Invaluable advice on the realities of being a published author, the best way to choose an agent, the marketing game, the give and take of collaboration, and much more.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Enlightening Visit with a Literary Expert,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success (Paperback)
I've read a number of books by agents, but none of them have focused on the needs, expectations, hopes, and mistakes of the fiction writer like this book does. Donald Maass is a triple publishing expert: a former editor, a published fiction author, and a successful literary agent. Reading the book, I felt like I had been introduced to my long lost uncle by marriage to my second cousin, who, upon learning of my interest in the publishing world, freely shared all his expertise. While dining at his favorite restaurant (my treat of course) he told me what really happens in the publishing world. How do publishers afford those astronomical advances I see in Publishers Weekly? How does he choose the query letters that make him want to see a manuscript? How do authors help, or more often, hurt their careers? Now I know. He also shares his formula for calculating when a published author can make the leap into full-time writing without undue fear of crashing back to earth and having to get a job at the local convenience store to meet the bills. The best non-fiction books educate while entertaining, and Maass' friendly, chatty style is the Madeira sauce on this highly satisfying, juicy slice of steak.
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable "reality check" for aspiring novelists,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success (Paperback)
The down-to-earth, practical, useful advice in this book can't be had for money (or wait . . . it can be had for the price of this book . . .) Donald Maass has been an agent for longer than I can imagine and he has been a novelist in his own right for years. The man knows the market. He knows what kinds of lies writers tell themselves and what kinds of fantasies interfere with getting the job done -- writing and selling your novel. Far from being a commodity-centered approach to the modern market this book is a sympathetic account of how to do it and what to watch out for from a man with a lifetime's experience in writing, production, and sales. I keep buying copies to give to friends and acquaintances who have a novel and want to market it. While some of his information can be had from other sources, his depth of knowledge and all-round market savvy is worth its weight in gold for anybody with a novel who wants to know what's next.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The world of Big Business Publishing, warts and all,
By Russ Heitz (Sarasota, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success (Paperback)
This is not your typical "how to become a writer" book. It is not aimed at the novice scribbler who is certain he/she will be the next J.K. Rowlings. It is for those who have already proven their skill as a writer but want to know more of the hard and sometimes depressing facts about the business end of writing.
With 50,000 titles being published every year, bookstores simply don't have the shelf space to accomodate them all. That fact results in a competitive mindset that makes a term like "back-stabbing shark" seem mild in comparison. And for a writer to enter this book-publisher/book-seller world, he/she needs to be aware of a few indisputable facts. The competition is fierce. The struggle is difficult. The progress is slow. And the financial rewards--for most non-blockbuster writers--are depressingly small. Nevertheless, it is a world that the career writer must be aware of, accept, and learn how to cope with. Maass explains and defines terms like "publisher's profit," "returns," "sell through," "voodoo numbers," "ship-in," "100,000-copy first printing," "the $25,000 advance," and "rate of sales," among others. These are the terms that serious writers need to know about and understand, whether they write book-length fiction or book-length non-fiction. Maas also discusses the value of self-promotion, press kits, the publicist, book signings, advertising, media connections, etc. He also explains why "trash" usually sells and "literature" usually doesn't. In short, this is an excellent book for any writer who wants to make a career out of novel writing, but also wants an honest, objective, realistic, and insider's view of the real world of Big Business Publishing. Russ Heitz Suspense Novelist [...]
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