Lesson 2

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis
 The Very First Question Is Why. Lesson 2
 Welcome back for your next insightful lesson. I know this is starting out slow, but it will get more intriguing, I promise.  Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain, so here we go.

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis
 Why do you want to be a writer? Do you feel compelled to and why? It is said that eighty-one percent of humans want to be an author. We all want to tell about our life’s story, or what we are passionate about, or how knowledgeable we are in something. Others, like Steven King, want to scare the pants off of you, or give you emotional chills from one spectrum to another. Whatever the reason, you want to be known, and share your thoughts with the world.
The problem is that every one of these eighty-one percent has a story. I myself have sixty books written, and ideas for another sixty. With publishing houses backing their own authors, or bestsellers, or in-house writers, they skim through thousands of manuscripts per month, tossing them aside if not impressed by the query letter, and hundreds of vanity publishers take your money to publish your book, promising you the world. You can do it yourself on the Internet for a cost next to very little, and whichever way you go, your book can be for sale, sitting on the bottom of a 7 million book pile with 15,000 more books added ever year.
My books rank at about 5 million, and I did notice that one of James Patterson’s books sat at about 65,000 in that same pile of books. Many name-brand authors kick out a new book every once in a while, and of course, is intently sold out. They have many books that sell because they continue to sell them for ninety-nine cents on e-books. This keeps the pile compressed, and your book just gets deeper. It gets lost in the sea library, and the only way people can find or connect to your book is by putting in your ISBN, or the whole title along with your author name. Who knows that besides you? No one.
Even with it typed into Google, it might not show up on the first page of twenty some pages of references. Maybe you are hoping to have the next Harry Potter, or Walking Dead thriller, and you will rise to fame within months. Seriously, this is your first book. Do you have twelve more books ready as a follow-up? Does your book come to a conclusion, or is it left open ended for a sequel? Steven King had over two hundred stories in his closet and wrote under a different author name before making it big. He threw ‘Carrie’ into the trash and his wife pulled it back out, thank goodness. J.K. Rowlings submitted to 13 different publishers with twelve rejections. IDIOTS
I know I have probably burst a few bubbles, but don’t give up. I encourage everyone to get their work out there, and I’m here to help. I am at least giving you some insight of what I have gone through so far. Some things might help you and others may want you to tell me off, and that’s fine too. I don’t know it all, and I am still learning the hard way.
Everything I am about to tell you are things that I have already done and gone through, or searched and read. You can decide for yourself. These things may not even happen to you and your books. So, if you have a passion to write, and want your dream, your book, your story to share, then do it.
Please feel free to give me your thoughts, and questions, and I would be glad to give you my thoughts. These are also things that I have read on the Internet, so beware of the French model.
I said these would be short, so that’s it for today. I want to take a moment to honor Martin Luther King Day, which is coming up on next Monday. A great man who only wanted peace and equal rights for American citizens, like our Constitution says. Our next lesson we will touch on is What.
 
For now, Happy Writing from rickkurtisbooks.com