Robert
asked
Michael L.F. Slavin:
I'd guess you are also a John Grisham fan. I'm a personal journal keeper of fifty plus years, retired English teacher, and general lit. junkie. I am working my way around to launching myself into my first novel, and I wanted to wish you every success with yours. I am bookmarking your website and following you on Goodreads. Can you describe what pushed you into actually launching your initial literary effort? Bob
Michael L.F. Slavin
Bob,
Thanks for the interest and I too wish you great success.
I always wanted to write a book. I wrote One Million in the Bank: How To Make $1,000,000 With Your Own Business, Even If You Have No Money or Experience. to try and help people. Many years ago I went form bankrupt to millionaire in 3 years. I know how to do it. It took me a couple of years, I did a lot of interviews and research. It has also won 7 awards. But I wrote it while I still owned my business, not expecting to make any more really.
Then as my wife's Parkinson's got worse, I sold my company two years ago to care for her. Her care takes a lot of time and I found my self sitting on the couch quite a bit watching TV with her. I deiced that maybe I could write a fiction book. I had 15,000 words of one of the novels I had started over the years, but never finished. I planned to write a crime/thriller, I looked on the internet, I saw it needed to be about 85,000 words. I needed 70,000 more words for a first draft. It was the last few days of May 2017, I wanted to be done with a first draft by July 1st. I needed about 1,200 words a day. I tracked it daily, I got behind by 4,000 words once, but caught up and got done on time. I was very proud. I liked it, Kill Crime. It was a good story, lots of action with some plot twists and a good ending.
Then I got an Evaluation of the manuscript. They were very complimentary, but they suggested I cut the first 6 chapters and dive into action, plus some other smaller suggestions. It has been about a year.
The book had a number of beta readers. If they are free they are almost worthless. Paid beta readers on Fiverr worked out well, from $10 to $30 I got some great feedback. But the best feedback and where I learned the most were the line edits. Four line edits and a lot of work to tighten the story up, I felt it was ready and went looking for an agent.
Then based on the feedback of two agents, I added a couple of chapters. It is getting a line edit now. In a few days, another proof and I'll go back to looking for an agent.
My advice is don't worry a lot about each page or even if your story makes sense. Think word count, write a first draft, no matter how bad you think it is. Now you have something to edit.
Not sure I answered your question.
Have a great day and again-good luck,
Mike
Thanks for the interest and I too wish you great success.
I always wanted to write a book. I wrote One Million in the Bank: How To Make $1,000,000 With Your Own Business, Even If You Have No Money or Experience. to try and help people. Many years ago I went form bankrupt to millionaire in 3 years. I know how to do it. It took me a couple of years, I did a lot of interviews and research. It has also won 7 awards. But I wrote it while I still owned my business, not expecting to make any more really.
Then as my wife's Parkinson's got worse, I sold my company two years ago to care for her. Her care takes a lot of time and I found my self sitting on the couch quite a bit watching TV with her. I deiced that maybe I could write a fiction book. I had 15,000 words of one of the novels I had started over the years, but never finished. I planned to write a crime/thriller, I looked on the internet, I saw it needed to be about 85,000 words. I needed 70,000 more words for a first draft. It was the last few days of May 2017, I wanted to be done with a first draft by July 1st. I needed about 1,200 words a day. I tracked it daily, I got behind by 4,000 words once, but caught up and got done on time. I was very proud. I liked it, Kill Crime. It was a good story, lots of action with some plot twists and a good ending.
Then I got an Evaluation of the manuscript. They were very complimentary, but they suggested I cut the first 6 chapters and dive into action, plus some other smaller suggestions. It has been about a year.
The book had a number of beta readers. If they are free they are almost worthless. Paid beta readers on Fiverr worked out well, from $10 to $30 I got some great feedback. But the best feedback and where I learned the most were the line edits. Four line edits and a lot of work to tighten the story up, I felt it was ready and went looking for an agent.
Then based on the feedback of two agents, I added a couple of chapters. It is getting a line edit now. In a few days, another proof and I'll go back to looking for an agent.
My advice is don't worry a lot about each page or even if your story makes sense. Think word count, write a first draft, no matter how bad you think it is. Now you have something to edit.
Not sure I answered your question.
Have a great day and again-good luck,
Mike
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