Kate Flora: So many times, over the years, someone in the audience of an author talk or in a class will be looking for the magic answer. What should they do to make the book a bestseller? I heard the answer, or at least a version of it, maybe thirty years ago from a talk Sue Grafton gave. She said there are no shortcuts and there is no magic. She told the room full of writers and aspiring writers that they should expect it to take at least five years to begin making money. I’ve always appreciated hearing the truth from editors, publishers, and other writers. It helps to keep my perspective when things are down and to stay modest when things are up. The truth is that there are no easy answers. Writing is learned on the job and, if you’re serious about being a writer, it’s a lifelong job.

Kate shares a moment with Harlan Coben

Another thing that helps me keep balanced when the book won’t write or the rejections are piling up is the crime writing community. Although we are alone at the desk, we have a peer group to turn to. It was so comforting the first time I heard someone else talk about the characters in her head getting impatient for her to get back to the keyboard and let them out. It’s helpful to know I am not alone when a publisher drops a series that I love, or when an editor hates the title or wants a longer ending or wants the action pumped up in a way that doesn’t feel authentic for the characters. There’s even knowing other writers have had the surprise of an editor taking the book they believed was a standalone and wants to know when the next book in the series will be ready.

As opposed to the person who wants to quickly write a bestseller and become rich, there are those patient and persistent authors who sell their first book after six, eight, ten, or even fifteen years in the unpublished writer’s corner. They never gave up. They believed in their writing and their right to write. And persistence made them better.

I do disagree with Sue about the magic, though. That magic may be rare, and it absolutely requires sitting in the chair for hours when the finding the words or sorting out the plot is painful and painstaking. But there are those moments of flow, when the story comes almost faster than I can type. When it feels like magical writing, some entity telling the story through me. Yes. That’s magic. And there is always the fascination that comes from storytelling at all. What could be more magical than being able to create an entire world and fill it with people who usually do what we tell them and sometimes misbehave? What could be more magical than seeing the whole world as a venue for new ideas? For characters? For settings and dialogue?

I published my first book in 1994 after ten years in the unpublished writers corner and

My first published book

despite the ups and the downs, so far I haven’t stopped. Maybe I’ve slowed down a bit. Some days, I think I could quit running this marathon and regain all those hours at the keyboard and out in the world talking about writing and selling books. But then I think about the books I love that I haven’t sold yet. The book ideas that are still pressing to be written. The sequel to a suspense novel I wrote as Katharine Clark (new publisher/new name) because I’ve always wondered what happened to my characters.

So, in my book (hee hee), there aren’t any quick tricks. There’s good advice: If you want to write a best-seller, read best-sellers. If you want to write an acclaimed mystery, read the past five years of Edgar finalists. Take a book you admire apart and see what the author did that hooked you. Think about character and point of view and setting and pacing and plot. Why did it work for you? Or take a book you didn’t like and do the same. Why didn’t it work? What would you have done differently? Yes, all of that is work. But as anyone who has a good  job knows, the job is compelling, fulfilling, worth doing because it has challenges. Because it’s important. So if storytelling is important to you, recognize that you’re lacing up your writer’s shoes and running a marathon. And if your journey is anything like mine, the finish line will always be moving because you’ll never be ready for the race to end.