A. I
contacted a publisher and paid a small fee to have an “editorial review”
written on my manuscript. I asked the publisher to tell me honestly whether the
manuscript (1) worked as a book, (2) could be fixed and made into a book or (3)
should be tossed into the trash and forgotten.
The
publisher, Beth, liked my work and was interested in publishing it with some
minor changes and some editing suggestions. Then she asked me, “What else do
you have?”
What
I had was three pages of another book about a private detective who starts out
dead. It was three pages going nowhere, but I sent her the pages anyway. Beth liked
the idea and told me I should finish that book, too. So I re-read what I had
written, added a few details and some quotes and moved on to Chapter 2, where I
wrote, “It all started….” And then I let my imagination run wild. Ideas started
coming to me and I wrote the whole second book in a matter of weeks.
With
my publisher’s encouragement, I have since written two other Rob and Jennie
Covington books and recently started on Covington book number 4.
Next: What does someone need to do to
write good fiction books?
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