Secrets Revealed

An Introduction to The Write City V

by Randy Richardson

Go to Amazon.com and you'll find any number of books professing to have the secret for writing a best seller. Funny thing is, you probably haven't heard of any of these authors. So how could they know the secret? 

Sorry to burst that bubble, but the secret is there is no secret. Just like any other kind of success, it all comes down to a mixture of talent, luck and timing.

That's not to say that you can't improve your chances of finding success as a writer.

In this, our fifth installment of The Write City, we have three different writers sharing advice that all writers should follow — advice that certainly can't hurt your odds and, in all likelihood, will boost them.

Special guest columnist Julie Gray, founder of The Script Department, Hollywood's premier script coverage services, tells us to stop whining about getting rejections. One must come to the realization, she writes in "Dealing with Rejection," that "if writing and getting published or sold were a fair or easy business, everyone would be doing it." Jennifer Brown Banks urges us to give our fellow writers a helping hand in "No Heavy Lifting Required – 8 almost effortless ways to support writers!" And in a guest interview first-time author Kelly O'Connor McNees (The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott) explains that although her insider knowledge as a former editorial assistant probably helped her land that book deal, what she knows can and should be learned by anyone trying to get published. "I have the benefit of understanding how the industry works, how submissions work, the dos and don'ts," she says. "All of these things anyone can learn – it's not as if there's some secret store of information that only people in publishing have access to."

As always, we also have writings from some of our members. We have poetry from Albert Manipon, "chicago, my hometown," an homage to the city he loves, warts and all. David W. Berner writes a touching essay about his father in "Music and the Art of Car Repair." And last, but certainly not least, Kevin Koperski writes a short story of twisted romanticism, "A Ballad of Time and Madness."

Enjoy. And learn.