Best novel & publishers Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer.”

Thinking Giving Firsts Book Enough Dream Half Novel Five Giving Up Six Dozen Publishers Turned Down

Author:Ian Rankin

“I began writing 'Matterhorn' in 1975 and for more than 30 years I kept working on my novel in my spare time, unable to get an agent or publisher to even read the manuscript.”

Writing Years Novel Agents Spares Publishers Manuscripts Spare Time Matterhorn

Author:Karl Marlantes

“In the usual way I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of "normal" work. In my twenties some of my work for children was published by Macmillan. However, I was twenty-seven before my adult novel, The Birthgrave, was taken by DAW Books in the USA. This enabled me finally to stop doing stupid and soul-killing jobs, and start working day and night as a professional writer. It felt like a rescue from damnation, and still does.”

“I work continuously within the shadow of failure. For every novel that makes it to my publisher's desk, there are at least five or six that died on the way. And even with the ones I do finish, I think of all the ways they might have been better.”

Thinking Way Has Beens Might Novel Five Six Shadow Died Desks Publishers Might Have Been

Author:Gail Godwin

“I've published several virtually invisible novels and several dozen even more invisible short stories over the years, all of which give me joy - unlike the cumulative experience of seeking publishers for them!”

Giving Years Stories Joy Novel Give Me Seeking Invisible Short Story Dozen Publishers Cumulative

Author:Scott Bradfield

“I like the idea of standalone novels. I always found with series of books, it's something that publishers love obviously because they can make a lot of money and they build an audience from book to book, but I don't like that as a writer. I prefer the idea of just telling a story, completing it within your book, and moving on and not forcing a child to read eight of them.”

Children Book Ideas Stories Moving Found Novel Audience Series Eight Lots Of Money Publishers Completing

Author:John Boyne

“Publishers love to compartmentalize, and Second Chance was not an easy novel to define.”

Easy Chance Novel Publishers Second Chance

Author:Chet Williamson

“Some time ago a publisher told me that there are four kinds of books that seldom, if ever, lose money in the United States--first,murder stories; secondly, novels in which the heroine is forcibly overcome by the hero; thirdly, volumes on spiritualism, occultism and other such claptrap, and fourthly, books on Lincoln.”

Ifs Firsts Kind Book States Stories Loses United United States Novel Four Hero Overcoming Murder Volume Publishers Heroines Spiritualism

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“When I receive a new novel from a hopeful publisher - "hoping that I like the book as much as he does" - I check first of all how much dialog there is, and if it looks too abundant or too sustained, I shut the book with a bang.”

Ifs Firsts Looks Doe Book Novel Checks Hopeful Publishers Bangs

Book:Strong opinions

Source: Strong opinions

“I had an idea for a medical conspiracy thriller. Since it was non-horror, I didn't want the publishers and editors bringing a lot of baggage - my history as a genre writer in the SF and horror fields, for instance - to the novel when they read it. I wanted them to consider the book solely on its own merits. So I called myself Colin Andrews. I was tired of seeing my books at floor level. Not that Herman Wouk and Phyllis Whitney and William Wharton are bad company, but I wanted to be up at eye level for a change, where people with bad backs could get a chance to see my books.”

People Want Book Ideas Eye Wanted Chance Levels Company Novel Seeing Fields Horror Tired Medical Instance Genre Merit Editors Conspiracy Publishers Thrillers Baggage Andrew Whitney Bad Company

Author:F. Paul Wilson

“Madly, futilely, I wrote novel after novel, eight in all, that failed to find a publisher. I persisted because for me the novel was the supreme literary form: not just one among many, not a relic of the past, but the way we communicate to one another the subtlest truths about this business of living.”

Way Past Form Novel Communicate Eight Supreme Just One Publishers Relics

Author:William Nicholson

“Novels are completed when they are finished, but the memoir changes its own conclusion by virtue of being written... I was not at all the same person, when I handed the manuscript to the publisher, as I had been when I began. A memoir may always be retrospective, but the past is not where its action takes place.”

May Persons Action Past Novel Virtue Written Finished Memoir Conclusion Publishers Manuscripts Retrospective

Author:Nuala O'Faolain

“I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable.”

Stills Stories Courses Novel Produce Short Story Publishers

Author:Charles Baxter

“All my writing-life people kept telling me that I should stop writing short stories and start writing novels: my agent, my Israeli publisher, my foreign ones, my bank manager - they all felt and keep feeling that I'm doing something wrong here.”

People Should Writing Stories Feelings Felt Novel Agents Managers Short Story Publishers Writing Life Israeli Writing Short Writing Short Stories

Author:Etgar Keret

“I think the path to becoming a writer has become more through the novel. It's easier to get a novel published than a book of stories, obviously, especially through big publishers.”

Thinking Book Stories Bigs Novel Path Becoming Easier Publishers

Author:Jess Walter

“When a colleague of mine had a notable New York Times book, I said, turn one of the chapters in the collection into a pitch for a novel and sell it to your publisher.”

Said Book Turns Novel New York Mines Sells Collections Chapters Colleagues Publishers Notable New York Times

Author:Julianna Baggott

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