First novels, and such
Apr. 12th, 2008 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperancePeople have been musing on - and asking other people about - that breakthrough, the first novel that actually gets bought: was it the first you wrote, how long did it take to sell, so on and so forth.
Hee.
My first published novel? Not only the first novel I ever finished, or ever came close to finishing; it was commissioned. People paid me to write a novel, before anyone had any evidence that I could.
*is smug*
But that was special circumstances, and I was writing for a series, very much to formula. And it was a long time ago, in a different world.
My first real novel, if we discount that - well, yes. Still my first novel written, first one sold. That was harder: my agent tried for a commission and couldn't get one, so she made me write the thing. Took four years and two drafts, but I got it done (with all the usual anxieties of "OMG this is crap, I'm writing the Wrong Novel, why didn't I do [any one of a dozen other ideas] instead...?") and then she sold it.
And since then it's a long list, more or less as many books as there have been years, and I don't quite remember but I think all my published books have been commissioned. I've got a couple that I wrote on spec, which are still waiting for the right publisher. That's okay, my drawers are capacious and my patience is legendary; one of these days...
Hee.
My first published novel? Not only the first novel I ever finished, or ever came close to finishing; it was commissioned. People paid me to write a novel, before anyone had any evidence that I could.
*is smug*
But that was special circumstances, and I was writing for a series, very much to formula. And it was a long time ago, in a different world.
My first real novel, if we discount that - well, yes. Still my first novel written, first one sold. That was harder: my agent tried for a commission and couldn't get one, so she made me write the thing. Took four years and two drafts, but I got it done (with all the usual anxieties of "OMG this is crap, I'm writing the Wrong Novel, why didn't I do [any one of a dozen other ideas] instead...?") and then she sold it.
And since then it's a long list, more or less as many books as there have been years, and I don't quite remember but I think all my published books have been commissioned. I've got a couple that I wrote on spec, which are still waiting for the right publisher. That's okay, my drawers are capacious and my patience is legendary; one of these days...