Showing posts with label writers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writers. Show all posts

Friday, July 25, 2008

You Might Be A Writer If...

My writer friend Ane Mulligan posted this on her blog, and she gave me permission to share it with you.

You Might Be A Writer If...

... if chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups in your diet.

... you include an SASE with all correspondence-even letters to your mother.

... you can't resist pointing out grammatical errors on news stations' scrolling bar.

... your friends say they'll kill you if you whisper, "That was in the end of the first act" during a movie one more time.

... in a house fire, you'd save your computer, your copy of Sally Stuart's Writer's Market Guide, then your grandmother's jewelry.

... during church sermons, you find yourself thinking, "This could be tighter."

... you can't balance a checkbook, but your submission log is cross referenced and goes back to 2003.

... you decide by the end of the first page of a novel that the author didn't have an editor.

... when your husband suggests a world cruise you ask, "Is there Internet access?"

... your answering machine says, "Hi, I'm not here right now. Please leave a query and the synopsis of your proposed message, and I'll let you know whether to call back."

... when you nail a sentence, you're pretty sure you know how Moses felt parting the Red Sea.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Will your first novel be published?

I think it's a common assumption among new writers that all they have to do to be published is write a great first book, send it out, and voila! A publisher will pick them right up. Unfortunately, that's not how it usually goes.

A novelist friend of mine sent me a link to a fascinating piece about how many novelists actually sell the first novels they write (thanks, Sibella!). It's worth a look. Check it out here.

Apparently it's a common phenomenon for an author to not become published in book form until they've gotten into the swing of things, sometimes with their third or fourth written books.

This was true for Ted Dekker. He mention in an interview I did with him awhile back that it was his fourth book that was published first. Later, after he was established, he went on to publish his first written works (I believe Showdown was the first novel he wrote). You can read that interview here.

I've been thinking about this subject a lot lately as I contemplate sending my second novel out into the big world of publishing. It's a much stronger book, I think, than my first. And I wouldn't mind if it was my first published work. :)

All in all, this is a fascinating subject. I'd be interested in how this trend of novelists publishing later works first plays out in the CBA market. Maybe I'll do my own survey!

Have a great 4th holiday, friends. And leave me a comment if you're so inclined. I love hearing from you.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Joke of the day

Q: How many mystery writers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Two, one to screw it almost all the way in and the other to give it a surprising twist at the end.