Success - Writing and Publishing

Following is the meat of a post to a friend on Facebook in response to a question about publishing:

My last book was self-published, so I didn't work with a publisher on that one. It was actually my 8th novel and I tried a little to get some of the other ones published but never really delved deeply enough into it.

In some ways, I wish I would have tried to do more with them, but then again I think something inside made me want to wait to mature as a writer and as a person. And no regrets, there is only now. And speaking of now, I've written a 9th novel, working title The Obamacare Experiments, and now I'm pursuing a traditional publisher for that one more rigorously.

Find an Editor

One thing I've come to understand is that you have to invest in your product. That means you need to seek out a professional editor. It's expensive but it must be done, for four reasons.

First, it's the best way to learn. It's like hiring a tutor.

Second, writing is a collaborative process. It is very rare when a person can just write something down and have it published (maybe impossible). You need that professional with credentials. Why? So you will trust their recommendations. Preferably, you should find one from NYC with publishing experience, again expensive, but worth it.

One more piece of advice on the selection I might offer: if you're a woman, find a male editor and vice versa. This is not a hard and fast rule, by any means, but in my own research (anecdotal though it may be) I found that this dynamic seems to lend itself to creation of a better product . . . food for thought.

An Actual Judge's Order in a Divorce

Some judges' orders say more than others, and this one says it all.

New Review from Author Neil Chethik

My friend, Neil Chethik, author of Fatherloss: How Sons of All Ages Come to Terms with the Deaths of Their Dads and Writer in Residence at the Lexington Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning read The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder over the weekend and submitted the following 5-star review to Amazon:

"I love self-improvement books (so much that I wrote one called FatherLoss), so I was particularly fascinated by Wright's descriptions and selections of the most important self-improvement books. Wright's book is fun, too, with a moody yet brilliant detective who puts together a complex trail of clues to figure out the murderer in his book club. A delightful book!"

I met Neil a couple of weeks ago at Mayfest arts festival, where he was kind enough to buy one of my books.

Thanks, Neil!