THE CAREER NOVELIST
can also help them to formulate their career goals and decide upon
the various steps to take to reach those goals.
Here is a career-planning principle in which I firmly believe: if an
author has three manuscripts to sell, one is going to be a more log-
ical step toward that author's goal than the other two.
Where does your current manuscript fit into your career plan? Is
it a break-in novel? Is it the continuation of a series? Is it just for the
money? Is it a radical departure from your previous work? Does it
feel to you like a logical next step?
Some authors protest that it is pointless, even dangerous, to
plan a novel. Novels happen. Each one is a calling. Such writers
work organically, molding and shaping their stories as they go. For
them, a career plan may be impossible. Indeed, for them to attempt
any novel that does not flow unchecked from a wellspring deep
inside can be a waste of time, or worse.
If you are such an author, your best plan may be no plan at all. If
so, be patient with your agent. It can be tough to keep a career mov-
ing forward when every new novel is a surprise. Also recognize that
when new novels are departures, some readers will fall by the way-
side. While some readers love authors for their prose alone, most
love authors for their stories.
If you are a genre author, or a writer of commercial mainstream
novels, or simply an author who wants to write fiction full-time for
a living, then you will probably have an easier time choosing what
to write next and forming a career plan.
In doing so, I suggest not planning too far ahead. A couple of
novels down the road is far enough to look. As you mature and your
craft improves, you will find that your story interests will change,
too. A story that you burn to tell today may seem to you simple,
even sophomoric, in a few years.
Keep your readers in mind. What makes them unique? What
draws them to your fiction over hundreds of alternatives? Is your cur-
rent novel going to satisfy them? If you are stretching your talents
will they go along for the ride?
I am not suggesting that you should slavishly write the same
book over and over. That is grim servitude, and probably will not
please your readers for very long, either. I am suggesting, however,