How Does One Become a Best Selling Author?

Maybe we need to research--find out what books and subjects people like then write about them.

How to get rich
How to get gorgeous
How to stay healthy, thin, etc.,
How to have perfect children
How to be happily married
How to keep your house immaculate with no effort
How to write a best-selling book

Alice, your post may have been tongue-in-cheek, but it's the truth.

I would only change the title to "How To Write A Book That Sells" because best-seller status is an impossible goal for most of us, or at least a remote one. But any of us can write a book that respectably sells if we write what people want to read, not necessarily what we want to write.

This is the philosophy I have adopted. Textbook and nonfiction is boring stuff, but so what? My goal is to make money. I can't make money selling stuff no one wants to buy. So I researched what there was a need for and set out to fill it. So far I'm doing alright.

Non-fiction is boring stuff? Since when?

Let me clarify -MY nonfiction is boring stuff, lol.

I'd much rather write mysteries. But I know what I can realistically do and what I can't.

Are you suggesting that someone who is brilliant at writing mysteries should change tack and write a non-fiction book because it is easier to find a publisher than trying to place a mystery with a commercial publisher?

That's a loaded question. I'm going to say that someone who has gotten 100 rejections for their [insert genre] probably doesn't have as brilliant a work as they think they have. Or the market isn't what they think. I hold the (naive?) view that if a piece is truly brilliant and there's a large enough audience for it, it will find a home with a commercial publisher.

I would like to write fiction. I don't think I can do it well enough to sell. I can write non-fiction well enough to sell. So I have resigned myself to that. Defeatist? Maybe.

Unfortunately, a great deal of brilliant work is overlooked. Every year a Booker prize winner reaps the rewards of being a winner but the quality of books is not the same year in year out. Ten brilliant books may be on the Booker list one year and only one excellent book the following year. The nine authors who did not win may very well have written better books than the following year's winner. That's publishing.

Shelagh wrote:

Unfortunately, a great deal of brilliant work is overlooked. Every year a Booker prize winner reaps the rewards of being a winner but the quality of books is not the same year in year out. Ten brilliant books may be on the Booker list one year and only one excellent book the following year. The nine authors who did not win may very well have written better books than the following year's winner. That's publishing.

"Fair went out in the third grade." Such is life however. Someway there has to be a way to win.

You're changing the goal posts. I'm not discussing which books are deemed worthy of a prize. I'm discussing which books will be considered for that prize. Not all actors win Oscars. But all who are considered are at least in the game.

9/19/2009


My best seller: " Cats, Dogs, Hamsters, Guinea Pigs,
Horses- How To train them, Love Them,
keep them happy."

The pet industry is a multi billion dollars industry,,


Cheers.......Joe

Joe,

Go for it!

I plan of writing "How To Become A Best Selling Author".

Of or on?

I think I will write a book about how to cause friction on a forum.

Then another on How to Get and Stay Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

Any agent worth their salt would be glad to peddle the second book to any and all publishers.

LC wrote:

You're changing the goal posts. I'm not discussing which books are deemed worthy of a prize. I'm discussing which books will be considered for that prize. Not all actors win Oscars. But all who are considered are at least in the game.

My novel, The Power of Persuasion, was on the list for Wales Book of the Year. It is still on the Academi website (first book in April):

http://www.academi.org/eligible-books/

Shelagh,

That is so impressive.

Shelagh wrote:

My novel, The Power of Persuasion, was on the list for Wales Book of the Year.

That's great and , but it doesn't contradict anything I've said. I was discussing suitability for commercial publication, and part of "brilliant" for that is the ability to meet wide audience requirements.

I don't know what the Wales Book's criteria is, but my guess is that it's closer to that of an academic press. Fine stuff, but generally too high-brow for the public's plebeian tastes! Did you try to sell Power of Persuasion to any academic presses?

LC, if you want to write fiction, write fiction.

You've already written and had nonfiction books published and are getting royalties. If you don't have plans right now for another nonfiction book, why not try fiction. Who knows where it could lead, or how much joy you'd find in writing it.

Carol

As an aside, if you have any doubt that part of "brilliant" is being able to hold the public's attention, check this out. A commercially published COMIC BOOK TEXTBOOK is in the works.

I don't know what to think of this. I applaud any means that gets students to open and read their books, but this is just sad.

http://today.ttu.edu/2009/08/comic-relief-from-textbooks/

Man, I want be a best selling author so I can have puppies and bunnies and groupies. Mostly though, puppies.

Carol Troestler wrote:

LC, if you want to write fiction, write fiction.

Who knows where it could lead, or how much joy you'd find in writing it.

Carol

I know where it would lead. To a drawer in my desk, lol. It's too much work to be "joy" to me.

LC wrote:

As an aside, if you have any doubt that part of "brilliant" is being able to hold the public's attention, check this out. A commercially published COMIC BOOK TEXTBOOK is in the works.

I don't know what to think of this. I applaud any means that gets students to open and read their books, but this is just sad.

http://today.ttu.edu/2009/08/comic-relief-from-textbooks/

"cool. this will be something for the stundents to injoy their day to day lifes."

-- the book seems to be reaching its target audience.

LC wrote:

Shelagh wrote:

My novel, The Power of Persuasion, was on the list for Wales Book of the Year.

That's great and , but it doesn't contradict anything I've said. I was discussing suitability for commercial publication, and part of "brilliant" for that is the ability to meet wide audience requirements.

I don't know what the Wales Book's criteria is, but my guess is that it's closer to that of an academic press. Fine stuff, but generally too high-brow for the public's plebeian tastes!

This blogger agrees with you:

http://babylonwales.blogspot.com/2008/07/wales-book-of-year-2008.html

Shelagh wrote:

"cool. this will be something for the stundents to injoy their day to day lifes."

-- the book seems to be reaching its target audience.

I wondered if that comment was a joke, placed by someone making fun of the concept. If not, well, I guess the comic book text is the wave of the future, isn't it?

BTW -lol @ the Wales group reading the runner-up's name as the winner.

The blogger also made the point that these contests are to generate interest in books as much as to single out one author for recognition (the second placed author received more coverage than the winner!).

The Welsh Academi did not make a mistake with the announcement -- they had deliberated for a long time to choose a winner -- it was the VIP politician who screwed up (and later resigned!).

It isn't very brilliant making sales from ghost written books of media stars; it is just good business. I would also add, LC, that you admit that writing fiction is too difficult for you. Maybe promoting books is too difficult for you. Why don't you allow those who want to write and promote to do just that without telling them that they are wasting their time.

Another Beatles anecdote: a close friend of my family (my mother lived with his parents during the war while he was away at university) taught at the Liverpool Institute and two of his pupils used to bring their guitars to school. The teacher told them to concentrate on their schoolwork because they would never make a living out of strumming their guitars. I suppose you have guessed that the two boys were George Harrison and Paul McCartney.