How do writers become famous? It's clear that talent is not enough. Cass R. Sunstein looks at the factors and trends that lead to literary recognition, from Oprah's Book Club to premature death. This extract from his book, "How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be," appears on LitHub.
#PennedPossibilities 322 — What piece of advice, as an author, did you once receive but hadn’t followed? Looking back on it now, you might wish that you had.
Advice: Don't only write novels. Write lots of shorter pieces.
When I started I saw that you could only make a living if you sold novels, so I wrote novels. That completely discounted the fabulous practice you get completing lots of smaller stories. Completing a novel takes lots of time and there's a mounting anxiety that in the end the plot will fail or no publisher will be interested. Yeah, true with short fiction, but the investment is far lower (or should be if you're doing it right). There used to be lots of magazines you could sell short fiction to... for pennies a word, but it was something, and it offered a chance to build a brand name and a following. Such notoriety could help you sell novels, too.
@DonDeBon Yep. Ray Bradbury. I think both him and Asimov told how they wrote a story DAILY for a few years (and submitting) before making that key first sale.
It was impossible to write 52 bad short stories in a row. One of them had to be good.
More than 200 authors, including Naomi Klein and Sally Rooney, have signed a letter calling for increased pressure on investment management firm Baillie Gifford – sponsors of the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction – to divest “from companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide”.
#psa Okay, learned a lesson today. I either missed this or the setting changed in an update. Both #OneDrive and #Dropbox have a setting for keeping all the files in the cloud rather than on your Mac, downloading them as you need them. This means that if you need them and the service is responding poorly, or you have no connectivity, you can't get to your files. If you use #scrivener, for example, which syncs through dropbox, this can cause sync errors between devices!
Both services appear to set all files online only. Both services have a way to change this to ensure all files are downloaded for offline use.
#Writers, #authors, as well as #artists, I strongly suggest you keep your files on disk as well as in the cloud. Change these settings now!
I would love to get your thoughts and feedback on my #BookCover from my latest book, The Challenges of Being Me. Do you like it? Does it capture your attention? Without knowing anything about the book, what genre would you say this cover best fits? #writingcommunity#bookstodon#authors@bookstodon
I always read books right from a lil kid. My Momma read to me and I carried on. I thank my mom for that. I learnt so much from reading and now I got the ambition to write a book of my own.
Shit this bitch taken so long I ain't gonna lie. But I nearly finished the first chapter 🤞🏾 #TimeTravelAuthors#authors
It’s time for the May #WordWeavers questions!
Written by @AlinaLeonova & I, you’ll find the questions pinned to our profiles. All writers are welcome to join in.
Participate with a WIP or an already published book.
As always, play the days you want, skip the others. Please use CW as necessary. Looking forward to seeing your answers, finding great books, & meeting new friends.
Here we go! #amwriting#writing#authors
"Managing Online Forums" is 16 years old today. I started writing it 5 years before that. At first, I didn't know I had a book. Pitching it myself, I signed with a small independent press, and then they dropped me. I got an agent (rest in peace, Neil), and literally every single publisher said no, except for 1. And even that one only came back after several months of having it in a file.
One thing I'd say is to be kind to those who came before you because writing a book is a very vulnerable process. With a nonfiction book, I always felt like it was akin to declaring, "Here's what I know. Judge me!" Because people will, and it will often be unkind. Even in 2024, with the ease of publishing (and easily updating) an eBook, publishing a book still gives me a sense of finality, which is scary.
"Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom — poets, visionaries — realists of a larger reality."