"The Career Novelist" by Donald Maass -- worth getting?
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It's pretty good, but it won't cheer you up much. It's pretty much only about the business side of things: positioning your career, branding yourself, your relationship with your agent, and all that jazz. Useful and probably realistic, but a bit of a downer.
This book was given to me as a gift a couple years ago - I thought it was a nice addition to my collection. My favorite chapters are:
My peers, though, have been giving me gentle nudges with book and magazine gifts specifically about novel writing since 2005.
- Chapter 3: Pitching Errors
- Chapter 6: The Marketing Game: How I Sell Novels
- Chapter 15: Packagers and Work-for-Hire
My peers, though, have been giving me gentle nudges with book and magazine gifts specifically about novel writing since 2005.
I haven't read it though I know Maass has a couple of books out there. I'm starting to believe however that an agent who is more interested in writing his own stuff is a lot less interested in agenting others. Having said that, I did receive a personalized rejection from Maass that was refreshing in it's approach.
I don't know if I agree with that. I have Michael Snell's From Book Idea to Bestseller and, out of all the agents I contacted with a non-fiction book proposal, he was the only one who responded with how the proposal should be changed in order to be sold. He then added a note saying, "please give me a call." This changed my perception of how agents operate considerably.
I would respectfully disagree with this viewpoint re Mr. Maass. Although I should not presume to speak on his behalf, I do know that he formed his agency in 1980 and over the course of the 28 years since has published 2 books and one associated workbook he hopes will assist aspiring and published novelists. I believe that he has also published other novels but according to his website that amounts to 14. I personally would prefer an agent who's been there done that and I don't see Mr. Maass as someone who is more interested in his own work than agenting others.
I know from my research and what others have to say that he is well respected in the writing community and I for one would be thrilled to have him represent me. He is on my list of potential contacts and if he declines to represent me I'll hope for a nice rejection as well!
As for the The Career Novelist, I haven't read it but I may pick it up at some point to get more information on the industry I am trying very hard to be a part of! (I can't wait until I have a functioning clone...)
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I haven't read The Career Novelist specifically, but I read another one of his books (I believe it's called How to Get a Literary Agent) and found it very helpful. I'll probably buy The Career Novelist myself at some point.
This book was given to me as a gift a couple years ago - I thought it was a nice addition to my collection. My favorite chapters are:
Don't get me wrong, the rest of the book is good also. Those just stood out to me. I've been trying to decide (after a decade of letting the idea collect dust) if I should give novel writing another try (an old computer ate one that I was nearly finished, so I took it as a sign!), but I'm still not sure.
- Chapter 3: Pitching Errors
- Chapter 6: The Marketing Game: How I Sell Novels
- Chapter 15: Packagers and Work-for-Hire
If multiple voices are nudging you to write a novel, perhaps it's the voice of providenc.
This was so odd. There was a point just before I was accepted that all these people started coming out of the woodwork- people who'd seen of or even heard of my novel who said it was time that I should send the story out. I'd started going to this writing group for the fun of it, and this person who'd only heard my poetry, and never read one line of my novel, told me it was time to get it published. Three people in the same week. At that point I decided to move on it.
His other books are Writing the Breakout Novel and Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. (I highly recommend both of these, by the way)
How to Get a Literary Agent is by Michael Larsen, FYI.
To answer the question: The Career Novelist is a different approach to some very good, basic, material that writers should know when they're approaching publication or have been published. It mentions several things most people (including myself) never thought to consider.
That's an excellent point . . . one I will absolutely ponder. Fear, of course, holds me back. I have other "how to write/sell fiction" type books waiting for me to crack open and use . . . . maybe 2008 will be the year I'll give in to the muse without an excuse.
This is why you should never trust a confident-sounding writer who's never been published.
...sorry
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I'm with the Maass agency (not Don, but I've met him twice), so color my opinion skewed, but . . . Don is a fantastic agent. I knew this long before I signed with the agency. Also, his agency is one of the few that focuses almost exclusively on fiction. And, all of his agents are very hands-on and communicative with the authors, from revisions through submissions. They know a lot about novel writing, and personally I think that's a good thing.
Don also teaches seminars based on his Breakout books. I haven't read the book this thread mentions, but I own Writing the Breakout Novel and the accompanying workbook, and they're both excellent (as someone else above pointed out).
Just thought I'd put my two cents in.
I can say that Writing the Breakout Novel worked for me in that it sparked an idea for a twist in my WIP that I never would've thought of; started reading it again, recently, and it sparked another idea (which I'm slowly incorporating into the ms.).
I think it's an excellent book, with a lot of good ideas (and not just for the mid-list author, either, as I'm unpubbed).
I don't have The Career Novelist, so I can say anything about that.
~Nancy
Oh, I'm afraid I need to disagree with you there. Donald Maass is one of the leading fiction agents in the country, and has a huge roster of clients and massive annual sales. His agency is one of the few that survives on 90%+ fiction (very rare indeed); and they usually place 100-120 novels every year.
He doesn't accept that many new clients, but most people with stables the size of his won't even look at unsolicited queries, so I applaud the fact that he is still open to submissions from unestablished writers.
Yes, I think it's worth having, also his Breakout book.workbook and coming this year The Fre in Fiction. And if you get a chance to attend his seminar, do. And Lisa Rector-Maass' that often follows his.
Good stuff. Jogs the mind, the story.
And much as we might like to, we cannot ignore the business aspect. It is what it is.
Good stuff. Jogs the mind, the story.
And much as we might like to, we cannot ignore the business aspect. It is what it is.
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