I’m delighted to host
my fellow Agatha nominees for Best First Novel today on Killer
Hobbies. Click on the link in their name
to go to their author web page and on the book title to purchase their work. Be sure to read
these phenomenal books and support this new crop of amazing talent. And wish us all luck on May 2 when the winner
will be announced!
Until then, here is our
advice to aspiring writers:
Join a writing organization
such as Sisters in Crime or Pennwriters and participate. They're a great source
of support and education. It takes a village to write a book and survive in
this business. Learn the craft of writing and write the best story you can.
Finish the book! So many aspiring authors get tired with the story they're
writing, get another idea, and start a new book. It's easy to end up with a
half dozen books of only three or four chapters! And finally, never give up.
The only surefire way of never getting published is to quit trying.
Before you send your manuscript out make sure it is ready --
really, really ready. I burned a few bridges with the books "in the
drawer" by sending them out too early. Knowing when your book is ready is
difficult. Have you studied the craft and especially books similar to the one
you are writing? Has someone other than your family and friends read it and
given you feedback? Constructive criticism is a good thing. Are you out there
meeting other writers? You never know when a chance meeting will change the course
of your life -- it happened to me at the Malice Domestic banquet in 2005. Most
of all don't give up. It took me fifteen years to get published. And have
fun!
I follow a credo based on a quote I heard or
read somewhere. Until recently I wasn’t sure who said it, but I now know it was
William Faulkner. I live by his prudent words. “I only write
when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.”
Whether
you write daily, or three hours a day twice a week, or two hours every
Saturday, I think that consistency, however you can work it into your life
schedule, is crucial to successful writing.
And once the story is written and you think it
is done, if perchance, as a writer you have fallen in love with any of your
written passages, you might want to consider a cooling off period until you are
less enamored. Then take another pass at your work as a reader.
I wish great luck and success to every writer
who sits at a computer or puts pen to paper. Don’t give up. Persistence is the
key.
If you believe in your work, don’t give up! Stay
positive and open minded. For example, I enjoyed querying agents and the
connections that resulted from it. But in the end, an attorney helped me sign
with a small publisher. The road to publication can be long. Yet the result
(and sometimes the process) makes it all worthwhile!
You can’t please everyone,
and yet when you write, you so desperately want to. (At least I do.) Just keep
writing what you love and know that your work isn’t defined by what any one
person thinks of it. If you write what you love, then you’ll have a great time
even if your work never comes close to hitting the New York Times bestseller’s list.
Thanks, everyone! I hope we see many of you in two weeks at Malice!
Tracy Weber
