Writing what you Love: Author Interview with Sylvia Bambola

My interview today is with Sylvia Bambola, who is an award winning author of eight novels. Her novel, Rebekah’s Treasure, won the 2014 Readers Favorite Bronze Award for Christian Historical Fiction and the 2015 Book of the Year Award, Christian Small Press Association, for Historical Fiction. The Salt Covenants was the 2015 Readers Favorite Bronze Award winner for Christian Historical Fiction.

What drew you to the idea of writing your first mystery/suspense novel?

I like suspense. That’s why I gravitate to it and have employed suspense to some extent in all my novels. My personal belief is that all books should contain at least some suspense elements. In a romance novel it is: Will the boy get girl? In contemporary novels: Does the leading character grow and develop as a person? Overcome the obstacles? In a mystery: Do the police solve the case? In a true suspense novel: Does the good guy win? Suspense is a crucial element in good story telling.

How long did it take for you to write the first book? Was it harder or easier to write your second book?
It took years to write my first novel. I’d change it, tweak it, add characters, subtract them. What I didn’t understand was all the while I was learning my craft. Each rewrite taught me something new. I can’t overemphasize this for any new writer: Don’t rush your first novel. Use it to learn and grow as a writer. Many writers never sell their first book because their training is more like “homework.” If a writer takes his/her time with their first novel, then the second, third, forth, etc. will come much faster and be far more likely to find a publisher.

Are you active in any writing critique groups?
No. And even when I was first started I wasn’t involved with one because there just weren’t any around. But I would strongly advise getting connected. It makes the process so much easier. And that means not only joining a critique group, but also going to writer’s conferences. That’s where you’ll learn from pros, meet other writers as well as agents and editors. I would not skip this step.

What type of research do you do for your books? Tell me about the process.

Research is critical for any good novel. It creates verisimilitude, makes your story believable and gives you, the writer, credibility. My historical novels required much more research that my contemporaries, but all were well researched before taking pen to paper or rather applying fingers to keyboard. I used the same process for all my books. First, I asked myself a series of “what if" questions. That gave me the general idea of what I would need to research. Then I purchased all the necessary reference books.

When researching I like to do it with actual books that I can underline and notate. After reading all my reference books, I then go through them one by one making notes on 3 x 5 index cards. When researching for The Salt Covenants, which takes place in 1492 Spain, some of the card headers were “food” (what did people eat and cook during that period) “clothes, government, music, manners, morals,” etc. Because The Salt Covenants involved the Spanish Inquisition, as well as a voyage with Christopher Columbus, I had to research these things as well. After doing all that, then and only then will I begin writing because now I know exactly where my characters can go, what they can do, how they can behave, in order to create a realistic story.

Did you go through the normal process of pitching your book to agents and traditional publishers?
When my second novel, Refiner’s Fire, became a Christy Finalist an agent actually contacted me and asked if I wanted representation. You can guess my answer. She was able to place two of my subsequent novels before she left the agency to work for a publishing house. By then I had four traditionally published novels under my belt and it was easier to get noticed by another agent, which I happily was. 

Before Refiner’s Fire was published by Multnomah (now under the Random House umbrella), I self-published another book knowing how difficult it was for an unknown to get an agent or a publishing house to look at his/her work, I used this novel to develop a portfolio. In it, I collected all my reviews, the letters from two movie agents who wanted to pitch it as a movie (nothing came of it) and any awards (Small Press Editor’s Choice Award) and sent it off to Multnomah. And it worked. They published my second novel. Self-publishing can be an option or way of developing a name and following, and for helping you get an edge with an agent and publisher, but it’s not for everyone.

What type of publicity do you do to promote your book? What has worked best for you in

generating sales?
By far, the best publicity is word of mouth, and book reviewers will help you with this. That’s why it’s a good idea to send your book to as many legitimate reviewers as possible. But do your homework. Send only to those who review your genre. It’s pointless to send it to someone who reviews sci-fi if you write sweet romances.

What do you know now about writing/publishing that you wished you had known sooner?I wished I had known that writing and marketing are different sides of the same publishing coin, and you can’t do one without the other. This runs against the grain for most writers who love the creative process but hate the marketing and self-promotion aspects. But I had to get over that. Because a writer who doesn’t market won’t get very far.

What is the best advice you’ve been given about writing or that you’ve learned that you’d like to pass along?
First, never give up. I personally know of no “overnight wonders,” those who banged out a novel in six months them became a bestseller. There may be some, but believe me they are few and far between. Most of the time it takes years for a writer to learn his/her craft then garner an agent and publisher. So, if writing is really what you want to do, understand it may take years, but keep working at it. 

Secondly, write what you love. I know the prevailing wisdom is to write what you know, but things can be learned, and knowledge gained by research and study. But if you write what you love, what you are truly interested in, chances are you’ll get your readers interested, too. And don’t follow trends. By the time you chase a trend it’s usually over.

Any other points you’d like to cover?

I’d just like to say, “thank you” for hosting me on your blog.

That's it for today's interview. Here's a glimpse of her newest release: The Babel Conspiracy

Two women engineers struggle to develop the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft amid ever intensifying global terrorism and muddled personal lives. Trisha Callahan has an abiding faith in God, and “those roots of middy blouses and pleated skirts, prayer books and incense-filled churches went deep.” This faith is tested when she finds herself in love with a married man. Audra Shields sees herself as a modern Lady Chatterley, “liberated but not forsaking breeding, intellect, or femininity.” When she becomes involved with a dangerous stranger, she begins to question her lifestyle.

Both women try sorting out their personal problems while racing the clock to finish a project fraught with sabotage and murder. And who’s behind it all? When the Department of Homeland Security and the Mossad finally figure it out, the answer surprises everyone.

Here's the way to find out more about this book and her other novels.
Website: http://www.sylviabambola.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Babel-Conspiracy-Sylvia-Bambola/dp/0989970728/
Booktrailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lAqWKGGMXQ

From Writing a Quarterly Literary Journal to Writing Novels: Author Interview with Michael Hurley

You had a long successful career as an attorney and then sold your practice to move to the coast and start a sailing charter business. How did you go from a high-power to wind-driven career? What was that like?

I loved the intellectual judo of trial practice, but while it tested my wits and afforded me a good living, it never really fed my soul. The long days, nights, weekends and missed vacations spent working seemed less and less worth the years of my life that I was trading for the money.  

Have you always loved sailing?

I had sailed as a boy with my brother on Chesapeake Bay and loved the freedom of it. When I took my first job as a lawyer at twenty-six, I also bought my first sailboat—a 16-foot day sailor. After my second child was born eight years later, I felt a sense of urgency that if needed to do something more personally fulfilling with my life or at least more enjoyable. I saw myself trudging off each day to a closeted office in a building where I would argue with other people closed up in their offices about who was entitled to a pile of money closed up in some other office---all so that one day, as a tired old man, I would get to retire and play a few rounds of golf somewhere before I died. It just seemed like a ridiculously bad trade-off to me—and it was—but I was also having was a rather ridiculous “early midlife” crisis. Clearly, if anyone needs to be trudging off to an office every day, it’s a man with two children under the age of two! 

 You've given us the reason to stay on the job, but you didn't. Why not?

Needless to say, my decision at age thirty-four of 34 to sell a successful law practice, move from Texas to North Carolina, and start a sailboat charter business surprised a lot of people and was not the smartest financial decision I ever made, but I’m glad I did it. I learned a great deal about myself and the world, and I knew I could always go back to the practice of law.  I very soon did just that, but I continued to look for other outlets for my wanderlust and creative energy. Twenty-three years later at age fifty-six, with my kids out of college and out on their own, I retired from the practice of law for good in order to devote more time to writing and sailing.  

You began writing and publishing a quarterly literary journal of wilderness canoeing after you moved to the East coast. What drove you to do a journal?

The journal was one of the creative outlets I developed while I continued to practice law.  It also gave me an excuse to go canoe-camping all over North America with my kids just as they were getting old enough to enjoy that.  The journal started as just a kitchen-table newsletter I put out for a few friends and family, with stories and maps and essays and photographs about the trips the kids and I were taking. Pretty quickly, though, it became this huge thing, with thousands of paying subscribers all over the country. Before long, my kids and I were spending two months out of each year on canoe trips for the journal. That made me an unlikely expert on wilderness canoeing, but it also taught me a lot about marketing and promotion in the publishing world, and it gave me confidence as a writer.

 

The press said some lovely things, comparing my writing to that of Hemingway and Annie Dillard and Thoreau and Robert Ruark.  It’s very humbling to me to be mentioned in that company. All the material I wrote for the journal has just been combined into a single hardcover volume spanning 784-pages. The book came out this March, and I’m delighted to have that as a legacy for my children that someday their own children can read.

 Your first novel was picked up by a traditional publisher, but you went indie on your next book. When did you decide to indie-publish?

I had just sold my sailing memoir, Once Upon A Gypsy Moon, to Center Street (an imprint of Hachette Book Group) when my agent asked me to hurry up and finish a first novel I’d been writing off and on for twenty years.  That novel was The Prodigal, but as it turned out it wasn’t appropriate for Center Street’s market. Center Street and FaithWords are two sides of the same coin, run by the same excellent editorial staff. Center Street publishes mostly nonfiction, but its novels are Christian fiction or thrillers that stay within boundaries of content acceptable to the Christian Booksellers Association—meaning as much murder and mayhem as you please, but no sex and profanity.

My agent suggested that I remove all the sex and profanity from The Prodigal in order to make it appealing to Center Street, but I considered these elements to be “baked in the cake.” A murderous villain who says “Oh, heck!” and characters who never take off their clothes or have premarital sex seemed contrived to me. I hadn’t really even been aware of Christian fiction as a genre until then, but when this issue came up I took a hard look at it. I noticed that the trade press didn’t seem to take these authors or their books very seriously. That’s not entirely true—there are some highly acclaimed Christian novels—but it seemed to be generally true. So, I left The Prodigal as I’d written it, my agent never presented it to Center Street, I published it through my own imprint Ragbagger Press a month later, and the agent and I later parted company as friends. 

All things considered, I’m glad I published The Prodigal as an indie novel. The Prodigal hasn’t sold a zillion copies, but it won a major literary award and was optioned for film by an Emmy-nominated producer. It also received glowing reviews in the trade press. Had I tried, I likely could have sold it for a small advance—probably not more than $5,000—to an small traditional publisher, but I would have spent two years trying to find one. I also would have had to sign over my rights and my control with no guarantee that the book would do well. Whenever I see traditionally published novels that are lower in the rankings or aren’t as popular on Goodreads as my books, I am reminded that traditional publishers don’t have a magic wand to make every book sell. The whole process has been a wonderful education in the publishing industry.

The sailing business didn’t have the same success as your law career; however, you did write Once Upon A Gypsy Moon from those experiences. Tell me about the writing and publishing process for the book.

Once Upon A Gypsy Moon is a divorce memoir about a man’s dark night of the soul. The 2,200 mile sailing voyage I made alone on my own boat after my divorce was my vehicle for telling that story.  It began as a series of essays that I wrote over a year and a half to help sort out my own healing process get my bearings.  They were bound and saddle stitched and sent to maybe seventy-five friends and members of my family, primarily to say to them and myself, “Hey, I’m still here, and I’m OK.” 

On a lark, I decided to collect these letters into a book and pitch the book to agents—something I’d never done before.  I received polite rejections from ninety-three of them until DCJA read the manuscript and loved it.  They signed me to a two-year contract. Don Jacobson, my agent at DCJA, received a $40,000 offer for the book from Hachette and a $20,000 offer from Thomas Nelson, but when he turned those down and suggested he might put the book out for auction to the rest of the Big 5 (then the Big 6), Hachette increased their offer to $75,000, and we took it.  I was equally thrilled and astonished.

The manuscript was already very clean by the time it got to Hachette, so the book went through only one round of copyediting by the publisher before it was published as a proof.  To their credit, they never tried to change the style or substance of the story.  Joey Paul, the editor at Center Street, loved the book so much he made it the cover of Center Street’s spring catalog in 2013.  

Looking at your various book reviews, it seems you know how to work social media? How did you get so perceptive?

When Center Street bought my memoir I worked with their in-house publicity department, and they also hired an outside publicist.  I learned a great deal about the roll-out process from them. However, what I also learned is that no one is going to promote an author’s book as well or as tenaciously as the author himself.  My two indie-published novels have been much more widely reviewed than my traditionally published memoir, and both have made it onto bookstore shelves.  

I write character-centered literary fiction, which sells in a completely different and much smaller market than plot-driven genre fiction.  Most self-published genre fiction sells in eBook format. Most of my titles sell in hardcover, through bookstores. My hardcovers outsell my paperbacks ten to one, and my paperbacks outsell my eBooks ten to one. So, while I have a lot of blog reviews for which I am very grateful, the fact remains that book blogs are concerned mostly with the genre fiction market—romance, Sci-Fi, young adult, paranormal, thriller, and adult contemporary (soft porn) being the biggest. 

 

What has boosted sales of my books more than anything else are good reviews in widely circulated trade publications like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and Chanticleer, because those are read by independent booksellers and librarians who order books and recommend them to their readers.  It’s a slow process that hasn’t made me a lot of money, but it has given my books some modest recognition and respect in the traditional publishing world.
 

How do you write? Did you do an outline first? Did you do individual character development before doing the full plot?

I write without an outline. I begin with maybe one or two distinct characters who have been living in my head for a while and a general sense of the arc of their story. I give them a voice and a personality, and as these characters begin to think and speak and act in their world, they create situations that lead to encounters and conflicts with new characters whom I in turn bring to life. The web grows and, as they say, “the plot thickens.”  It’s like filling in the edges of a painting, but the characters themselves are moving the brush.  This takes time, which is why the chief complaint by readers of genre fiction about literary fiction is that the story moves too slowly. 

My idea for a story when I begin writing never turns out to be exactly the story I write. The characters do and say things I didn’t consider at the start. I try to be open to serendipity in the lives of my characters, but to allow that to happen I must first make them multi-dimensional and layered, like real people.   

What do you know now about writing/publishing now that you wished you had known sooner?

I wasted a lot of time setting up my books on Createspace and trying to market them to bookstores before learning that bookstores generally don’t stock Createspace titles. That’s because Createspace won’t accept returns and won’t offer bookstores the same discount offered by industry wholesalers like Ingram and Baker & Taylor. Createspace offers something called “Expanded Distribution,” but all that means is that a bookstore can look up a Createspace title online and order it if a customer comes in and asks for it specifically. A bookstore isn’t going to buy copies of a Createspace title just to put it on the shelf where store browsers who might not already know about the book can see it and decide to buy it. That’s because unlike every other title in the store, they can’t send a Createspace title back if it doesn’t sell.

Ingram launched a program in 2013 called IngramSpark that allows self-publishers to offer high-quality print-on-demand paperbacks and hardcover titles to bookstores, returnable and at the standard industry discount. What that means for self-publishers who have titles with Ingram Spark is that bookstores can order their titles from the same catalog and on the same terms as they can order a bestseller from the Big 5.  All I need to do today is tell a bookstore that my title is available through Ingram, returnable and at the standard discount, and the bookstore knows exactly what to do. As a result, I sell most of my books now through brick-and-mortar bookstores.  Ingram sends my listing to online sites like Amazon, so when someone orders my book online, it still comes from Ingram.

I know a lot of indie authors go the eBook route because of the potential cost of dealing with book returns from stores. How do you deal with that?
Returns are an issue with the POD model, there's no doubt. Because the print costs are higher with POD books, you earn less per book sold. If a bookstore returns your book, the entire sum refunded to the bookstore is charged to your account by Ingram. Returns of 25% are common with traditionally published books, but returns at that rate would completely wipe out the profits from a POD paperback from which the author might earn only a buck or two per book.
 
In fact the author can wind up owing Ingram for the cost of returns at that rate. In my opinion Ingram needs to start bearing some of the risk of returns or reducing its print charges. This would increase authors' earnings and reduce the cost to bookstores while also reducing the cost of returns born by authors---making it less risky to accommodate large orders.
 
However, for emerging authors Ingram's service is still a good deal, because indie bookstores are typically ordering five or fewer copies at at time, and at that rate the bookstores tend to hold onto those copies longer and discount what doesn't sell right away. Barnes & Noble is a different story. They buy in bulk but also return quickly and aggressively, and with POD the author who is selling a lot of books to B&N can quickly go into arrears. I don't pitch B&M's small press dept anymore for that very reason.
 
As for the return system at Ingram, the author typically specifies that returns should be destroyed after they are returned to Ingram. You can specify that returns be shipped to the author, but for an additional charge. I know Ingram has some changes planned for later this year that may address these concerns.    

What is the best advice you've been given about writing or that you've learned that you would like to pass along?

Justice Louis Brandeis said it best: “There is no great writing, only great re-writing.”  I typically go through eight to twelve drafts of a novel before I’m ready to show it to editors.

I know you have a new book in the works about that will tie into your upcoming passage to Ireland. How did this story come about? 

A woman from Dublin sitting at my table at a publishing conference in Washington state, last year, commented when I ordered a Guinness that they taste much better in Ireland. The idea for a book about an old self-loathing bastard, living on his boat and going nowhere, who meets and falls for a young Irish girl in a bar, developed from there. I will be sailing exactly the same size of model boat as the one appearing in the story, a thirty foot ketch, and accumulating details about the passage for the book along the way.  But, unlike the protagonist in the book, I won’t be taking any crew—stowaways or otherwise!

Any last tips you'd like to leave for my readers?

Chanticleer Reviews has been an excellent resource for me, and winning their book contest got me a movie deal for The Prodigal.  I don’t know of a higher recommendation I can give than that.  Their site is at www.chantireviews.com.

That's all for today's interview. If you'd like to learn more about Michael and his books, you can do so by visiting his website at  www.mchurley.com

Making Your Writing Dreams Come True: Author Interview with Julie Thomas

Julie started writing as a young child and continued dabbling in writing through her years of  working in radio, TV and film. To her credit she now has written four novels and seven feature film scripts. She believes in writing from the heart about subjects she feels passionate about.Her motto is "To dream of the person you could be, is to waste the person you are."

So let’s move on and find out who Julie Thomas is and why she writes…

I love that as a child you wrote about Russian princesses who rode troikas through the snow and then as an adult you wrote a book about Russia. Living in NZ what made you do interested in writing about something so foreign?

My early writing was influenced by what I saw and read. The Russian influence came from Doctor Zhivago, which came out in 1965, and was very popular when I started writing about 1968.

Did the novel have any of the bits from your early writing? What was the first thing that you wrote that got published?

No, the novel was a long way from my early writing, which was all pre-revolutionary – in between I had written many short stories, poetry, seven film scripts and two earlier novels. I believe my first published article was on Prince Charles as a polo player (my brother was a professional polo player for 22 years) for a Diners Club magazine in 1980, I was 21 at the time. 

When did you decide to start writing a novel?

I started this novel in 1998. I was writing a film script about looted art and found some research on looted musical instruments. The more I researched the more I realized that this was a separate subject and worthy of a novel.

Did you try the normal route and try to find a traditional publisher to handle your first book? How many sources did you pitch? When did you decide to self-publish?

I tried several publishers and agents in New Zealand and the UK, can’t remember the exact number. Many of them said it was a beautiful book but I was unknown and they simply couldn’t take a risk on an unknown author. I moved to Cambridge from Auckland (two hours south, into the country) in May 2011 and decided that, as I had the book on my computer, I might as well self-publish it and see if it found a market.

How did you happen to change to a traditional publisher?

I had written two previous novels so I knew what was involved. I did try some agents and publishers in New Zealand when the novel was finished in 2006. It wasn’t until I self-published in 2011 that a traditional publisher became interested. 

How was it that they became interested?

In May 2012 I received an email from Carolyn Marino, a senior editor and vice president of HarperCollins USA. She had read the book on her Kindle, after a recommendation from a retired literary agent, and she wanted to talk to me about my writing. About two months later we signed a two book deal.  

You also wrote a book that deal with WWII called Our Father’s War which was drawn from letters and notes written by your father. Did you talk to him about writing the book?

No, my Dad died in 1992 and I inherited the box of letters and notes after his death. It was certainly an emotional experience reading the letters and I thought long and hard about publishing them. I edited them into a book for the younger members of the family who never met him and they all loved it, then it was suggested to me that I should make it available to a wider audience.

Was there anything in particular that amazed you about your dad that you didn’t know before putting together this book? 

I learned many things about his early experiences and understood more about him as a man after reading the letters. He had shared much about his UK war experience and his days as a spitfire pilot in 485 New Zealand Spitfire Squadron in southern England with his family. But in late 1942 he transferred to the Middle East, to number 23 squadron and he had hardly spoken about that time at all. The letters and the newspaper clippings, an interview he did on his return to New Zealand in late 1944, revealed what he’d done in the Middle East and how difficult the air war was. He was extremely brave and they make interesting reading.

How long does it take you to write a book? It differs from book to book and also depends on what else you are doing in your life. With The Keeper of Secrets I was working full-time and it needed meticulous research, so it took seven years. During that time I became too close to it on a couple of occasions and put it in a drawer to wait until I felt like continuing. Usually I would say around a year to 18 months writing full-time.

How many times do you rewrite a chapter or do a full edit?

I write the first draft right through, get the full idea down on paper without stopping. Then I go through and pinpoint where I need to research more and where the plot needs to go in other directions. I may well do some spot rewrites at that point.

The next draft is much slower and includes incorporating necessary research. Then I put it away and do something entirely different for at least two months. Then I take it out and do a full third rewrite. By that stage it is ready for other eyes and to be read out loud by readers taking the roles. This leads to more rewriting. My motto: The first draft is rock, the last draft is diamond and in between is a lot of cutting and polishing!

How much does social media play in your promotion of your books?

As a self-published author social media was vital for promotion and as the author with a major publishing house it is still important, you just get more help with it. I joined forums interested in my subject matter and became involved in discussions. I tweeted about all subjects and started communicating with tweeters who knew about my subject matter. I have a personal Facebook page and set a fan one up for me/the book at my publisher’s suggestion, made them admin and they added some cool features and paid for Facebook advertising.

What type of publicity do you do to promote your book?

In New Zealand I’ve had interviews organized by my HarperCollins publicist for radio, TV and print and I’ve done book signings. We had a great launch at a local bookstore and sold over 100 copies. I do Q and A with some American sites and media organized by my New York publicist and have done one American radio interview.

What do you know now about writing, that you wished you had known earlier in your writing career?

Interesting question. Patience, persistence, perseverance. I know how important good research is now and how easy it is to get side-tracked by fascinating research. Good books take time and hard work and yet, there will always be an answer, so trust your instincts. When people tell you that they have really loved your book, it is the best feeling in the world!

What is the best advice you’re been given about writing?

A long time ago a very wise man told me that “writers write.” It sounds very simple but what it actually means is ‘keep writing’. Write a blog or a diary or pieces of short fiction or poetry or whatever floats your boat, but keep writing.

There is a school of thought that you should write 100,000 words before you’re ready to sell any of it and I agree with that, in part. Nothing sharpens your work like writing. Eventually you’ll find that what you’re creating is the best writing you’ve ever done.

Writers also need to live, what goes in, comes out. Grab opportunities to experience things, travel if you can (I’ve been to over 50 countries), meet people, try things, take risks and fill up your memory banks. Someday your subconscious will give it all back to you as subject matter and characters. 

Great thoughts! Thanks for the interview. If you would like to learn more about Julie and her books, here's two ways to do that... Facebook        Blog

Writing at any Age, Guest Blog Post from John Yeoman

Today I am turning over my blog to John Yeoman who writes The Wicked Writing Blog and runs the Writer’s Village website. He has two MA’s and a PhD in Creative Writing and has been writing and publishing for decades. Now here’s John in his own words…

If your novel has been banging on agents’ doors for years and got nowhere take heart from Berwick Coates, an English author who this week nailed down a $130,000 deal and a two-book contract at age 80.

His historical thriller The Last Conquest was snapped up by one of the world’s largest publishers Simon & Schuster after Coates had failed to impress agents with several previous novels. “They were clearly not being read,” he said.

A retired history teacher, Coates succeeded only when he caught the eye of agent Jim Gill, who was recommended to him by a fellow author. Now Coates is finishing his second novel The Last Viking and can hope to see both in book stores at an age when most authors might have given up or resorted to vanity publishing.

There’s nothing new about novelists in their Silver Age gaining a major publishing deal. P D James recently published her 19th novel at age 93. But it’s almost unprecedented for a debut author. Only Mary Wesley, whose debut novel The Camomile Lawn was published in 1984, comes close to Coates in age but she was merely 72 at the time.

As authors, what can we learn from Coates’ success?

1. Coates persisted with what he loved best.
After repeated failures with historical fiction he was urged by his son to write a contemporary novel replete with “sex and violence”. It too flopped. So he returned to what he knew and loved. And won.

2. He was introduced to an agent by an established author.
That’s the ideal route. “Mary Brown, whom you represent, suggested I approach you.” Any personal introduction is better than a cold call. (No doubt Jim Gill will now be overwhelmed by debut novelists who start their cover letters with a reference to Berwick Coates.)

3. Any age is the right age to submit a novel.
Carolyn Gill had her first best-selling novel Don’t Knock The Corners Off published at age 14. Susan Hill was an established name before her 18th birthday. But old authors often have the advantage of being able to exhume a dozen previous failures from their sock drawer, resubmit them and see them lauded in reviews - once their debut work has achieved success.

Coates’ achievement also highlights the wisdom of pursuing the traditional agent-publisher route, unless you can devote 18 hours a day to selling your novel yourself. Success in self-publishing lies 10% in talent, 90% in marketing. Perhaps Coates realized that, at age 80, he no longer had the energy to promote a self-published eBook with the passion of a John Locke, Amanda Hocking or Hugh Howie.

Moral: Keep knocking on agents’ doors. Write several novels. Then you can choose which you submit via the traditional route and which you self-publish. Sell a million eBooks under your own imprint and publishers will come knocking on your door.

John provides wonderful tips on his website and blog. He even offers FREE courses in writing. If you would like to learn more about writing, here's the link to his website  http://www.writers-village.org/