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Are You Going To Be a One Book Wonder?
There are lots of reasons why you might be — and here’s why
Nobody wants to write one book and then disappear from the world of books and publishing. But it can happen a lot more easily than you think. There are some obvious reasons, and some not so obvious. Here are some real-life stories (with the names changed) to show you what I mean.
First up is Julie Smith. Julie had been working on her novel for a few years, a manuscript that fitted into the literary fiction pigeonhole but had commercial potential. It was set in a country that was intriguing, with great characters and a plot (which in a literary novel is often lacking). And it was very well written.
Julie went to a writers’ conference and met an editor who loved her book, and very soon she ended up with a contract.
So what went wrong?
Julie didn’t want to do any promotion. She was very shy, and felt uncomfortable talking about her book to an audience of any kind. And she rejected social media. Although her contract was for two books, when the first one came out, it received two lukewarm reviews, and that was it. Sales never got off the ground.
Julie may still be working on Book 2, but the contract for it was eventually cancelled when she…
