New York Times Best Selling Author Tells the Truth

A few years ago I made a promise to my writer friends that if I ever had a novel hit the top twenty of the New York Times mass market bestseller list that I would share all the information I was given about the book so writers could really see what it takes to get there. Today I’m going to keep that promise and give you the stats on my sixth Darkyn novel, Twilight Fall…

New York Times Best Selling Author, Lynn Viehl, then goes on to share the bare bones truth of what it means to hit it big in writing.

Writing, publishing, they are businesses. And businesses do not turn a profit overnight. If they do, the crash is quick to follow as we are seeing now with the mess on Wall Street. This is not to say that publishers are the most honest of business people.

Like all other business owners publishers paint large images of grandeur that we as writers, fueled by our desire to see our words in print, help them sustain. Yet the truth is publishers are no quicker to release money owed to us than anyone else. If one is eager to make a lot of money, writing and the area of publishing is not the place to try to achieve this.

I had hoped to make a living–a large living at writing books. Why not? It seemed that’s what a fair number of authors were doing. I was smart.
Never mind I knew someone who had garnered a $2 million book deal on a novel without having written 50 pages. Yes, it’s true. And that person was incredibly smart.

Needless to say this author is no longer writing. Publishing and it antics at playing Russian Roulette with willing writers who sadly are unseasoned at the tricks the media plays in pumping up hot air balloons as variations on a them of Horatio Alger that simply are not true swallowed up this author–and I sadly fear, their ability and commitment to continue to write.

The more I write, the more I see how much I love to write. With every story I pen, I realize how much writing is a part of my blood, how much I need it to maintain my sanity. Writing and the stories I craft a gift from God. God has given this gift to many people.

And yet publishing and the powers that be in New York have deemed themselves smarter and wiser than God–so much so that they have come up with formulas of what makes good books and a good book great.

And so they take the works of our hearts and plug them into one of the various formulas they’ve devised. Remember, this only happens to the stories and novels of those who are lucky.

Publishers plug our works into this formulaic design, and reshape the way we write, by using overblown stories of success and grandeur as the almighty carrot. And wa-la, we change the way we write and craft stories just for them and their editors.

Then with little or no money for marketing, we set about to promote and sell what was once our story, now remade in the image a publisher says will make millions of which they will receive as payback on the loan they gave us camouflaged as an advance.

Lynn Viehl, in her article, The Reality of a Times Bestseller, shatters the myth of the fiction writer who becomes a superstar author overnight.

Have some authors become wealthy by writing fiction?
Yes.

But do you know they’re stories?

How hard have they worked at their craft?

What have been their true successes and failures?

If they had to do it over would they choose the same life?

What have they sacrificed?

Are you willing to do the same?

Seeking the answers to these and more questions has led me to understand that I am truly a writer. But there are circumstances various contexts under which I now know I would not create and write the stories of my heart, nor would I work well as a writer.

I want to write. And I will continue, God-willing, to write. But I will not, I cannot sell my soul, lest I lose my connection with family, my God and myself. All three form the basis of how and why I write. Anything that threatens any of these three pillars undermines me, and my literary craft and artist.

I fear, after reading Lynn Viehl’s article, that many writers who have and do not have the courage to be as honest as she has been, suffer from having sold themselves out to an industry whose primary concern has not been the author and her/his craft and artistry, rather the individual work that the publisher attempted to parlay into a profit of which the author so many times receives little to nothing.

Do you hold visions of grandeur concerning literary success?

Do believe that an agent and traditional publisher can help you gain success?

If so, how and why? If not why?
How much attention had you or do you hope to gain in writing your book?

How important is it that your work be traditionally published or reflect your personal best as a writer?

Is a traditionally published book your example of a well-crafted book?

What was the last book you read–and when?

Are you writing for today/the present?

Where do you see yourself and your writing in 20 years?

How would you feel if all publishing houses closed up shop and the only way to see your book in print, get it out into the world, was by publishing, putting it out there yourself?

Do you think self-published writers are as good as traditionally published authors?

If so, why? If not, why?

Read Lynn Viehl’s article, “The Reality of a Times Bestseller”, and leave your comments.
http://www.genreality.net/the-reality-of-a-times-bestseller