: Writing bestsellers

» richcraze - Writing bestsellers

Could I offer a word of encouragement and advice to any aspiring authors out there? I to wanted to write - since I was eight years old. Everything I did was to that end.
I wrote fiction – gallons of it – sci-fi, fantasy, horror, children’s, TV scripts, film scripts, poetry, articles, features, essays, you name it. Result? Nothing. Not a sausage. Not a peep. Not a dickey bird. Not a single word printed. I never gave up. I never got depressed. I slogged away. For years and years and years.
I took a whole year off work in my mid thirties to write full time. Result: Yep, you’ve guessed it. Nothing. Back to a full time job.
In my early forties I was still at it. Still banging away. I met a woman who was a commissioning editor for a fairly large publishing house. I talked to her about the possibility of a book and by the time I had written the proposal she had left and was setting up as an agent on her own. I sent her my ‘stuff’. She invited me to lunch. Can you imagine how excited I was? At last I thought…at last.
Lunch was fine but at the end she explained that all my ‘stuff’ was fiction and she was going to be a non-fiction agent specialising in the Mind Body Spirit area. Heart broken. Crest fallen. I was about to leave after she explained that my writing was good but that she was just simply unable to handle it when she asked me if I knew anybody who could write a book on graphology. I said I could, immediately. She said she would put me in touch with the publisher.
On the way home my then girlfriend Roni (now my wife) commented that she didn’t know that I knew anything about graphology. Obviously that was right because I did indeed know nothing…but I had an old book on it at home and well, it couldn’t be that difficult could it?
Roni suggested that if I was going to submit a proposal on this to a publisher – which indeed I did – I had better get it right. She had written a book herself – How To Write Reports and Proposals that Get Results – and she suggested she take me through the proposal writing process.
She gave me a master class I have never forgotten. Result: The book was accepted and indeed published. The first of some 65 books to be published. Yep, that isn’t a misprint – I have had over sixty-five books published since then. And all because I got the proposal writing right.
Now Roni and I run our own publishing company – we only publish non-fiction and on our web site http://www.whiteladderpress.com we post our submission guidelines. You’d be staggered by how many authors send us fiction, poetry, children's etc.
My advice?
 Do your research thoroughly before you send in anything.
 Make that proposal fantastic.
 Learn your trade and learn it well.
Later this year we are bringing out a new book – The Insider’s Guide To Getting Your Book Published – it might be an idea to have a look if you are serious about writing as a career.
Regards
Richard Craze
PS And the fiction? Still can’t get anything published. You can see a full list of what I have had published at http://www.richardcraze.co.uk

-- posted by richcraze