How Not to Write a Novel: Confessions of a Midlist Author [Paperback]

This is a useful, and refreshingly honest, book on the subject: 'Why you shouldn't try to write a novel.'

The author of this book gave up a remunerative teaching career, thinking he could become a successful writer instead, and fell into a lot of pitfalls thereafter that he didn't anticipate beforehand. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, he takes the trouble to give the wisdom of his experience about the dismal life of an aspiring writer to those who are foolish and naive enough to be thinking about embarking on writing a novel for a living, to save them misunderstanding the process or the probable outcome. The author has had five novels published in the last decade, but he hasn't made it into the 'big-time', and those five books have netted him very little money indeed (somewhere around £15,000-UK in total, over an entire decade of writing - with the opportunity to earn his living on something far more remunerative having been foregone).

The author explains, in particular, why writing a novel is probably going to turn out to be a waste of effort for most people if they want to see themselves in print, successful and rich: (a) The supply of books by would-be authors massively exceeds demand: therefore publishers can pick and choose, without responsibility, between manuscripts submitted by huge numbers of budding writers; (b) Even if you write a book, you will find it very difficult to get it published - at least, unless you are already a well-known name in some other field that the public have already heard of, so as to make your book marketable, or your parents happen to be in the publishing business already; (c) Even if you get it published, your novel won't sell in any great quantity unless you were already a household name known to Joe Public, and will quickly disappear from your local bookshop, so you will make so little money out of it (a few hundred pounds per book, maybe, even if you are lucky) that you will have wasted your time putting the book together in the first place.

This is a very useful book for anyone thinking of embarking on a writing career as a would-be novelist for money or fame. The advice of the author, stressed at the end of every chapter, is a clear: Write for fun by all means, if you wish, but don't waste your time and energy on trying to write a novel if your motives are money, success or fame, because you probably won't get published; it almost certainly won't pay you to do so; and you will find the whole process hopelessly frustrating. Learn the xylophone instead.

This book won't stop people trying to succeed as writers, but at least those who read it will be made more street-wise early on, and know what the obstacles and the low probability of success are.

However he does provide Tips and Summaries at the end of each chapter which are insightful.

This book should be read by all aspiring to be published; it's the reality of the book business (and make no mistake, it is a business above all else).

Mr. Armstrong takes the rose colored glasses off your eyes to let you know that even the JK Rowlings and Stephen Kings were sent hundreds of rejection letters and you will too! Getting published appears more to be about luck than the quality of your writing, and that's only for the really good writers (God help us midlisters).

Read it for 2 reasons: 1) After reading this and getting passed the depression, the newly acquired knowledge of the need for a 2nd job, you'll still write your novel anyway! 2) Now you know...