How To Make Your First Novel A Success?

How to make your first novel a success?

Wait.

What?

Yes, wait before you publish that first novel. Wait until you've written two or three other novels. Or more

Seriously?

Yes. The practice will improve your writing in uncountable, unforeseen ways. In huge ways. And, perhaps more importantly, you will get vast numbers of good ideas for improving that first novel, which is a very good thing to do before you put your novel in front of readers who will judge it pro or con and make nearly permanent decisions about whether to ever read you again.

(Writers, I know that this may seem like a harsh post. And if you're not a writer, don't even read this. It's tedious and it's aimed at writers who don't follow the example of composers and dancers and painters and athletes and a thousand professionals, which is to practice, practice, practice BEFORE you audition in front of the world.)

Many writers have said this. Sit on that first novel. Write a few more. Make the thousand adjustments that will occur to you as you write books two, three, four, and five. Trust me, this is not an exaggeration. You will want to make a thousand adjustments. When you get to work on book five, or ten, that is the time to publish your first book. Or, if you listen to Hugh Howey's advice, write twenty books, then publish.

Let's just say you've finished your medical residency and performed your first complicated surgery. Would you want the entire world to watch a video of that first surgery? (Publishing makes your book available to the entire world.)

Maybe you've been learning to be a figure skater. You're going to try your first triple-twisting jump. Would you want the entire world to watch it? Or would you like to practice a bit more first?

You've been playing Beethoven's sonatas on the piano. When you finally decide to perform one, would you do it in front of your spouse and a few friends and family, or would you like to go out on stage at Carnegie Hall and play your first performance for the world, including all of your mistakes, your awkward phrasings, the unsure aspects of your performance?

You've finally painted your first set of 12 large oil paintings. You're a real live painter, living the dream. You find a company that gives you a chance to display your show on the front steps of a virtual version of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. You know that many sophisticated viewers will see it. Including art critics and reviewers. They will comment to their audience and their friends. Would you do it?

You probably know the answer to these questions. 

I know as well, because not a single successful author I know - knowing what they now know - would publish their first book right after they wrote it. Most of them waited until they had more books under their belt, because they knew that would go a very long way toward making their books successful. The ones who didn't wait? They rushed to write many books in a short period of time, hoping to make up for the too-early release of their first one.

So why would you publish your first book when statistical and anecdotal evidence suggests that you will be embarrassed by the result and by the book's reception and sales?

I think I know why. You're excited. You've written a book. It's a big deal. You can't wait to show the world.

But what's the harm in waiting? None.

In contrast, what's the harm in diving in after the first book? I can't count the ways. Mistakes and misrepresentations that could, and maybe will, embarrass you forever. A potential writing career tarnished, maybe spoiled.

Am I a giant downer for saying this? Of course.

But in the last few months, I've had several more inquiries from writers who published their first book, and they want advice on how to make it sell, because it isn't selling. If they had waited and gotten more practice, they would have likely learned what makes a book sell. Unfortunately, the world is already watching the video of them doing their first triple-twisting jump, and that world has decided not to pay 99 cents to watch more.

Am I an expert who has the one true vision? No. I'm just an ordinary guy who earns a living writing novels, a guy who feels bad for the people who dove into the deep end because they felt comfortable in the bathtub but didn't know if they could swim. Then they write me and other writers and ask for help. You launched your rocket before you knew if it could fly, and it never made it to outer space. (There's a great example of mixed metaphors, something more writing practice will teach you to delete before publication!)

It's so easy to avoid these problems. Get more practice before you launch. Do some test flights. Many test flights. Have a half dozen manuscripts on the shelf, ready to go. A bonus is that all evidence shows that launching multiple books in a short period of time greatly contributes to sales success. And you can't launch multiple books in a short period if they're not already written.

I know you think you'll be the exception. But even the one-book wonders who appear to find success with a single book are mostly a fictional concept. The publisher said, "We'll give you a new pseudonym, present you as a new author, and no one will know you already wrote twelve romance novels."

I also know that you don't want to wait until after you've written five books because, well, it takes SOOOO long to write five books.

Well, I've got some news on that front. If you're going to be successful, you're going to write far more than five books, anyway. Why not do several of them before you launch?

Look at your favorite authors. How many books have they written? Ah, there's a revealing inquiry. Nearly all of your favorite authors have written dozens of books. How can you expect to move down the road toward being someone's favorite author with just one book? Your favorite restaurant doesn't only have one entree on the menu, either.

It's likely that the single best answer to the question about how to be a successful author is to write a bunch of books. So do a portion of them before your launch. You will be amazed at the result.

Some of you are asking if I did that. Yes. My first published book was my fifth book. Am I great? No. How did I find some traction if I'm not great? I wrote five books before I published. I came out with the second book in my series one month after the first. (I wish I had done three or four in short succession.)

Cased closed. Successful writers write multiple books. Do several of them before you publish the first one.