I just found this place, and it looks wonderful! The way I figure it, I think I can be a best selling author. If Janet Evanovich, Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling can do it, so can I. I've noticed that you really don't have to write THAT well to be a best selling author. It seems, you just need to create characters people like. Am I wrong in thinking this?
Nope, some crappy authors can be verrry successful! Think of any bad book you read that's a best seller. Hoping you're better than that though welcome!
Hello Heather, Welcome to the Writing Forums. It's true that you need not be a stunningly powerful wordsmith to be a commercially successful author. Still, you do need some skill, plenty of luck, and a shipload of persistence. Becoming a writer and becoming a published author are not exactly the same thing. A passion for writing need not mean a burning urge to be published, or vice versa. I'd like to get published, but it has never been my driving motivation for writing. Posting your own work should not be among the very first things you do here. It is worth taking the time to see what other people have done to improve their writing, and see if some of it applies to your writing as well. That is part of why we require members to review other members' work before posting their own for review. On the other hand, there are no restrictions, other than content and copyright rules, on showcasing your work in your member blog. If you haven't explored the site yet, you should probably do so soon. Newcomers often gravitate to the Lounge, the Word Games, or the Review Room, but there is much more to be discovered if you poke in the corners. Remember to check out our FAQ as well, and be sure to read through the forum rules, too, to avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings. Respect for one another is our principal mandate. As for the Review Room, new joiners often wonder why we do things a bit differently on this site than on other writing sites. We emphasize reviewing as a critical writing skill. Training your eye by reviewing other people's work helps you improve your own writing even before you present it for others to see. Therefore, we ask members to review other people's writing before posting work of their own. The Review Room forums on this site, therefore, are true workshops, not just a bulletin board for displaying your work (and on that note, please only post each item for review in one Review Room forum). See this post, Why Write Reviews Before Posting My Work? for more information. And while you're looking around, don't forget to check out our Weekly Short Story Contest and Weekly Poetry Contest. They actually run more than one week apiece, but any member may enter, and all members are urged to vote for their favorites. Enjoy your stay here, and have fun!
Hi and welcome! If you were right, there would be a whole lot more successful authors. As it is, the majority don't even get published and for the tiny number that make it, most of those never hit the best seller list. To succeed, you need it all. Plus a bucket load of luck.
Or have lawyer friends that represent publishers, editors or agents. No really, I think I'm on to something here. Regardless, welcome to the forum Heather.
Janet Evanovich, as in the Sugar Plum series?? or am I wrong there.. Anyways, hey Heather...Welcome to WF-hope to see you around..
Hi, I wish you luck in your ambition! Writing's not easy though. I hope you are more dedicated than I am.
Hey, welcome fellow newbie! You're right about terrible authors doing best sellers, but the universe tends to balance itself, Stephenie Meyer won't be remembered for long hopefully. I would dispute the argument that J. K. Rowling is a bad author, I'm picking up a lot of thoughtful and provocative imagery that shows clear planning and hints at the darker tone of the later books in my re-reading of the Philosopher's Stone - and I've yet to finish the second chapter. Anyway, I'm getting caught up in a pet discussion point of mine - excuse my waffling! I certainly hope that you'll write better than the worst, in fact I hope you write the best. The better your writing is (if you manage to get published), the better our reading will be. Good luck with the writing, I hope to see your name in a Waterstones someday!
Thing about anthony horowitz. He's absolutly terrible but one of his books has been made into a (crappy) movie and every boy I know says he's their faviourite author. It angers me!!!!! Roar.
I liked the film, I think it's best to look at it as a spoof though. I hope they intended it to be so. Bill Nighy was certainly not being serious in the film. As for the books. Yeah. They tend to progress bizarrely. The even books are quite bad, and the odd ones are reasonable. I even quite liked Scorpia. I have read all bar his latest because the one before that was so dire that I just gave up. I guess the thing to do is understand that people get different things out of different books and there's no one single set of rules by which to judge a novel. Maybe then we'll end up with less stuffy critics who poo-poo something without even reading it, just because of a name or it's popular to dislike it.
