newspaper. A while back, I did an interview with a local paper, and it was read by a national current affairs TV show, who asked for an interview. In Australia, radio is also very powerful.
In the end, do everything. You can’t just leave your book on the shelf to be found by browsers — no matter how shy you are (and many authors are shy) you have to get out there and tell people that your book is in bookstores, waiting to be read and enjoyed!
Darrell - What do you think the future holds for hard copy books now that ebooks are here?
Matthew - I can see a future where hard copy books coexist with ebooks, with each occupying about 50% of the market. The “hard copy book” is an awesome piece of technology: it’s sturdy, it requires no batteries, and you can hurl it around or stuff it in a bag; plus, many people just like ’em (I myself find that I retain more information reading a hard copy than an ebook). Ebooks are the future, for sure, and younger readers who grow up with them will happily read them, but I don’t see them obliterating hard copies entirely.
For authors, I don’t think this matters too much. My skill as a fiction writer is entertaining a reader with words — whether they are on a page or a screen, I don’t think it matters. That said, printers and bookstores will have to adapt to this brave new world.
Darrell - What advice would you have for someone trying to make it as a writer?
Matthew - Write what you would read yourself. Believe me, you can’t fake enthusiasm, and I firmly believe that my readers see my enthusiasm in every page of my work. I love action thrillers. Really love them. This is why you won’t see a “Matthew Reilly Book of Poetry” anytime soon — fans of poetry would spot my inexperience in an instant. But when it comes to action and thrills, I know (and love) every movie and book in the genre. I thrive in it and because of that, I can thus stretch the conventions of the thriller genre and take readers to new limits.
On the practical side, if that first novel doesn’t find a publisher, start writing another one. My first book, CONTEST, was rejected by everyone, so I famously self-published it. In the middle of self-publishing CONTEST, I sat down and started ICE STATION. Now, at that stage, I had nothing. No book deal. Just lots of rejection letters and boxes of self-published books. But I started that second book anyway. And while CONTEST was ultimately discovered, it was ICE STATION that catapulted me around the world as an author of note. Write that second book — you’ll also have learned stuff while writing the first one and it may well be better! I think that happened with me and ICE STATION.
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Mark Edwards – Two Bestsellers Hit Top of UK Amazon Kindle Chart
Together with his ‘writer in arms’ Louise Voss, Mark Edwards wrote a book entitled, Catch Your Death. As it sat at number one on the UK Amazon Kindle Bestseller Chart, another book written by the pair – Killing Cupid – sat at position four.
This is a pretty amazing feat for any writer. In this interview I spoke to Mark about how he became a writer and where he sees the future for authors.
Darrell - How did you become a writer?
Mark - I started writing about fifteen years ago after I left uni. My first novel was written longhand in a series of notepads. It was terrible, but once I'd got it out of my system I was able to write a slightly-less terrible novel which I typed up on a contraption called a Sharp Fontwriter (PCs were quite expensive back then) and, following the instructions in the Writers' Handbook, posted it off to several agents. I got some interest straight away and thought 'this is easy!' But then they changed their minds and I wrote another novel, called The Liberators. This time I landed an agent who told me I was going to be rich and famous. I told everyone I knew I was going to be rich and famous.
I didn't get rich or famous. After wiping the egg off my face, and learning an important lesson about hubris, I kept plugging away. I wrote another book, then another... Then a weird twist occurred. The BBC were making a documentary about wannabe writers and I was chosen to be on it. It didn't lead to anything except being recognised once by a bus driver and receiving a nice email from another writer called Louise Voss who was in the same boat as me. Louise and I struck up an email correspondence.
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