Yeah, I used to enjoy Cussler’s books too. They certainly aren’t serious literature, but then they weren’t meant to be. They were written as entertainment, and they are indeed entertaining.
Funny thing about some of the “junk writers” though…when they get out of their pop genre into non-fiction some of them at least can actually write pretty well. Cussler’s book “The Sea Hunters” is partly non-fiction based on his own efforts to locate, document and salvage shipwreks. I wouldn’t call it great literature either, but it’s quite well-written, humorous and engaging. Louis L’amour, another great hack, did some damned fine writing in “Yondering”, a collection of short stories based on the author’s own experiences as an itinerant merchant seaman.
The thing that bothers me most about the OP is the statement: I’m thinking the easiest and cheapest way to do this is to write a book or screenplay about something that would bring home phat stax. I would be willing to write about whatever would make me the most money the quickest. I could do it a few hours a week…"
That’s extremely cynical. If a person doesn’t care about what they’re writing, doesn’t have at least a little bit of passion, it simply isn’t going to be any good.
I’m guessing the OP might be a joke, but the question is asked pretty often in some form.
Go into any major bookstore. Pick up a new book at random. Chances are, its author still has a day job, and isn’t making a full living from writing. I’m hoping to, but the odds are long.
I just read a hilarious book with a premise very similar to the OP’s:
A guy attempts to write a bestseller so he can go to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding as a famous novelist. He comes up with a set of rules by reading the NY Times bestsellers, many obviously modeled after real authors. Great book. The excerpts from the fictional bestsellers are the best part. His rules:
rule 1: abandon truth.
rule 2: write a popular book. do not waste energy making it a good book.
rule 3: include nothing from [one’s] own life.
rule 4: must include a murder.
rule 5: must include a club, secrets / mysterious missions, shy characters, characters whose lives are changed suddenly, surprising love affairs, women who’ve given up on love but turn out to be beautiful.
rule 6: evoke confusing sadness at the end.
rule 7: prose should be lyrical.
rule 8: novel must have scenes on highways, making driving seem poetic and magical.
rule 9: at dull points include descriptions of delicious meals.
rule 10: main character is miraculously liberated from a lousy job.
rule 11: include scenes in as many reader-filled towns as possible.
rule 12: give readers versions of themselves, infused with extra awesomeness.
rule 13: target key demographics.
rule 14: involve music.
rule 15: must have obscure, exotic locations.
rule 16: include plant names.
I’ve spent the last few years of my life grading writing tests and writing professionally. I have to laugh at the first statement. Most kids on the cusp of high school graduation have the tools to write a few vaguely legible paragraphs and maybe half a dozen semi-coherent sentences. They do not have the skills to be a professional writer. Part of the problem is that far too many people think they can write professionally. They can’t. Writing is damned hard work. Half of it is the ability not only to write but to rewrite. You really do need that built-in bullshit detector that Hemingway believes essential. Many people not only write poorly but have little idea what constitutes good writing.
As for the OP if you want to get rich, create an internet content farm, pay writers pennies on the dollar and offer an IPO a la Demand Media.
The laws of supply and demand dictate that it’s easier to get “a decent job” in a field where your particular skills are relatively rare. If, as you suggest, “just about everybody” had the basic tools to become a writer, that would make it harder to earn a living that way, not easier.
If you were hoping to puncture the pomposity of hobbyist writers who walk around all day with the back of their hand nailed to their forehead complaining about how sensitive they are, then I’m with you. If you’re saying that my 25 years of earning a full-time living from professional journalism hasn’t taught me a few skills the casual amateur may not yet have stumbled upon, then I think that’s just plain silly.
I wouldn’t try going the traditional route as a starting writer. It’s harder than ever to break into print publishing, and it’s a shrinking field.
I think there are new models that work, though. If I wanted to break into writing, I’d start with a blog. Write what you’re interested in, learn how to market it, and try to build an audience. If you can build a loyal audience, that’s worth gold. You can parlay that into writing for other sites on the internet, or you can self-publish an e-book novel or short stories and market them to your followers.
John Scalzi did this. His blog on science fiction became popular enough that he could release stories and be guaranteed a minimum audience. He parlayed that into clout with publishers and eventually became a best-selling author.
Amazon has a new self-publishing model for E-books. You can write your own book, market it yourself, publish it on Amazon, and keep a large chunk of the proceeds. If you’re really interested in writing, give that a shot. It’s free. If you have a blog with a good collection of readers, and you sell an e-book for $5, maybe you can make a couple of grand that way.
Another option is to go completely free and support yourself with ad revenue using google adwords and adSense. If your blog gets big enough, maybe you can attract advertising directly or through an agency. Review books of the type you’re interested in, and set up an Amazon partner account - if people from your blog follow your links to Amazon and buy the book you reviewed, you get a cut.
Anyway, explore those options if you’re really interested. If you start a blog and write regularly, and you can’t build an audience, then perhaps you don’t know how to market yourself - or you have nothing interesting to say to people. Either way, it would be better to find that out early than to spend years writing your novel only to find out that no one will buy it.
A friend of mine is a writer. And his editor says “please, no books about sulky teenage girls and their paranormal obsessive compulsive paramours.” Its a supply and demand thing, and right now, there are plenty of those books published for the size of the market.
You have to lead, not follow…or at least follow quickly.
My friend will has four or five books in print and is still supported by his wife. This year he’ll release another two books and will actually contribute something approaching a “real income” to the house.
Getting rich writing is a little like getting rich picking lottery numbers or playing poker. People do it. But most people don’t break even on their effort/money - and most of the rest don’t “get rich” - they just get lucky enough to earn a living.
I know a writer who specializes in stupid one-liners for anonymous message boards, and he still dresses like a slob. Could be one of those dress-down millionaires, but I doubt it.
Marketing does not equal sales. One of the members of the critique group I was in self-published a memoir about growing up in Rhode Island. (This was just before e-books.) He had excellent marketing skills, and in fact got on the radio in Rhode Island, and did many bookstore signings. He still didn’t make money on it because the book was not very good. Self publishing means you don’t have something very important for nearly all writers - a good editor.
Sure there are people who make it, but there are kids who get into the NBA also. Not the way to bet.
My wife makes a decent living writing (though not nearly as much as I make not writing) because she has both writing ability and a scientific background, the combination of which is rare.
She has three books out under her own name (from Scholastic) and one just turned in, and, unfortunately, it has not made her rich. She experimented in taking royalties on one instead of a one time lump sum - she got less.
She makes her money writing and editing on-line encyclopedia entries, which pay reasonably well once you are in.
Plus, consider this: there are dozens, if not hundreds of publishing houses out there. Many of the larger houses won’t accept anything but agented submissions. An agent often won’t take you unless you’re either published or they kind of know you, though you might get a break by attending a conference and talking directly with an editor/senior editor.
Barring that, most submissions go directly into the slush pile. The editor already has a publishing schedule put together already of vetted authors, and usually goes to the slush pile only if something falls through or he/she needs a filler or is specifically looking for a new voice. Do you have any idea how many submissions are in the slush pile and how long it takes to get through it to find a gem?
As someone who has been published by one of the larger publishing houses, I can tell you flat out that, no matter how good you think you are or even your publisher thinks you are, becoming a famous, millionaire author isn’t just as easy a stringing a few sentences together and sending it off. Writing the book is the first hurdle (definitely not a minor one); then you have to run the publishing gamut. And most of the bestselling authors never make the big bucks unless they option or license. It’s just the way it is.
My tongue was in my cheek, but the truth is that every day I find out about some huge deal for a new paranormal romance series and it now has its own section at Barnes & Noble. That doesn’t mean your friend should write it, or his editor wants to see it, but the trend is still trending.
Not true at all. Agents have to discover new talent, and that is their bread and butter. They might occasionally get a client from word of mouth or somebody who’s just fired his or her last agent, but most of their clients are unpublished (at least in the book world) and unknown, and they spend 80% of their time reading submissions.
The industry is tough but people make it out to be tougher than it is. It is tough to make a living, but it is not really super hard impossible to get a book published. I seriously think that “anybody can do it,” the way anybody can bowl above 200. Most people who can’t simply don’t realize how many 40 point games they have to bowl before they get there.
Yeah, but how many of these series are by new writers and how many of them are by established writers, possibly working under a pen name? And how much does the nth book in this trend bring in?
There is one more factor - there are a handful of best sellers, which can make you rich, a somewhat larger handful of books which more than make their advances, and lots which don’t. Getting a book published makes your book one of over 275,000 books published in 2009. Cite. Them are pretty slim odds.
Many are by new writers. And a few still make “holy cow” kind of money (like a 50-100K advance, still not enough to live on unless you have a partner who can pick up your insurance). I’d think it have played itself out by now, but the industry seems to be driven by new titles and new talent, bidding wars among publishers, readers getting their hands on early releases and blogging about them.
Paranormal romance is its own genre. You can’t think of it as being a subset of Twilight. Rather it’s equivalent to the entire genre of science fiction and fantasy with romance elements. It’s easily as varied as, say, the entire mystery genre. (I spotted a regency werewolf novel the other day.)
Romance is literally half of all mass market fiction sales. (So probably therefore a third of all fiction sales of any type.) Paranormal romance, though a small piece of that total, probably is larger in sales than the older f&sf genre was. And it’s the hottest and fastest growing segment of the hottest genre, i.e. romance as a whole. Of course you’re going to see many, many announcements about sales being made in paranormal over the next several years.
But the editor who doesn’t want silly teenagers is also correct. Paranormal romance is for adults, not the young adult market. There’s very little overlap between the two.
And while the OP was very silly, if you have to give advice to writers, telling them to write in the hottest and fasting growing field in all of writing is not bad advice.
To be sure, it’s as irresponsible to tell them to write paranormal romance without researching the field first (like joining the Romance Writers of America, as a start, and seeing all the piles of writing advice they have) as it would be to tell them to just write a book, period.
As career advice, however, it’s better than telling people to emulate John Scalzi. He followed Cory Doctorow. That’s make two people in the entire genre of f&sf to make a career off a blog. Better to buy lottery tickets. (Sorry, Sam Stone, but I’ve also seen others say this and it bugs me tremendously.)
Of course, any advice about writing needs to start: love it or buy lottery tickets.