Wednesday, November 18, 2009

25! Woo hoo!

I have 25 followers! There are actually 25 people that care about what I have to say! These past few months have been an absolute delight. I love all the blog buddies I've met and the ideas that we have shared. In honor of this milestone, I am going to post 25 snippets from the book How I Got Published, a collection of essays from famous authors. I highly recommend it.

1. Hallie Ephron
Rule 3: Just because an editor says you should change the gender of your protagonist doesn't mean you should do it.

2. Jack Bludis
There is no magic formula-- just persistence and send the damn thing out.


3. Stephen Coonts
Writing in the evening on a portable typewriter on the dining room table after the kids were in bed, I created Jake Grafton and his squadron mates...


4. Thomas Perry
I never stopped writing. I went to graduate school and got a P.h.D. in English, worked as a commercial fisherman because I was sick of being indoors, then became a university administrator, but I still wrote.


5. Ray White
As an unknown, unpublished writer, whose favorite uncle probably isn't an editor at Random House, you must make contacts in the publishing industry. The best way to do this is to attend writer's conferences.


6. Charles Benoit
Your real goal is to write a book that people would pay good money to read...You can't achieve this goal if your reason for writing is to just see your name on a bookshop shelf.


7. Louise Penny
Like most writers I was turned down more often that I care to remember, or cared to admit to my agent.


8. Karen Rose Smith
After six years of writing and the completion of thirteen manuscripts, I sold two books in one week!


9. Shane Gericke
Scared? Do it anyway. I became a best-selling author because of those four little words. You can too.


10. J.A. Konrath
There's a word for a writer who never gives up... Published.


So uh...I know I promised 25...but geez this is taking longer than I thought (and I need to go to bed). So take these 10 multiply that by 2.5 and that should give you 25. Have a good night peeps! And Wooohooo for 25!

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Anita!

    I'm enjoying you too. And thanks for the quotes. I love author quotes. I'll share a few to help you reach the 25.

    'It's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.' Gustave Flaubert

    'When I am dead, I hope it may be said: "His sins were scarlet, but his books were read".'Hilaire Belloc - Epitaph'

    It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing. But I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.' Robert Benchley

    'To finish is a sadness to a writer - a little death. He puts the last word down and it is done. But it isn't really done. The story goes on and leaves the writer behind, for no story is ever done.' John Steinbeck

    'Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion.' Raymond Chandler

    'Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.'Edward Gibbon

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  2. Thanks Terry! You are such a sweet heart for doing that! I love author quotes too!

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