Writing Bestsellers 1st Anniversary!

Someone once asked Stephen King what the secret to writing success was. His answer? "You just need to be in the right place at the right time. Since none of us can know when that right time will be, our job is to get to the right place and stay there."

Suite101's Writing Bestsellers is a year old. In that time much thought has gone into discussing what makes a Bestseller? Is it the sales, the writing, the name of the authors? Is it a certain type of story or a style of storytelling? Is it the promotion that goes into creating a demand for certain authors and their books? Or is it, as Stephen King says, being at the right place at the right time? Over the past year, many of you have been writing and some have been published and I hope my articles have helped you to achieve your goals.

To kick off Writing Bestsellers 1st Anniversary, I will present a recent interview I had with international bestselling author T. J. MacGregor, creator of the thrillers OUT Of SIGHT, BLACKWATER, and TOTAL SILENCE. A prolific writer of twenty-two novels, Trish will inspire you with her insights into writing and the publishing world.

Topics in the coming months will address Internet publishing versus Print publishing. Can authors reach the same kinds of goals regardless of the route they take? The Internet is here to stay. Writers of all genres are entering the digital forum. Now is the time to get in on the ground floor. Like print publishing, electronic publishing will, over the next decade, become more difficult to access as growing numbers of authors flood the market.

Future articles will address self-publishing versus conventional publishing. What is it really like out there and is self-publishing a viable alternative?

If you're not a bestselling author says David Armstrong in his book HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL then be prepared for disappointment. "There are the depressing, ill-attended readings, the bitchy writers'conventions, the bookshops which have never heard of you and don't stock your book. All of these will be familiar to any writer who ( like David Armstrong) falls into the category euphemistically known as 'midlist'. The reality is that for every J K Rowling, there are a thousand David Armstrongs; for every writer who is put up in a five-star hotel and flies first class courtesy of their publisher, there are 1,000 who sleep on friends' floors during book tours and travel economy." If that's what conventional publishing is like, then why not self-publish?

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