I remain convinced that the most valuable use of time for a newly published author is to write a second book that's even better than the first, and a third that's better than the second, and on and on.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Second novels are bears. As are other people's expectations for them. I think taking the time you need with the second book is key. Writers spend years and years on their first novels and then are often expected to turn out a second at warp speed, a recipe for failure.
The difficulty of writing a second novel is directly proportional to how successful the first novel was, it seems.
When a writer declares that his first book is his best, that is bad. I progress successively from book to book.
When I started writing, the deal was that publishers gave you a grand or two as an advance to buy some sweets, with the promise that they would make a big putsch with your fourth book when you'd built up a bit of a following. But by the time my fourth book came out, previously unpublished authors were the new big thing.
I think what happens to young writers is that they use up every life experience that they have had up to that point for their first novel. Then you have to come up with something for the second novel, but you really don't have anything to say.
It's easier to come up with new stories than it is to finish the ones you already have. I think every author would feel that way.
Writers are frequently asked why they wrote their first book. A more interesting answer might come from asking them why they wrote their second one.
It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book.
With two books a year, I don't have time for writer's block.
As soon as I finished the first book, I wrote a second, which I hope to sell this year, and I have just about finished the third book in the series. Two more are already outlined. I'm in this for the long haul.
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