The Divining Wand

Art + Business = Writing Lessons Learned.

Yes, once again, several of our authors responded to the question of: If you knew then, what you know now about writing as an art and business, what might you have done differently?

And, as much as these storytellers love their art, most have discovered there’s more to success than creativity.

Ad Hudler (Man of the House, All This Belongs to Me, House Husband):

“I would not have signed away my audio rights. As it is now, only one of my four books have been made into audio … and I hear from a reader at least once a week, asking for the audio version. So … in the future I’m going to make sure I keep the audio rights, and I’m going to record the books myself with a production company and sell them, downloadable, on my website.”

Kristy Kiernan (Catching Genius, Matters of Faith and Between Friends coming April 6, 2010):

“I would have been much, much kinder to myself. I would have been more guarded with other writers and listened to my instincts. And I would have been a better custodian of my time and energy.”

Randy Susan Meyers (The Murderer’s Daughters coming January 19, 2010):

“I would have started far earlier to learn to combine craft with art.

For many years I bought into a belief that writing was magic, where my flying thoughts, imagination, and natural writing bent would somehow combine through alchemy and be tapped out through my fingers. Later in life, I realized that like any builder, I needed to learn the trade, use the right tools, and start building plumb. At that point, I put my head down and worked at learning more from others—both by reading books about the craft of writing and by participating in writer’s workshops.”

Barrie Summy (I So Don’t Do Mysteries, I So Don’t Do Spooky Ages 9 – 12, coming December 8, 2009):

“I think I would’ve started submitting earlier. Instead, I felt that getting published was so far out there and so almost unattainable that I found it difficult to be disciplined and sit still long enough to write.’

Wendy Tokunaga (Midori By Moonlight, Love in Translation coming November 24, 2009):

“On the business side I would have invested some of my own funds for outside publicity for my first novel instead of only relying on my publisher and everything I could do myself. On the art side, I would understand that writing is subjective. I would not have worried so much about comparing my writing to that of other writers and have the confidence to know that I have my own style.”