Even the most famous authors once struggled as aspiring writers.
GalleyCat contributor Jeff Rivera interviewed novelist Nicholas Sparks for mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? feature. The author shared some candid memories about his early days as a struggling writer.
Here’s an excerpt: “at 28-years-old, I had realized I didn’t want to move my family every couple of years. I also knew at the same time that I didn’t want to be a pharmaceutical rep for the rest of my life. So, I had an epiphany. I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to give writing another shot’ and you know, I came up with the story for The Notebook, and I had two small children at that time. I had from 9 a.m. to midnight to work and so I did, three or four days a week. Six months later, I had finished the novel. Three years prior to that, I hadn’t written a thing.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Taylor Schilling
Taylor Schilling (Mercy) beat out actresses including Abbie Cornish and Katie Cassidy to score the female lead opposite Zac Efron in The Lucky One, an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel. The book tells the story of a Marine (Efron) who attributes his survival of three tours of duty in Iraq to a photograph he’s kept of a woman (Schilling) he doesn’t even know. When he gets back to the U.S., he sets out to find her. Dear John meets Cinderella. {New York Magazine}
My students, well, the female students, were captivated by Nicholas Sparks' novels this year. What with the movie versions of Dear John and The Last Song coming out recently, and "A Walk to Remember" and "The Notebook" out on DVD, the girls can certainly squeeze out a hanky-ful of tears right about now. As much as they love The Clique and Alphas and other such schoolgirl fluff, it's sappy romantic fluff that they crave at the end of the day. And Nicholas Sparks really delivers the romance. Well, romance and fatal diseases.
Personally, I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book. Sure, I dig the romance thing, like all of us chicks do. I cried my eyes out at "The English Patient." Of course, that was back in 1996... Oh, and I sobbed during the series finale of Lost. Does that make me a romantic or just a geek? Whatever the case, I think I can recognize a heartstrings-puller when I come across one.
And that's exactly what The Clearing is. This novel by Heather Davis covers all of the territory that Nicholas Sparks covers- the heroine with a rocky past and a chip on her shoulder, the seemingly simple yet tragically complex boy who's hiding secrets from the girl he loves, lots of mist and rain falling on lovers who just don't care how wet they're getting as long as they're together. The Clearing has all of that fluff. And a bit of substance, too.
Amy needs a fresh start for her senior year. Leaving an abusive relationship behind in Seattle, she moves to a tiny town in the Cascade Mountains to live in a run-down trailer with her great-aunt Mae. On Mae's land Amy finds a clearing shrouded in mist, and she is drawn into the mysterious haze. It is here that she meets Henry Briggs, a kind, polite young man who doesn't speak or dress or behave like any boy Amy has ever met. Amy feels safe with Henry, and as he helps her to put her past behind her, the two fall in love in the clearing.
But there is a reason Henry is so different from the other guys. On his side of the clearing, Henry and his mother and grandfather are trapped in time, stuck in an endless summer in 1944. Both Henry and Amy are reluctant to move forward: Amy, who has been hurt so terribly, cannot face her future, and Henry knows that a family tragedy awaits if they see the end of the summer. Together, Amy and Henry help one another find the courage to move on with their lives, even as the unknown future threatens their love.
The Clearing is a charming story told from alternating points of view. Both Amy and Henry are vulnerable and afraid, but they fall hard for one another. Their love grows in a sweet, old-fashioned way, and Davis creates plenty of very tender moments between them. She also understands the mind of a teenage girl, and she gives Amy a true, believable voice. There's even a little twist at the end that you won't see coming, a twist that will leave you simultaneously heartbroken and satisfied.
Is The Clearing the best book I've read recently? No. The whole construct of the story feels forced and is never fully e
Last week we caught a glimpse of Miley Cyrus behind-the-scenes in our Monthly Teen Mag Roundup, talking once again about her post-Disney plans to break the Hannah Montana mold. Today our Ypulse Youth Advisory Board member Alyx reports back from the... Read the rest of this post
I’ve written about this a few times before, and the more I read about query letters, the more I see that spending time making your query perfect is as important as time spent making your manuscript perfect.
Literary agent Nathan Bransford had a post this week about working with new agents and in it, a link to a speech by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, etc.) about how he got his agent. Have a read. It’s a fun piece. But here’s the part I want to point out:
A typical agent in New York gets 400 query letters a month. Of those, they might ask to read 3-4 manuscripts, and of those, they might ask to represent 1 The odds are tough, but not impossible, and that’s why I believe that a good query letter is the single most important page that any unknown, unpublished author will ever write.
I worked hard on mine; 17 drafts over two weeks and I did my best to make sure every word counted.
Nicholas Sparks’ success is unquestionable, and his road to publication began when he spent two weeks writing and revising his query letter. (Note that, if you read more of his speech, he got nos from all the agents he sent to except a new agent who had been passed his query from someone else in that agency. So, even after two weeks of work, the odds were still tight.)
To show how competitive this is, check out literary agent Jennifer Jackson’s blog every Friday when she posts Letters From the Query Wars. At the top, she lists the number of queries she read this week, the number of partials/manuscripts she requested and their genre. This past week, she read 158 queries and requested 0, none, nada.
There are a number of possible reasons for this, including a query letter could be brilliant but not her cup of tea. But all 158 of them? I doubt it. Those query letters really need to shine.
I’ve also written before about being picky when it comes to getting an agent. New writers often feel so grateful for any attention that they’ll sign on the dotted line for anyone with a pulse and an interest. But this is our career that we’re setting up, and an agent is someone we’ll work with for a long long time. So, it’s ok to be choosy and make sure it’s a good match. (This is why it’s important to research the agents you send to before you send out your queries.) Check out this post from literary agent Rachelle Gardner about the best way to fire an agent — a situation you don’t want to be in. The post is very interesting and offers great advice. But here’s something I thought was good in one of the comments:
I made a mistake and signed with the first agent who’d take me on. If my experience can teach just one lesson, let it be this: the author-agent relationship is like a marriage. Be just as careful in getting into one as the other.
This author ended up terminating the relationship with her first agent and thankfully signed with another agent more suited later. Congrats. But if you can avoid it, do. Research research research, write, revise, revise.
Make your query count. Your manuscript and your career will thank you.
Write On!
We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending Dec. 27, 2015–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.
Hollywood has been chasing after popular books for inspiration. Titles such as 
Jodi Picoult’s new fiction book, Leaving Time, has joined Apple’s Top Paid iBooks in the U.S. this week at No. 2.
Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.
Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.
Bestselling novelist Nicholas Sparks is developing projects for television, including a show based on his novel, A Bend in the Road.
Dan Mallory will serve as the new executive editor at HarperCollins’ William Morrow imprint, leaving his post as editorial director at Little, Brown UK/Hachette’s Sphere. He will start the new position on October 8th.
