What Do Successful Authors Do That Newbies Overlook?

Let’s take a time machine back to 1953.

This was the year the first Science Fiction paperback was published. It was a big deal. SciFi was growing as a genre through the forties through World War II, but up until that point it was only published as short stories. Ballantine Press launched SciFi as a new genre by becoming the very first to publish SciFi books as direct paperback.

So what? Why do we care? 

In that year, many SciFi novels have been published by Ballantine Press, yet one stood out and came to be known as a classic. This book was Fahrenheit 451. Many other books from this year became popular.

Why were these books that came out in 1953 the ones that stood out during that time period? 

1. Because of their high quality storytelling. These books are high quality due to their page-turning quality, ultimately because the audience is interested in the states that the characters are facing. The books tap into larger themes of humanity, of what it means to be human. ensuring their longevity. 

    

2. Because authors who started in their genre stayed in their genre and published in the same year. These authors were in on something that was up-and-coming and they leveraged that in order to become successful, simply by having been in the right place at the right time. 

Nowadays, however, the publishing cycle takes up to three years. The right question that you may ask is: “What is the equivalent of SciFi this year?” That is why I spend so much time with industry professionals–publishers, literary agents, and other people in the know to find out what is trending in storytelling this year, what is the up-and-coming market, what readers are thirsting for, and editors are scrambling to get out in the market.

These two things, quality story telling and being in the know, are two of the biggest keys to success that newbies overlook. 

If this something that sounds interesting to you, we have some openings at the Writing Gym next month. If you want to launch a writing career that can last for decades let’s chat.