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What 3 Things do Stephen King and J.K. Rowling Have in Common?

By May 10, 2019No Comments

There’s a lot of authors, and writers who want to be published out there, who desperately want to be as successful as Stephen King and J.K .Rowling. But do you know WHAT makes them so successful? I do.

1. Persistence. They never gave up submitting until they were accepted.

Stephen King started submitting stories when he was a teenager. He kept a stack of rejection notes on a nail on a wall in his room. That stack got pretty damn thick before he ever got a story published.

J.K. Rowling submitted the first Harry Potter book to 12 different publishers before one accepted it. If either of them had given up before they had gotten accepted the world would be without a lot of books!

Yes, it’s hard not to get discouraged, whether you are a traditionally published author or a self-published one, like me, and just starting out. I won’t lie. There’s a steep learning curve. And it requires a LOT of work. But it’s worth it, especially if you are called to tell stories. Like I am.

Fortunately, there are a ton of groups out there that you can reach out to for support, to help you move in the right direction to get to where you want to be as an author. That is, making money, and being successful while sharing your talents with the world.

The most useful one that I am a member of is on Facebook. It’s called 20 Books to 50k. You can find it here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/20Booksto50k/

The members in this group are very honest and upfront about things, and they have never steered me in the wrong direction when it comes to the business and craft of writing. I’ll be sharing the best bits of info they have given me in future posts. It’s super useful!


2. Prolific. Wrote more and produced more than their peers.

I know a LOT of horror writers that say that they want to be like Stephen King. Well guys, I hate to break it to you, but if you’re not PRODUCING the kind of output that King does, you’re never going to be like him. That means, writing. Butt in chair, pen in hand (or at computer) and pumping out as many words as you can, for as long as you can. Maybe you can only write 1 hour a day. If you’re like me, and you can type 1k words an hour, that’s 7k words a week. 12 weeks that’s 80k words, that’s a decent sized book (around 350 pages give or take). 12 weeks is 3 months. Write a book every 3 months and in a year you have 4 books out. That’s 4 books that you didn’t have written at the beginning of the year.

That’s a heck of a lot more production than just sitting around saying that you want to be like prolific and successful writers.

Now, there’s a bit more to it than that, specifically writing to market and utilizing tropes (Not cliches! Tropes. There’s a difference.) and I will be tackling that in additional posts on here.

But this is where it starts. Be honest with yourself. Can you set aside an hour a day to write? Yes? Then get to it already! You have my permission to stop reading my work and write your own stuff. It’s fine. My posts and books will be here for you when you’re done.

If you want to be successful you have to put the work in. It’s that simple.

3. Gave back to their communities.

I’m a big believer in this. Whatever you put out into the world, comes back to you threefold.

Both JK Rowling and Stephen King have given back to their communities, whether it is with grants to schools or gifting funds to help out fans that are in need, these authors are grateful for their success and continue to give back to the people that helped them get to where they are today.

So, now that you know 3 things that these big name authors have in common, what are you going to do, to be like them?

I know what I’m going to do. 🙂 Write more. Way more. Be persistent, even when facing what appears to be failure. (There is no failure, only a chance to learn and grow.) and give back by sharing all the information I have learned about publishing here.

Cassie Carnage

Cassie Carnage

Horror connoisseur. She who types too fast for her computer, and shall one day cause her keyboard to catch on fire. Lover of cats and monsters.

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