1. First novel I wrote, I wrote to see if I *could* write a novel (spoiler: yes).
2. First pubbed book was a book about online finance, wrangled by my agent.
3. Second novel I went in to a bookstore to see what was selling in SF; MilSF it was!
4. It was a Crown Books, not B&N.
2. First pubbed book was a book about online finance, wrangled by my agent.
3. Second novel I went in to a bookstore to see what was selling in SF; MilSF it was!
4. It was a Crown Books, not B&N.
(For those of you following along at home, "Agent to the Stars" was the first novel I wrote; "Old Man's War" was the second. However OMW was published first, followed by Agent. Before either of those pubbed I wrote four non-fiction books.)
And obviously I'm not in the least ashamed about the story of how I decided to write OMW; I tell it all the time. I make no bones I wrote a book designed to sell to the market. I did it well enough I didn't even have to submit it. The acquiring editor came to me and asked for it.
However, and this *is* important: While I looked at the market to see what I thought would sell, when it came time to write, I wrote the book I would want to read in the MilSF subgenre. That's the secret sauce, if you will, of this story: Write something you'd love as a reader.
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