Off topic, perhaps, but good news is good news

Good on you, David, excellent!

I am in awe of 80,000 to 150,000 word books. Mine have all been in the 20K to 25K range --- sustaining plot, characters, place, over that long a book is truly a staggering accomplishment. Congratulations!

Please let us know when the pub date for Cold Spots is set.

Sheldon AKA Sleepless

I write business books --- parables that teach business lessons. So far I've published five. Four with Morrow, now an imprint of the HarperCollins group, and one with Hyperion. You can check out www.kingdomality.com to learn something about my last book ---- and, take a short test to see who you would have been in a medieval kingdom. I'm a Dreamer Minstrel. My wife is a Benevolent Ruler, 'nuff said. I've been so busy with my real life, business, that I've not written anything in a long time, but lately I've been working on two new ones. I hope my agent remembers my name.

Sheldon AKA Sleepless

Congratulations David.

Perhaps for the Non-fiction you could simply copy and past 13,000+ posts at HW!!! (But that might be too big.

I've written novels myself, but never been satisfied with finished result to send it to anyone. I did print up and bind one copy of one of my books to get the feel of the concept in my hands. My sister read it about ten years later and laughed a lot - fortunately it was meant to be funny - but she said it needs to be rewritten to expand the good bits and reduce the bad. (And she thought there was too much sex!!) My daughter gave up after a few pages due to the typos!

My brain definitley gets ahead of my fingers. I have terrible trouble with typos too, for one thing I have very fat finger tips, but I also find my right hand gets ahead of my left, so I'll type whole sentences with the letters out of order such as "ahev" instead of "have".

Still I only really started writing to be able to enjoy the stories (!) And they say "write about what you know", well I'm currently working on a whodunnit based around PCa, so this is not "off-topic" any more!! (The question is should I, or should I not, use the names of guys at HW as the names of characters in the book......)

Alf

I can't count - I of course mean R with 5 letters David

Wow that's way cool David. I have never known a published novelist and I am truly blessed to know you now.

Terry

thanks terry and bob

english alf - what i have learned over the years, you have to have a tough shell if you are going to be a writer. you have to accept a lot of rejection without taking it personal. its not uncomon to have a good manuscript, and still go through 20-40 rejections. some of the worse books ever written get published every year, and great ones neve make it. the business side of publishing is rough, but if you have what they are looking for, at the right time, then you have an equal shot at being published. i take pride in some of my quality rejections, years ago, i had a story that was one step from making it in the National Geographics, in the end, it came down to the choice of 2 stories, and my story didnt make the final cut. I still have their rejection slip. I think you see my point.

david

Joe,

I can speak from experience, getting a triology published by an unknown author is very difficult. My first book, Crystal Dreams, was meant to be a triolgy. I finished about 1/2 of the 2nd installment, then stopped. Even my publisher wasn't interested in the other 2 volumes. Not saying it can't be done, but one is better off trying to get the first one published before putting in all that effort.

There is no magic trick, don't waste your money on "writing" books or "how to get published" books. It takes a lot of rejection, and its all about the timing of things in the publishing world. As more and more books are being made for Kindle, etc, it's even harder now to get a conventional book published

If you write non-fiction, and its a subject that is needed, and assuming its well done, you got a good shot. But if you write fiction only like me, you are the whims and mercy of editors. What they don't like one month, they are hot for six months later. There's no rhyme or reason from the writer's perspective.

And you got to put your whole soul into writing, if you want to be taken seriously. If what you wrote sucks, and you know that if you are the author, then trust me, everyone else will think it sucks. This is why I have a group of test readers when I am working on a new book, to make sure its hitting the intended marker/reader. If not, then all I am doing is wasting my time.

David

Good advice there, English Alf. With non-fiction, you have to right about every aspect of a manuscript, with fiction, there is the legendary "literary license", and you can get away with things that would never pass muster with a non-fiction work.

The only writing book, I ever took somewhat seriously, was Steven King's book, "On Writing". Which his reputation as a best selling and very popular author (for so many years too), I got some good general pointers. He was an English teacher at one point, so he's kind of OCD about everything being "correct". I don't see anything wrong with that, but my style is to let my imagination go wild on its own, and simply write from the head and heart, and let the chips fly. I try to write in a style that real life people would actually talk. Wouldn't make a good essayist, lol.

What kind of railway stuff? I have a love to anything steam in relation to railway, especially some of the classic British locomotives. Anything you can link me to?

david

and yes, writing, and all other hobbies, are a good distraction from our PC journeys.

thanks, san carlos

David:

Having published numerous articles myself -- all pertaining to mathematics and definitely not lengthy (number of pages in single digits), I would love to do a novel. But crafting a manuscript of hundreds of pages is indeed a different kind of task.

It's interesting to hear that you just "do it." It's kind of like you have the beginning and end and somehow you just let it rip.

I know many authors plan out their chapters. I gather you don't.

That is indeed impressive.

Mel

Thanks, Jim.

Mel - no two writers are alike. I always have the 1st and last chapters pre-written in my head. On one book, I started with the last chapter and worked backwards towards the front of the book for a few chapters. I never have an outline ahead of time, at least not on paper. I do, have a list of characters and names written in advance, mostly to keep the names straight. but i mostly just let the book write itself. it always works for me. on this recent one, most of it came out of my head, without much thought to how it would tie together. i would just sit there and type it in as fast as i could. there were twists in the plot that developed that i never had thought about before. perhaps its just because i am the most stubborn butt-backward thinking lefty you will ever meet. what seems logical to me, wouldnt seem that way to most others, lol. ask my wife, lol.

david

thanks, special lady