Writing The Breakout Novel

Take your fiction to the next level Maybe you're a firsttime novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you've already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in midlist hell. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novelone that rises out of obscurity and hits the bestseller lists. Maass details the elements that all breakout novels shareregardless of genrethen shows you how to use them to write books that can stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace. You'll learn to: develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competition establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place create largerthanlife characters that step right off the page sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish weave subplots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers. Then, using examples from the recent works of several bestselling authorsincluding novelist Anne PerryMaass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing. You'll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest, and lay the foundation for a promising career. Word of mouth is the secret grease of publishing. It is the engine that drives breakouts.Donald Maass, from the Introduction The key to writing a breakout novel has nothing to do with milliondollar publicity budgets, huge advances or name recognition. It comes from writing the kind of novel that gets people talking and creates a growing wave of excitement and support that carries your work along for the ride. Calling upon over two decades of experience in the publishing industry, as both an author and literary agent, Donald Maass explains how to imbue your novel with the qualities that inspire just such a reaction. He'll show you how to: findthen push beyonda