Last week, I saw the NY Times list for May 24. And who was sitting at number one? Charlaine. As the New York Times reports, "It was a first for Ms. Harris, who has published 26 novels in nearly three decades and sold the original book in the Sookie series, “Dead Until Dark,” for just $5,000 nine years ago."
She told me that she went in a different direction because she felt her career was hanging in the midlist doldrums. To give her creative brain an electric shock, she decided to write something quite different so she wouldn't have to follow the same rules. She threw in everything she'd ever wanted to write: vampires, werewolves, fight scenes, very quick action, and some explicit sex. Though the book (DEAD UNTIL DARK) was initially hard to the sell to publishers, it has paid off for her - in spades.
There's a lesson in here someplace for all us writers. Write what you love.
Read more about Charlaine's success here.
