One Of The Best Things About Being A Published Novelist

March 5, 2010

A while back my friend Stephen Parrish asked me if I would take a look at the opening of his novel and see what I thought. I did. Overall it was good, but there were some things that I thought would make it better. Apparently Stephen agreed and he made the changes. Then he tried the manuscript at my former publisher and who'd have thunk it, but the novel got accepted for publication, Stephen's first, and I hope the first of many, many wildly successful novels.

This first novel, The Tavernier Stones, will be out in May 2010. Have you pre-ordered your copy yet?

Now, the title of this post is "One Of The Best Things About Being A Published Novelist." And I can honestly, honestly tell you, it's watching a friend get a little piece of their dreams come true. Even if I hadn't had a pinkie or toe in the waters to help, I would have been quite pleased for Stephen. Know why? It's not because I'm such a wonderful altruistic guy.

No, it's because I know how damned hard it is to get there. And Stephen's probably going to find out how damned hard it is to stay there, but like me and a lot of other writers, I suspect, as they say at NASA, "failure is not an option." Publishing doesn't need to be a zero-sum game. Someone else's success doesn't lead to my failure. In fact, as the expression goes, rising tides lift all boats. I WANT Stephen's book to become an astonishingly successful bestseller that outsells The Da Vinci Code, not just because I'm being generous (I'd like a piece of that success myself), but because I want the publishing industry to be enormously successful and healthy. That's good for me and all writers.

We're writers, so we write, come obstacles and failures and disappointments.

So, for all you readers, here's my wish: May it happen to you, too.