In 1982, I was an 18 year old kid who wrote a letter to one of my favorite authors, Piers Anthony, informing him that I too wanted to become an author and asking him some questions about the business.  He was kind enough to respond with a letter giving me advice and I have kept that letter for almost 30 years now. (I have attached a copy of it here.)  One thing I find interesting is that in some respects, the publishing industry seems to be in a similar state today as it was back in 1982.

While it took almost thirty years, I recently had the pleasure of emailing Piers to thank him for his entertaining and inspiring novels, the advice he gave me in his letter, and to ask for his address so that I could send him a copy of my debut novel Shadow Dragon.

Piers Anthony Jacob

Dear Lance,

                I’m glad you like my books; there will be more appearing soon, Night Mare, the 6th Xanth novel. But you pose a difficult question for me. I was 19 when I started writing–and 28 when I made my first sale; that gives you a notion how difficult it can be to succeed. On the way there I got a college degree in writing.

                Today things may be worse than they were when I was breaking in. The nation is in a recession, and publishers are suffering, and many are closing down or selling out to other publishers. They want materials by proven sellers, and are avoiding beginners no matter how good they are. That means that if you wrote a fantasy novel exactly as good as one of mine, I could sell mine because I am known, and you are not known. So the odds are against you at the start. However, one publisher does consider materials by newcomers, and publishes some of it. This is DEL REY, who publishes all my fantasy. They would look at your novel if you sent it, but would not buy it unless they thought it was good enough–and very few novels are.

                But a handwritten novel—that’s another problem. I don’t like to have to say this, but it is true: you need to submit a typed novel (double-spaced lines, one side of the page, wide margins, and your name on every page) if you want any hope of having it even read. Publishers just won’t bother with handwritten manuscripts. I faced the same problem when I was in college; I solved it by learning to type two-finger on a typewriter my mother loaned me, keeping a personal diary. At first it took me half an hour to type a paragraph, but gradually, painlessly, I speeded up, until I was doing about 20 words a minute, after a semester or so. Don’t let them tell you have to learn touch-typing; two finger will do it. I typed two-finger for 20 years, and did my first 22 novels that way, before switching to touch on a whole new keyboard arrangement. And you know something else? That college diary turned out to be worth more than some of my novels, when I donated it to the Syracuse University Library Archives and had it appraised for tax purposes. About $5,000, as I remember. Because it shows the development of an (eventually) successful writer, you see. College is a good time to keep a personal, private record, because your life is expanding enormously then. You don’t have to call it a diary; I didn’t because it sounded like diarrhea. I called it my Log, as in a ship’s log. I didn’t do it to learn typing; I had kept it in pencil before. But it did teach me typing as an incidental benefit. If you like to write, you surely like to record your impressions of people and things and life, your hopes and fears and angers and loves. My Log ended when I got married; I had too much else to occupy me, then. So I recommend this to you, strange as it may seem, because it worked for me: get a cheap manual typewriter (I still use a manual one; it doesn’t quit when the power fails, and never breaks down) and type letter or private thoughts two-fingers; do this during the college year, and then by summer you will be fast and accurate enough to type your fantasy novel for submission to a publisher. But remember what I said about the odds being against you; be braced for disappointment. I never did sell my first novel, though now I have sold 40 novels. Best luck to you; you’ll need it.