In an auction in Arizona I won a critique of my manuscript from Sue Grafton. Long story short…she loved my second attempt and told me she’d help me sell the book. At a conference she stood up in front of 1400 people and told them someone needed to buy my book. Charlie Spicer from St. Martin’s Press met me outside the hall, read the manuscript on the train to New York and called me two weeks later, telling me to get an agent. He was buying the book. It’s funny how easy it is to get an agent when St. Martin’s is buying your book. The entire story is at www.donbrunsbooks.com.
That’s the way you get an agent and sell your book. It’s simple.
Or maybe not.
DB
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Good morning Don
Timing is everything….and a bit of blind luck comes in handy every once in a while too…..we chatted about that a week or so ago.
So here’s to St Patrick and the luck of the Irish.
Z
by Zorro
on March 18th, 2008 at 6:38 am
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Wow, you make it sound so easy. And this was even before “The Secret.” : )
by Judy
on March 18th, 2008 at 6:43 am
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I didn’t mean to be flip, but nobody comes into this business the same way. If you have any talent at all ( and maybe none), if you work all the angles, network and pray…it just might come true.
by Don
on March 18th, 2008 at 6:51 am
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Are you actually =trying= to make unpublished writers hate you?
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Or even published ones. : )
by Judy
on March 18th, 2008 at 7:22 am
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That’s a pretty amazing experience, Don. I’ll bet your way “in” to the business is one in a million. And hurray for Sue Grafton for recognizing and nurturing talent when she saw it!
by Casey
on March 18th, 2008 at 7:37 am
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Who’s this Sue Grafton everybody is talking about?
Seriously, good luck like that just doesn’t happen. You work your brains out, produce good work, and then when an opportunity comes along, you’re ready, and you jump on it. And then you humbly say, “Just lucky I guess.”
by C.R.
on March 18th, 2008 at 7:50 am
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LL, Jealousy is the word I would use. Not of the situation but of Don’s writing skills.
That’s quite a story Don.
At a recent conference I attended, I paid to have a critique done of my first novel. Somewhere between submitting my first 10 pages and the actual conference, I signed a contract with a small press for it.
When it came time for the critque, before I could tell the agent that I had a contract for the book, she asked to see the whole novel and asked if I had an agent yet. I explained I already had a contract for the book. After telling me how stupid I was for signing a contract without an agent, she placed an open offer to look at my future work.
It’s amazing what a contract offer will do for you.
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I went to your site and see it wasn’t publushed bt St. Martin’s, but Oceanview Publishing, a small press http://www.oceanviewpub.com/.
I’d love to hear that story!
by Linda Winstead Jones
on March 21st, 2008 at 10:19 am
