31 Years & 19 Best Sellers: Some of What I've Learned

By Michael Palmer

BE FEARLESS

Before I get started, let me explain the way I write when I am communicating with friends...

It’s like this—thoughts with no particular syntax or attention to punctuation...lots of ellipses...One of the reasons for doing this is that I can only type with 2 fingers...think of it—19 books with all the rewrites…20 if you count the one that has never been published in English (6 foreign translations, though) and all of it done with these two fingers...my first 2 books were done on a manual Olivetti, the third on an electric smith corona, and the next two on a Kay-Pro, the 30 pound “portable” 9” green screen so-called writer’s computer…After that it’s been Mac all the way…I go for easy… 

No wonder I needed to have a carpal tunnel release 2 years ago…great operation, by the way, for anyone who needs it…write me for the name of my doc at MGH… 

There is more than laziness to my blogging this way…this is how I write when I’m figuring things out or am trying to break my way out of creator’s block…writing is easy—making up what to write, not so easy…so I call it creator’s block, and writing like this is the way I handle it. 

So, here are some rambling thoughts for you as they pop into my head—thoughts accumulated over 34 years (I first tried my hand at this in November, 1978 and sold my first book as an 80-page outline in 1980 for what was at the time, the largest advance ever paid to a fiction writer who had never published a book -- $250,000… amazing) …for some of my writing story, check out the bio on www.michaelpalmerbooks.com) … 

My two guiding principles in this business are never to forget that (1) THIS IS HARD and (2) BE FEARLESS… 

It is so hard that I can never believe how many authors actually finish books—good or stinky, published or not…I don’t think I ever would have tried if I didn’t have a nice fall-back job behind me—namely: physician…talk about a safety net…my two biggest assets are my always wild imagination, and my discipline…

Wanna know if you have the discipline it takes to write a novel?—take organic chemistry…as for the second guiding principal, that’s what it’s all about—you (me) must get rid of the fear of sounding stupid and also of being rejected…write first, worry later…

And be careful about reading your stuff over when you are tired…not much of anything reads un-stupid when you’re exhausted…of course, we’re all always exhausted, so the state is relative…any questions, read your stuff out loud (I do that all the time, and when I’ve finished a book, I actually pay my son Daniel (a terrific writer, now finishing his 4th thriller, and doing well with STOLEN, his third) to read it out loud with me… 

I write almost every chance I get…usually I write six days a week with a goal of like three to five pages a day…

HOWEVER, perhaps the third guiding principle is never to be too hard on myself…if I do two hours and only one page and can’t do any more for whatever reason, then I walk away…

But remember what I wrote about discipline…discipline is doing it when you don’t want to…you must know yourself to know when it’s time to stop…I used to be driven to do another hour in organic by seeing other pre-meds sitting there in the library with their noses in that humongous to me…I just now put on some music for a while…anything to make it easier…I love the 150 or so tunes on my iTunes and know them so well, they are like white noise most of the time…at the moment it’s Richard Cory by S&G…what a great song…

Brings up my 4th guiding principle…never if you can help it, I mean NEVER go around comparing your insides (or writing) to other people’s outsides…it takes practice and reminders, but it will make a hell of a difference in your writing and your life…need reinforcement about this, get Richard Cory from the sounds of silence album and put it on your iTunes…

Everyone wants to be an overnight wonder in this business…I never even thought about that and damn if I didn’t luck out with The Sisterhood…but life and the book business was different then…it was more personal and less crowded, it moved slower and there were amazingly talented and imaginative people in the publishing world whose job it was to make me a success…there are still such people, but the industry can’t pay enough to keep them…

Now I watch what son Daniel is going through and I ache for him…he’s good—really good, actually…but there are just so many people writing, and so many publishers throwing books up against the wall searching for the next girl with the dragon tattoo, and then deserting the author when the book doesn’t immediately make it…computer-generated sales figures are the enemy in that regard…

There are e-books flooding the market, and amazon, and nook, and blogs and conferences and speaking opportunities from organizations looking for “free” entertainment and program fillers…you can’t imagine how many ARCs I get every month searching for blurbs…believe it or not, Daniel’s older brother Matthew just got a great 6-figure, 2-book deal from Putnam…he’s got a great “fall-back” job as I did…so I don’t ache for what he’s in for as much as I do for the full-time writers who have no other source of income… 

That brings me to the last thought I want to blog about here…publicity and marketing…new writers often ask me: okay, my book is coming out next march, now what can I do to get people to read it?? …they never like my answer, which is that the most effective thing they can do is to write another book…

It wasn’t like that in the old days…I was on good morning America and today and Larry King (several times) and many other shows…I had reviews in tons of newspapers (some of those papers still exist and some of those actually still review books—but a continuously shrinking number) …I did dozens and dozens of my favorite media—talk radio, and dozens of shows like good morning Cleveland and good morning Pittsburgh, many of which if not most have gone the way of the dodo bird…

So what’s left? …here’s sort of an amalgam of what I’ve learned from my experience and Daniel’s and others and what I will be passing on to Matthew (who is too busy working for the state department to go out and hock his book anyway) …

First of all, get a web site and keep it up…get lots of business cards made that are eye-catching and list your site (www.VISTAprint.com)…..give one to whoever will take it…make it informative and imaginative…people love the writers’ tips on my web site, even though I don’t have time to update them…TV and radio appearances probably help…TV lots…newspaper ads—who knows? …no one really seems to know about ads, even big ones like the full pagers I have had in the NY Times…

Social media may actually help, but only if you really work at it…contests, frequent postings, Facebook ads to increase numbers on your “fan page” …what about hiring a pro?? I REALLY DON’T KNOW…

I would go social media pro rather than media unless you have a real hook that would appeal to TV or Glenn Beck or someone…Daniel does social media himself, but he spends time on it, and of course when you’re doing anything that isn’t writing, you’re not writing…make that guiding principal #6 or whatever number I’m on… 

Speaking of which, even though this is fun and relaxing and easy for me, as well as being gratifying because I love to help new writers, while I’m doing it, I’m not working on my new book, RESISTANT … so… 

POLITICAL SUICIDE:

Dr. Lou Welcome, from Palmer's bestselling Oath of Office, is back. A desperate phone call embroils Lou in scandal and murder involving Dr. Gary McHugh, known around the Capital as the “society doc.” Lou has been supervising McHugh, formerly a black-out drinker, through his work with the Physician Wellness Office.  McHugh has been very cavalier about his recovery, barely attending AA and refusing a sponsor. But Lou sees progress, and the two men are becoming friends. Now, McHugh has been found unconscious in his wrecked car after visiting a patient of his, the powerful Congressman Elias Colston, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Soon after McHugh awakens in the hospital ER, Colston's wife returns home to find her husband shot dead in their garage. She then admits to the police that she had just broken off a long-standing affair with McHugh. Something about McHugh's story has Lou believing he is telling the truth, that the Congressman was dead when he arrived and before he blacked out. Lou agrees to look into matters, but when he encounters motive, method and opportunity he is hard pressed to believe in his friend—that is until a deadly high-level conspiracy begins to unravel, and Lou acquires information that makes him the next target.

BIO:  Michael Palmer is the author of seventeen novels of medical suspense, all international bestsellers, and an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society Physical Health Services, devoted to helping physicians sidelined by mental illness, physical illness, behavioral issues, and chemical dependency. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages. He lives in eastern Massachusetts. Visit him at www.michaelpalmerbooks.com.

The Published Author Transformation

By Rupali Rotti

Writing, and getting your work published, is an experience where a writer goes through metamorphosis. There are many things he/she learns during this whole process. Following are the things that I learned:

[1] A good logic and 360 degree thought process can help you form a general plot or a story, but you still need to research, be you a fiction writer or otherwise.

[2] Write attacks usually happen when you’ve just hit the bed at night, or early morning before you even brush your teeth!

[3] You burn a lot of calories thinking your way to glory. Yippee!! But after you are done, you are famished!

[4] When you are done writing your book, you feel very happy and satisfied. But if you don’t belong to the writing world, you will learn that this is only the “Initial Draft”! The actual hard work starts after this.

[5] Being new to the writing/publishing world, you wouldn’t understand the importance of ‘editing’ unless you get an editor to work with you – preferably a paid one. A good editor creates magic like you’ve never seen before, because he/she has created that magic for your baby – your pet project.

[6] Many of your friends or family may offer to help you with editing, even without any experience as an editor. Hence, they may or may not be good at the job.

 [7] I personally had never looked at the names of the editors of any movies/TV shows I had watched, or any books I had read. But now, I know that an editor can make or break your work. I learned this after having a good editor work on my book, and then a bad one. Surprisingly, the one who appreciated my work turned out to be the bad one. The editor who tore my work apart with many corrections and feedbacks turned out to be the good one.

 [8] I have learned that editing contains the following things: (i) Spelling and grammar corrections (ii) Thought flow checking (iii) Logical paragraph making (iv) Plot review (v) Character strength formation/checking (vi) Dialogue strength checking, and a few other things, which I’m still learning.

[9] All people in this industry are very polite (unlike the job world where you are never good enough, or the business world, which is a dog-eat-dog world).

[10] There are various ways of getting your book published: (i) Self-publishing a paperback (ii) Self-publishing an ebook (iii) Publishing through a Vanity Publisher (iv) You’ll be lucky if your work gets selected by a Commercial/Trade Publisher. Check this link out. 

[11] Once your book is selected for publishing, it is never a good idea to tell your friends and family that you are going to be a published author soon. Tell them only when the printing is done and over with. This is because the total time from your book getting selected for publishing to the book coming on bookstands is a very long period. You may lose most of your customers during this waiting period.

[12] When you are finally a published author, good wishes and congratulations are showered on you by your near and dear ones. But there is an equal risk of ALL of them asking for a complimentary copy to read, or to stock.

[13] It is a good idea to have your autograph different than your signature in the banks. :-p

[14] You get addicted to ‘checking stats’ on each and every site. However, avoiding this addiction and concentrating on your next project helps better.

[15] You feel like packing a bunch of your books in your back-pack and pitching it to every person you meet, so you could sell more copies. And, you feel like making this trip every day! ;-)

[16] Just like there’s a beta-testing for all software before launch, you can have beta-readers for your work before sending it to publication. But be wary, because once in a while, a crackpot beta reader may steal your work! Don’t worry there are ways to safeguard your work as well. One of them is to seek online copyrights, and another way is to have multiple beta-readers working on the same piece of work, so you have a lot of ‘witnesses’ to prove it was ‘your’ work. But most of the beta-readers are very helpful and knowledgeable. You could find beta-readers on www.goodreads.com or www.fictionpress.com. 

[17] It always helps to connect to other authors and share tips/tricks/experiences. Check out: www.writersdigest.com 

[18] Nobody is interested in getting spammed by your messages to buy your book. This means that direct promotion never works. You have to think of other ways to present your book to the reading mass.

[19] Marketing is better left to the pros. But if you can’t afford spending on professional marketing efforts, then refer to point 16 above. Check this link out. 

[20] Maintaining a blog and creating a Facebook page are easy ways to gain followers. Check out my blog and Facebook page that I have created. For ‘your’ Facebook page, take marketing advice here. 

[21] Even if you feel like getting into marketing/publicity of your book, don’t let it affect your writing, because that’s your main product. Keep on learning, and keep on improving your craft of writing.

[22] And finally, what my characters, the NAYAK BROTHERS, learn the hard way, and an advice that applies to all of us: “It is easier to break your will when you don’t have a purpose to go on.” Also don’t forget that “a kick in the a** is also a step forward.

About Rupali Rotti:

After working in the corporate world and running business, Rupali finally ventured into writing. Her first book, "The Valentine's Day Clue", has just been published under the series title: "Nayak Brothers". This is a detective adventure series that revolves around two aspiring detectives living out of Pune, India. Like any other teenager, they have dreamy eyes, fire in their bellies, friends they care about, and an urge to make a difference. And yet, they struggle with their daily routine, studies (!), self-doubt, coming-into-age woes, and inexperience. But along the way, a mystery and an adventure of a lifetime is in the offing...

Visit Rupali at her website or on Facebook.