Great Writers

Sylvia Beach Hotel

After a three year adventure in an MFA program, I finally finished and graduated with a degree that says I'm qualified to write.  Probably, more accurately, qualified to teach.  I think the majority of MFA graduates end up teaching or maybe working at a publishing house in all sorts of positions, I don't know.  I'm not sure how many actually go to write.

I'm sitting now, at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Oregon.  I came here 23 years ago with my then boyfriend who proposed to me in the library of this "writers" bed and breakfast.  Each room is themed - the Hemingway room, the Agatha Christie, the Amy Tan, and so on.  I was so enchanted with the hotel back then - I wasn't yet a published author, I was barely a writer.  Now, here I am again, with my husband (yes, the guy that proposed to me in the library) celebrating our 22nd anniversary and my MFA, and I'm wondering what does it take to be a great writer.

It doesn't take an MFA - though it gives writers opportunities to experiment and learn what to do and not do.  It doesn't take vacations to writer's hotels, though it's definitely inspiring and relaxing and provides lots of time to think.  I sometimes wonder if being dead is the magic that transform an okay writer to a great writer.  Or just stupid luck.  Really, I don't know.

The university world doesn't believe any commercial writer is great or even good.  All the authors on the best seller lists are lousy and their millions of readers are a bunch of people with poor taste according to them.  And all those lovers of commercial fiction and their editors and publishing houses don't seem to think much of the great literary writers coming from the university MFA programs, because those books are rarely published and when they are, they barely sell.

Hemingway Room

So, after all this time, I really don't know much, I guess or I've realized that greatness is really someone's opinion.  I think I'm less concerned with being a great writer and more interested in simply telling stories that matter to me.  That's what I've been doing and probably what I'll continue to do.  Maybe my greatest novel will begin tonight on this rainy evening on the Oregon coast as I sit surrounded by Hemingway's books.

Writing a Best Selling Novel

Have you ever wondered what makes a best selling novel? It's usually preceeded with New York Times, or Los Angeles Times, or USA Today Best Selling book/author. That's because along with Publisher's Weekly, Book Sense, and to some degree Amazon.com they are the ones compiling the list of books that "make it" to the best seller lists.





Most people assume that best selling books are actually best selling books, meaning that book stores have sold more copies of this book than any other or that they passed a magical number that puts them into a best selling category. To a certain extent that's true. But it's actually more complicated than that.





According to John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, the New York Times sends a list of book titles to select bookseller around the country and asks them to state how many copies of those books were sold for the week. The pre-selected list is determined by the books publishers are supporting with heavy publicity and heavy print runs; or by something like celebrity status or sales history of the author which the NYT knows will draw customers to purchase that book.





The other lists work pretty much the same way.





This means that an author's book that might have sold more than one of those on the list for a certain week might not be counted in the bookstores being polled. If the book is sold through independent bookstores, it would not be counted for NYT and company. If the book sold at Walmart or Costco (though if it's at Costco, it's probably already a bestseller) it would not be counted.





The actual number of books that have to be sold differs per book, so not every book that passes a certain number becomes a best seller. One book might have to sell 15,000 books in a week to be considered a #1 best seller, another might only have to sell 5000, depending on the category it's listed under and what other books are competing for the spot that same week.





Of course, I like to think that great writing also plays a role. At least in fiction. Awesome, unforgetable characters, great plots, entertaining for the genre - so exciting for an adventure book, emotionally rich for women's fiction, and so on.





So, does my fall release of SAY YOU'LL BE MINE have a chance of hitting NYT bestseller status? Knowing what I do about how books get there, I'd have to say I don't have a chance in hell. My print run itself would probably take me out of the running. Still, it's my top goal for the year. Not because I'm stupid or naive, but because I'll have a book out this year and why not shoot for the top. I will not be disappointed if I only sell out my print run : )