The career novelist

Introduction

That is not to say all novels are original, or even good, but nov-
elists are unique in their opportunity to speak with a single voice.
Dance, opera, and theatre have dwindled somewhat under the
twentieth-century onslaught of movies and television, but the
novel, centuries old, is as vital, alive, and important as ever.
1 strongly feel that novels are essential to the health of our cul-
ture. Book publishing today may, at times, seem designed to make
a successful career as a novelist almost impossible. But that
appearance is deceptive. There are ways through the thicket of num-
bers, and there are solutions to every problem that the industry has
devised. Some may pine for the halcyon days of publishing long
ago, but not me. I know that it is just as possible to make a living
writing novels now as it ever was. You just have to know the ropes.
Solutions, strategies, knowledge, practical plans, damage con-
trol, managing success ... in short, the path of the career novelist.
That is what this book is all about.

xvii