If there’s one constant in publishing and reader habits, it’s that taste is subjective and there are many layers to what leads one book to the drawer and one to a bookstore.
What’s an author to do? Write another novel, of course. And praise the ones that came before.
- I don’t want to believe that my ten-years-in-the-making first novel will end up in a drawer. If it comes to that, I will refer to this post on how to praise the unpublished drawer novel.
- You are not alone. A lot of authors have reported that the first novel they wrote was not their debut novel.
- Perhaps the problem was that you wrote a slow burn instead of a fast-paced, wham-bam page turner? Fear not! Here’s one author’s suggestion on How to Craft a Page-Turning Plot.
- A great response by one author who got a request to “pick her brain:” “Last week I received an email from 2 girls from California who are living in a loft in Williamsburg writing a movie all summer. (I would kill to have that set up, but the grass is always greener, right?) The girls wanted to ask me how I “got” what I did, so here it is…“
- Once you hit on that lucky novel, you might be asked to do a reading. Here are 10 Tips for Readings in Public. #10. No drinking to excess. Darn.