Anatomy of the Modern Bestseller - The Easy Way to Write

Anatomy of the Modern 

Bestseller 

© Rob Parnell & The Writing Academy

2 Anatomy of the Modern Bestseller 

Anatomy of the Modern Bestseller © Rob Parnell. 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be 

reproduced or transmitted in any form, graphic, 

electronic or mechanical without express written 

permission from the author. 

Legal Disclaimer: The contents of this resource 

represent the views of the author. No warranty as to 

the efficacy and appropriateness of the advice and 

techniques mentioned or alluded to should be 

inferred. The author hereby disclaims any personal or 

professional loss or liability caused or alleged to be 

caused, directly or indirectly, by the use of the 

information herein presented. 

Australian Writing Academy is copyright to Rob Parnell 

PO Box 485 Morphett Vale SA 5162 08 8186 5634 

Contact: Rob@writersfriend.com.au 

2 

Rob Parnell & The Writing Academy |


Anatomy of the Modern Bestseller 

INTRODUCTION 

Dear Fellow Writer, 

Hello and welcome to my latest writing course. 

It’s good to have you here – and I hope you enjoy this investigation into what makes 

a bestselling novel. When this course is over I also hope you will feel more than equipped to 

write you own magnum opus – and that it is a fine contender for the bestseller lists. 

Ken Follett, the best-selling author, once said “There 

are three qualities a storyteller needs above all others. He or 

she must be (a) imaginative, (b) literate and (c) stubborn.” 

It’s interesting because he went on to add that you 

can have all three of these qualities and still write a bad 

novel – he admits to writing a few himself at various times – 

but that it is above all 

stubbornness that forces you to 

persist. Not just to persist 

creating, writing or submitting, 

but to persist in trying to improve your technique, hone your 

skills and to increase your understanding of what writing novels 

is all about. 

Ken says that over the years he learned all he could 

about the bestseller – and especially how to write one. 

And history has shown his ‘formula‘ was right. Eye of 

3 



the Needle, his second published novel – after having written numerous others that were 

serially rejected – is now one of the top twenty bestselling books of all time. Imagine that: 

writing a book to a formula and to have it work! 

It wasn’t all about the writing, of course. Ken was lucky. He also had the help of one 

Albert Zuckerman, the now world famous agent – and the kind of agent we’d all like to have. 

Al not only worked with his authors to shape, 

re-work and perfect their novels. He also 

tirelessly beat down the doors of New York 

publishers with his writers’ manuscripts until 

they commissioned their work. 

Now, before you go hunting down Al 

Zuckerman’s email address, I should point out that he’s now retired – and has left strict 

instructions with his ‘people’ that he does not want to see any more manuscripts. Even 

mine, I’m told. 

Rats! 

But seriously, our Ken is still writing. And he’s still writing bestselling novels. For the 

purposes of this introduction, Ken Follett has all the qualities, smarts and disciplines you 

should aspire to cultivate if you too want to join the ranks of writers like Dan Brown, Paul 

Coelho, Stephenie Meyer, JK Rowling and Nicholas Evans, who together have sold over two 

billion novels in just this last decade alone. 

Now there’s food for thought. 

But, you may ask, what makes a bestselling author? 

What are the qualities that are consistent about the above named writers? 

And, what makes a bestselling novel? 

What are the qualities and similarities they possess? 

4 



And most importantly for us – can we learn how to write a novel with bestseller 

written all over it? 

These are the questions we will be tackling throughout this course – as well as 

finding answers to the most compelling issues the ambitious commercial fiction writer must 

face. 

Over the next five lessons, we will explore: 

1. Idea and the Outline 

Writing a blockbuster novel is not just about luck. 99% of all the books you 

see in the NY Times bestseller list were planned and executed with the express 

purpose of getting on to it. You know the old phrase, “The harder you work, the 

luckier you get.” This applies to writing bestsellers as much as to any other field of 

endeavour. 

In the first module we explore the psychology of bestselling authors and the 

questions they must ask themselves before they even begin writing. Finding a topic 

and set of events that will be compelling to many people is just as important as your 

characters and their relationships. There are big questions you will need to ask 

yourself before you write your bestselling novel. I will reveal those questions and 

their significance to your success. 

Many new writers are nervous about the idea of planning their stories before 

they start. However, I can reveal that nearly ALL modern bestsellers are planned, 

outlined and reworked to perfection before any real writing begins. I will explain why 

this is so imperative to the process of creating a bestselling novel. 

I will also show you how to easily construct a bestseller outline of your own 

and show how outlines were used to create the five bestselling novels analysed 

within this course. 

5 



2. Characters and their Relationships 

There are characters and then there are extraordinarily sympathetic fictional 

characters. In this module we analyse what makes a character heroic and enduring. 

There are simple formulas I can show you that will allow you to construct your own 

compelling character templates. But be aware, these are in no way formulaic – 

because if they were, they wouldn’t work. 

Building and developing bestseller characters is a process – one you can 

easily master. I will reveal to you the simple rules that ensure a reader’s engagement 

in your characters, their relationships, histories and motivations. 

We also analyse point of view and how best to use it. This is another of the 

most fundamental issues that need addressing before you begin writing. Here again, 

there are rules on how best to proceed. Using the examples of the five bestselling 

novels featured, I will explain those rules and guide you into making the correct 

decisions for your own work. 

Bestselling character relationships are not in any way accidental. I reveal 

simple principles that will enable you to ‘tighten the screws’ of any character based 

scenario. 

3. Scene Structure and Plotting 

Despite what you may want to believe, plotting modern stories is no longer a 

random series of happy writer mishaps. Just like TV and the movies, plotting a novel 

is a logical sequence of carefully considered judgements that a committed bestseller 

author must make. 

While there is certainly more flexibility in novel writing than there is in TV 

and film, there are still useful conventions you can use when it comes to plotting a 

bestselling story. Pace can be formalized – and I will show you the template to use 

6 



for this purpose. So too, can scene structure be shown to be a predetermined 

decision based on the effect you are trying to achieve. 

My purpose in these lessons is to help guide you towards writing a bestseller. 

In this particular module I will present to you formulas which you may 

embrace or reject, based on your needs and your intuition. However, from 

the five examples cited, I will also give evidence that certain conventions are 

best adhered to if you sincerely want to write a bestselling novel. 

Alongside my other works, The Art of Story and The Hero’s Journey, this new 

information will combine your efforts to ensure your publication and critical success. 

4. Story Editing and Revision 

As writers, we all know that careful editing makes the crucial difference 

between rejection and consideration or acceptance. Only a complete novice thinks 

that editing is not as important, if not more important than the actual writing. But 

editing a best seller requires more, sometimes much more. 

Normal editing is of course about the technical issues like spelling, grammar, 

punctuation, phrasing, logic and credibility. But editing a bestseller requires a 

more dedicated focus on story, impact, pace and emotional involvement. The 

true professional – or the truly committed amateur must have the courage to 

look at his/her own work with a more critical, sometimes ruthless eye. 

Editing and revising for publication is new frontier for many writers, but one 

that must be mastered. I will explore the various techniques employed by bestselling 

authors – in their own words – to show you how this powerful mindset is achieved 

and exploited. 

7 

If you’ve never actually achieved this position of calm objectivity in regards to 



your own writing, and its potential force, this module promises to be an 

enlightening adventure. 

5. Submission and Success 

When the writing is all over, your continuing quest for publication begins. But 

rest assured, if you’ve followed the teaching of this course up to this point, you are 

streets and houses ahead of the competition. You will have reached a state of 

absolute surety that your work is a bestseller looking for a home. 

This, believe it or not, is when you, the author, has the most power you will 

ever have in your writing career. And I will show you how to use that power skilfully 

to your advantage. 

It’s important to remember that even during the selling of your work to 

agents and publishers, the writing is probably not yet done. This is the way of the 

modern bestseller. With this in mind, and based on the evidence of many current 

bestselling novels, I will show you a marketing and submission plan that will ensure 

your success in placing your novel with a publisher. 

Plus, along the way, you’ll receive tips and tactics that have been used over 

and over to literally guarantee your long-term success as a bestselling author. 

Remember that my partner and I are the authors of over 100 published books. We 

are therefore in a good place to advise you, based on our wealth of experience and 

decades of success within the writing industry. (And no, we’re not that old!) 

What are the qualities you need to develop to write a bestselling novel? 

To my mind they are: Imagination, persistence, the willingness to learn and try new things – 

and not getting stuck in a rut of believing success is too hard to achieve. 

Add to that a measure of tenacity: there’s an interesting new strategy emerging 

within publishing by which many writers get their potential bestseller published nowadays. 

8 



It works wonders too – but I will save that information until the last module. You need to 

have something to look forward to, don’t you? 

You need to persevere with writing. You need to possess the professionalism not to 

be knocked back by criticism and rejection. 

Because the more you push, the more you can create your own luck. 

Your first lesson follows shortly. My advice would be to take a break now and mull 

over the information you have read. 

Then, you should try to read the five books we will cover during the course, though 

that’s not compulsory. 

Whatever you do, keep writing! 

Rob@writersfriend.com.au 

Your Success is Our Concern 

Australian Writing Academy 

9 



10 





Module One 

11 



12 




Module One: 

IDEA AND THE OUTLINE 


I hope you enjoy what follows and that the information will help you on your quest 

for publication. 

There’s really only one word to bear in mind when attempting to write a bestseller. 

That word is transcendence, in all its senses. You aim is to transcend your own boundaries as 

a writer – and to offer transcendence to your reader. To me, transcendence means ‘escape 

from the ordinary.’ Throughout this course, you will discover that the mark of a bestseller is 

its ability to offer escape, transportation if you will, not just to one or two readers, but to 

millions. How that is achieved – by you – is the aim of this course. 

Let’s rock... 

Escape from the Ordinary 

A couple of months ago I bought a self-help book – nothing very extraordinary in that, I buy 

and read them regularly. I think it was Susan Jeffers – author of Feel the Fear and Do It 

Anyway - who noted that once you start regularly using self help, it becomes addictive – and 

you begin to need a regular top up. So it is with me. I like self-help books (and writing 

books!) and believe them to be effective. It makes me feel good to plot my personal 

progress over the years, especially because when I read my first self-help book – Unlimited 

Power by Tony Robbins – I was in a very bad place emotionally, physically and financially. To 

put it very mildly, things are a lot better now! 

Anyway, in the book I bought recently, the author asked me to list what he called my 

13 

“Intrinsic Drivers”. Twenty words that summed up my philosophy on life and acted as 

motivators for me. You might want to do the same. It’s an interesting exercise. With me, 



after I’d completed the list, I noticed a pattern. Almost all of the words I’d picked had 

something to do with the idea of ‘transcendence’ – or deliberately moving beyond what I 

thought of as ‘ordinary’. 

This concept of transcendence segues nicely into an introduction about bestseller 

writing. Bestsellers have a way of transporting the reader to another place – and often that 

is their author’s intention. Interestingly too, when you look at the lives of bestselling authors 

– and probably most writers – will you see this idea of ‘escaping from the ordinary’ running 

through their lives and their work. 

Study their biographies and you’ll often find that writers tend to lead fairly erratic 

lives until they are successful. Many do odd jobs, flit from one vocation to another and 

invariably have no concrete career path until they make the decision to settle down and 

focus on their writing. 

Dan Brown flirted with being a musician for a while – as I did. 

Unlike me, he started his own record company – presumably 

because he couldn’t get signed by a big label. He sold his own 

music CDs and eventually released an album called, coincidentally, 

Angels and Demons in 1994. 

In the course of his musical endeavours, he met his wife – 

and probably saviour to be – Blythe Newlon, before settling down 

to become a teacher in New Hampshire. Brown later was inspired 

to become a thriller writer in 1993 after reading Sydney Sheldon’s 

The Doomsday Conspiracy. 

Hardly surprising to me – it’s the kind of book that inspires most of us writers to 

think, I can do better than that! 

In his younger days, after a stint in a mental institution, Paulo Coelho 

also dabbled in music as a lyricist for South American pop-stars before 

dropping out and travelling the globe looking for meaning and a way to 

14 



fulfil his dream – though he admits he didn’t know what that was. Like Dan Brown he seems 

to have fallen into writing, firstly occult books about vampires and the dark arts and then 

later the allegorical tales that have made him famous. 

Being a bestselling writer was not quite what JK Rowling had planned when she started 

writing her books. 

Famously Jo Rowling was on welfare 

when writing Harry Potter – depressed and 

alone after the breakup of her first marriage 

to journalist Jorge Arantes – she wrote, she 

says, for herself, as a kind of therapy. 

Interestingly, Jo displays another aspect 

fairly common to bestselling writers – she, like Dan Brown, was teacher for a while – in 

Portugal and Scotland, where she gained a postgraduate certificate of education. 

The lovely Stephenie Meyer too was an English graduate 

and had no real belief she would become a successful writer. 

The mythology now says that she wrote Twilight for herself and 

only submitted it to publishers on the encouragement of her 

sister. She’s apparently being sued now for stealing the idea for 

Twilight from another author – but then, bestsellers invariably 

get sued by at least one author. Doesn’t always mean anything. 

Of the five bestselling novelists featured in this course, it is 

only Nicholas Evans who appears to have considered 

himself a career writer. Starting out working for a charity 

in Africa, he later decided to study journalism and became 

a successful TV writer and film producer before beginning 

15 



work on his novels full time. He too has a music connection – his wife is singer/songwriter 

Charlotte Gordon Cumming. 

Psychology 

Writers tend to fall under the label of what my mother calls ‘Arty Types.’ I’m not quite sure 

what she means but I don’t think it’s meant to be complimentary. 

To me it makes sense that writers might find reasons to avoid the nine to five 

routine. They tend to dabble in the arts – for creative and for more deep seated personal 

reasons to do with self enlightenment, the expression of themselves and perhaps finding 

purpose through creativity. Theirs, I would argue, can be a higher calling – the need to 

experience more meaning in life – and make sense of their apparent dissatisfaction with 

‘normality’ by means of their writing. Many writers’ lives throughout history are a testament 

to this curious but, to me, entirely logical phenomenon. 

Writers, after all, spend much of their writing time trying to find meaning, sense and 

logical reasons for human behaviour – even when there aren’t any! In this sense, fiction can 

become more true – and more real – to writers than their day to day lives. 

Mindset 

So, bearing the above in mind, what is the mindset of the potential bestselling author? 

Are there some clues in the lives of our bestselling authors? I believe so. 

16 



I think it could well be this need to ‘escape the ordinary’ and find satisfaction 

through artistic expression that is at the heart of the draw of fiction writing. In fiction, 

writers can make sense of life where all around they find confusion and injustice. 

It’s funny, because we all know there is intrinsically no justice when it comes to 

choosing a career as a writer. There are no guarantees – but oddly, this can actually be a 

strong spur to the potential bestseller writer. It’s the very fact that the chances of becoming 

a huge bestselling author are so slim, that to us writers it can seem like the ultimate prize 

and even our raison d’etre. 

Because, let’s face it, what is it that would inspire you to take an immense amount of 

time to write a novel that personified your perfect (fictional) view of the world? 

Surely only a belief that it was your purpose to write it. 

Even when there is no justice in life, you might say – perhaps it is there, or can be - in 

your fiction. 

It’s interesting to me that so many successful writers get involved in philanthropic 

activities, as though the need to give back is of paramount importance to them. I believe 

this is also a reflection of the sense of helplessness many artists feels on their way up the 

ladder of commercial success. I personally can vouch for the sense of frustration felt by 

artists and writers as they are universally scorned and criticised for the work they do until 

they become successful. It’s one of those strange things about our society: a successful 

artist becomes a kind of god and an inspiration, whereas a ‘struggling’ artist is often 

considered a waste of space or some kind of a loser. 

So, even if you are struggling now, what are the qualities you might aspire to have as 

a potential bestselling author? 

Oddly, we see no particularly extraordinary abilities. Quite the opposite, in our 

current bestselling authors, there is a strong sense of normalness or, to put a more positive 

spin on it, humanity. 

17 

Looking at our five bestselling authors, we see people who are now in strong 

supportive relationships, giving back to society, despite the earlier struggles in their lives. 



There is objectivity in their writing, too, compassion for their characters and a sense of 

caring for the world around them. These are three of the crucial characteristics – objectivity, 

compassion and caring – that you should aspire to in your writing. 

There is also an obvious desire to entertain in bestselling authors. They write for 

others – surely another example of personal ‘philanthropy’. 

Mostly we see in their work: good, strong values – an inherent sense of decency and 

right. Interestingly, in the case of the bestselling authors we are studying, this sense of 

humanity was there in their work before their success – and I would argue is most likely 

what has sustained them throughout their former, more turbulent creative lives. 

There seems not to be the burning ambition that we would expect to normally be at 

the heart of an artist. No, there is simply a desire, through their stories, to attempt to see 

more clearly into the human condition and by doing so, perhaps make the world a better 

place. 

Ideas 

If you want to write a bestseller, where do you get ideas from? Well, if we look at bestselling 

authors, we don’t necessarily see original ideas, but often a reworking on older ones, or, 

more usually, a simple juxtaposition of a new idea with an old one. 

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is now widely accepted to be based on The Holy 

Blood and The Holy Grail by Leigh, Lincoln and Baigent. Okay so they lost the court battle 

but there’s no getting away from the fact that the ‘bad guy’ in the book is called Leigh 

Teabing – an obvious anagram reference of his source’s names. 

Twilight for me has always been a reworking of Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff 

replaced by a vampire. 

Harry Potter is like a cross between Tom Brown’s Schooldays and Lord of the Rings. 

18 



Coelho’s semi-autobiographical Alchemist is widely acknowledged to be a reworking 

of Jorge Luis Borge’s The Tale of Two Brothers. 

The Horse Whisperer? Here we have the glimmerings of originality though Nicholas 

Evans credits the character of Tom Booker to be largely based on a real person, Buck 

Brannaman – who coincidentally became the horse ‘consultant’ in the movie version of his 

book. 

So, if it’s not originality per se that lends itself to bestsellerdom, what is it? 

Clearly if it’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it. 

The imagining of the characters, plot and setting in these five bestsellers is strong – 

and we will be examining them in more detail later in the course. At this stage we need to 

look at what makes a good idea – and a good starting point. 

The Big Idea 

Al Zucherman (mentioned in the introduction to this course) is convinced that it’s the ‘big 

idea’ that makes a potential bestseller. And often, the more that is apparently at stake for 

the characters, the more compelling the big idea becomes. 

The big idea is very relevant in today’s world because it is often used to sell and 

promote the book from its humble beginnings all the way through to the public. Let’s look at 

the big ideas for our chosen bestsellers: 

1. Twilight – what if Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff was a vampire? 

2. The Da Vinci Code – what if Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene? 

3. The Horse Whisperer – what if a girl had to ride the horse that crippled her? 

4. The Alchemist – what if you needed find your destiny? 

5. Harry Potter – what if an ordinary boy became a powerful wizard? 

19 

Notice these are all simple ‘what if’ questions – the kind that fiction writers like you and 

me ask ourselves all the time. And simplicity I believe is the key. If you have to explain your 



premise in more than a few words, you’re probably getting too complicated. The big idea 

should be easy to encapsulate – to yourself and to others like agents and publishers and 

finally the public. 

But still, how do we come up with an idea that may become a bestseller? 

I believe there are four elements that are crucial: 

1. Characters 

Ask yourself, are your characters interesting enough? Are they larger than life? Do 

they have compelling issues that are life threatening? Your answer should be yes to 

all of these questions. We’ll be looking at designing bestseller characters in more 

detail next lesson. 

2. The Central Question 

The central question is the theme of your book, usually ‘what will happen if the hero 

fails in his/her quest?’ The greater the loss or disaster that potentially happens, the 

better. Often this involves the probable death of the hero or heroine. 

3. The Setting 

More than the setting itself is the ‘feel’ of the setting – and how richly you describe 

it. Even if there is no sense of ‘foreign’ about it, you should aspire to make it familiar, 

even intimate and personal in its depiction and influence on the characters. 

4. A Sense of Humanity 

This is vitally important. You’ll notice there is nothing violent, gratuitous or 

confronting about these five bestselling novels. Often writers think that topics like 

abuse are original, therefore a rich hunting grounds for ideas. Nothing could be 

further from the truth. Readers want to be transported, and not in any way 

brutalised by a writer. 

20 



High Concept? 

High concept is a term that is bandied around the publishing industry almost as often as the 

movie industry. Many take the term to mean that your story idea needs to be radical or in 

some way outlandish, but this is not quite accurate. In its simplest terms ‘high concept’ 

means that the story would usually not work without the context of its particular 

environment – or imaginary world. 

For instance, Harry Potter’s story only makes sense in Rowling’s fictional 

environment. She has invented the ‘rules’ to her backdrop to dictate the plot and storyline. 

Similarly Dan Brown creates his own rules regarding Opus Dei, the Catholic Church and the 

reading of Leonardo da Vinci’s art. Twilight only really works if you get right inside Bella’s 

head – and Nicholas Evans and Paulo Coelho also go to great lengths to establish the 

mindsets of their principle characters. That’s high concept. 

Topic 

Writers often feel the need to look for a new topic to delve into – as though that is in some 

way original. This is to misunderstand the nature of originality. 

What makes something original is merely your particular take on something. 

Vampires are not original. Even falling in love with one is not a new thought (it’s in the first 

Dracula). But what is original is the juxtaposition of Forks, Bella and vampires that have 

worked out how to go to school in the day time. 

When it comes to your own writing, don’t beat yourself up over what’s original. 

Originality is not at the starting point, it’s in an idea’s development. 

After the Idea, the Plan... 

21 



Development is the mental process you go through after you have thought of an idea. 

Different writers have different ways of approaching this part. What you must not do at this 

stage is to start writing without some kind of plan, however nebulous. 

An idea for a character is just that. An idea. 

Similarly, an idea for a story is nothing without a character. 

You need to take your idea AND character and give them a context and solidity that 

can only be identified after you have a three act structure for your proposed story. 

The three components necessary for a potential bestseller are as follows: 

1. The Question 

BTW: the question always starts with ‘what will happen if..?’ 

2. The Quest 

...which is only compelling because of the first question... 

3. The Resolution 

Usually, how did the heroes overcome their primary obstacles? 

Easy enough right? You should be able to use this simple template to construct any 

story you plan to write. The problem with many ‘average’ stories is that their writers often 

haven’t identified these three key issues before they start writing. 

Remember that simplicity is paramount at this stage. 

So, how have our five bestselling authors dealt with these issues before they began 

any writing? See the following – and be on the lookout for similarities. 

22 

Twilight 



1. Bella, leaving her mother, starts at a new school 

2. Bella makes friends and falls in love with a vampire 

3. Bella’s life is threatened but she is saved by the vampire 

The Da Vinci Code 

1. Langdon is pulled into a mystery surrounding Leonardo and the church 

2. Langdon makes friends with Sophie and follows clues to the mystery 

3. Langdon’s life is threatened until he reveals Teabing as the master bad guy 

The Horse Whisperer 

1. Grace and her horse, Pilgrim, are hurt in an accident 

2. The whisperer, Tom, is brought in by Annie to help both get over their problems 

3. Grace is cured but Annie must choose between Tom and her husband 

23 



Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 

1. Harry starts at a new school (sound familiar?) 

2. Harry makes friends and uncovers a mystery 

3. Harry’s life is threatened but he uncovers Voldemort and saves the day 

The Alchemist 

1. Santiago wants to find his personal treasure 

2. Santiago journeys, makes friends and is waylaid 

3. Santiago’s quest takes him home to where his treasure was all along 

When planning your next magnum opus I sincerely recommend that you use this 

simple 3 point template (Question, Quest, Resolution) before you begin any writing. Not 

only will it save you a lot of rewriting at the end of the first draft of the story, but you will be 

using a structure that is universally recognised as ‘classic’ – and therefore the type of story 

that has the potential to become a bestseller. 

In a later module we will be looking at how to expand your basic 3 point structure 

into a more involved plot outline. But if you’re looking for clues, take a look at my Art of 

Story course, which comes with this course as a bonus. 

24 



Conclusion 

The fact is writing a blockbuster novel is not just about luck. 99% of all the books you see in 

the NY Times bestseller list were planned and executed with the express purpose of getting 

on to it. 

Agents and publishers of the most successful novelists of our time really do sit down 

and discuss how to make an ordinary novel into a bestseller. For good reason. If your book 

works on this ‘classic’ level, and sells a lot of copies, then Hollywood will be interested. And 

there’s a lot more money to be had in Hollywood than in the publishing world, I can tell you 

that for a fact! Plus of course, with a movie version, you can sell an awful lot more books. 

Being a career writer is about being flexible enough to take onboard suggestions – 

and to commit yourself to improving your story when advised to do so. This requires work of 

course: sometimes a lot of rewriting. But that’s what all bestselling writers do. 

They rewrite. 

Even the best of them. 

Stephen King, Ken Follett, Matthew Reilly, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, the list 

goes on. They rewrite to perfect their novels because… 

…just like you, they want their next book to be a bestseller. 

When writing a book for popular consumption, you need to be unafraid to examine 

your inner self and ask, ‘Do I have integrity? Am I always objective and fair? Are my values 

ones that will resonate with the general public?’ 

If you feel an overwhelming desire to shock and offend, you may find it hard to gain 

ground in the publishing industry. So be careful what you put on paper. I have seen many 

writer’s careers fail because there was a personal issue they just could not let go of in their 

writing – making them seem ‘difficult’ to the very people who might want to help them. 

The fact is writing professionally requires discipline, flexibility and a healthy regard 

for long-term goal setting, time management and planning. 

25 



When it comes to idea creation and development, many new writers are nervous 

about the idea of planning their stories before they start. They sincerely feel that the muse 

might desert them if they are confined to a rigid outline. 

But planning is not always about structuring an entire plot before you write it, 

although the majority of bestselling writers do EXACTLY that. 

I will explain why in a later lesson – just let the idea of it percolate with you for the 

time being. 

As I suggested after the introduction, take a break to let the information in this 

module percolate in your subconscious. 

If necessary, re-read the module. 

The ideas, though on the surface deceptively simple, should eventually ‘fix’ in your 

mind – they may even strike you as profound – and ultimately influence the way you think 

about your own fiction writing – and should perhaps, before you continue with the course. 

26 





Module Two 

27 



28 




Module Two: 

CHARACTERS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS 


In our quest to understand the nature of the modern bestseller and to draw conclusions 

from their similarities, we must now investigate the heroes that live within these books. 

Clearly, there are run of the mill characters that populate ‘ordinary’ novels – many 

being heroic in all the classical ways: strong, self reliant, motivated, and extraordinarily 

handsome or beautiful of course. But, curiously, these attributes do not seem to necessarily 

apply to the bestseller. No, bestseller heroes are more likely to be something more, well, 

ordinary – at least at first. 

It’s about creating sympathy. And the best way to get a reader to like a character is 

to have them easy to relate to. Inside, despite our aspirations and our apparent bravado, we 

are all fundamentally insecure – and afraid of being exposed to ridicule and harm. What 

better way then, to design your lead 

protagonist on yourself – with the fears 

and insecurities that we all share. 

I have already done much work 

in The Hero’s Journey course to explain 

the mechanisms by which a writer 

makes a character sympathetic. (You 

can view these in the bonus to this course.) These include various tactics like showing a 

character overcoming problems when they are first introduced to simply having the 

character being nice to children and animals when they are first shown to the reader. 

29 



Of course these are simplifications. However, there is one ‘rule’ if you will, to bear in 

mind in respect to a ‘bestseller character’. They are usually, if not always, orphans – either 

literally or metaphorically. 

The prime example in our case is of course, Harry Potter. 

In case you need reminding, 

Harry’s parents were killed when he 

was a baby – as were Luke 

Skywalker’s in Star Wars, by the way. 

Both of these heroes start as ordinary 

people, with a metaphorically clean 

uncluttered slate, alone but 

determined to find meaning in their 

lives. 

So too in The Alchemist, when 

the hero Santiago is introduced, he 

has no real back-story. He is a loner with a dream of travelling to the ‘castles of the town’. 

We instinctively relate to his quest. Then later, he speaks with his father who warns him of 

the futility of travelling – because, as he says, one day you will realize that ‘our countryside 

is the best and our women the most beautiful.’ But that’s not enough for Santiago. He wants 

to see for himself and so leaves the village, fully then becoming the orphan archetype. 

Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon is often criticized for having no history, no real backstory. 

He has basically only the minimum requirements for a hero. He too is a loner, he’s 

unattached and he’s humble in the sense that he has a Mickey Mouse watch and suffers 

from claustrophobia – a deliberate foreshadowing of his penchant for finding himself in 

confined spaces. 

Langdon’s only apparent agenda seems to be that there is meaning in the symbols all 

around us: something he regards as self evident but to others may seem marvellous. 

Langdon’s lack of detailed characterization is a deliberate decision that Dan Brown has 

30 



made while constructing his hero/orphan archetype. For very basic reasons: he knows what 

he’s doing. (He does teach fiction writing after all!) 

Dan knows that too much back-story and the average reader would not be able to 

relate to Robert Langdon in the way that is necessary for a reader to ‘become’ the hero. 

Langdon is ‘blank’ enough for us all to paint a canvas of what we would be like if we were 

him. More information on his life, 

childhood and personality traits and we 

would probably not warm to him so well. 

New writers often think that the 

more detail they can relate to their reader 

about their character’s personality traits 

and back-story, the better. This is often not 

the case. Readers like to be able to graft themselves onto a fairly homogenous character, to 

feel comfortable in their skin. Too much detail and the reader can feel increasingly alienated 

from the hero they want to be themselves. 

Think about it. It’s the same with our relationship with celebrities. Thanks to the 

media, we know of them, know their actions and we speculate over their motivations, 

gleaning sound bites that embellish their characters for us – but essentially we only hear 

want we want to hear, that which satisfies and endorses our own world view. We revere 

them often because they represent ideals to us. But, in a sense, we don’t want too much 

detail in case we find out something about our heroes that doesn’t fit – and we can no 

longer relate to them in a way we’re comfortable doing. 

For this reason I think, stars that appear to come out of nowhere often have the 

most appeal to us. Plus of course, having no real past can be seen as mysterious. Hence the 

orphan archetype, even in real life, often secures our sympathies. 

At the beginning of Twilight, Bella has essentially been abandoned by her mother 

(though she doesn’t see it that way – merely that her mother is ‘erratic and harebrained and 

wants to travel with Phil for a while.’ When Bella meets her father Charlie she is alone and in 

a new place, unsure of herself (the loner again) and her place in the world now that she’s 

31 



reached the awareness that comes with being an adult. In short, she is metaphorically the 

orphan when we meet her. 

In The Horse Whisperer too we see the orphan 

archetype in many of the characters, the most obvious 

being the horse, Pilgrim – a figure of independence and 

calm, cruelly cut down by a truck – in a position where most 

animals would be put to sleep, he is brought back to life 

and forced to go on. Just like his crippled rider – an orphan 

in the sense that her injuries make her alone in the world. It 

is hard for Grace to cope and she withdraws. 

Her mother Annie is an orphan in the sense that she 

is a fish out of water – a ‘master of the universe’ – to quote 

Tom Wolfe – as a high flying editor in New York, she is out of her depth in the Montana 

wilderness, especially in the presence of the enigmatic horse whisperer, Tom Booker – a 

man of the land with no real past except an ex-wife who abandoned him, leaving him, again, 

a metaphorical orphan. 

I hope you can see that the orphan archetype can be a useful place to begin your 

characterization of the hero of your own bestselling story. You don’t need to be too literal – 

though it seems as though it doesn’t matter if you are – but there should be in some sense 

that your character is starting out in the story alone – and on a quest to find fulfilment. 

As I said in lesson one, the beginning of a novel should always start by asking the 

question ‘what will happen?’ In this lesson, there’s a caveat. The question should ultimately 

be ‘what will happen to the hero?’ because even if the destiny of the hero is apparent right 

up-front, there must be doubt in the reader’s mind that the hero’s attainment of his or her 

goals is not pre-ordained. That the hero may not at first be well equipped for the task 

ahead. 

For example, Harry Potter is by no means ready to become a wizard at the beginning 

of his story. Similarly Bella Swann is not prepared to be a vampire’s girlfriend when she 

arrives in Forks. Santiago’s naivety is what drives him, and it’s Robert Langdon’s idealistic 

32 



thirst for knowledge and meaning that propels his journey through The Da Vinci Code. And 

ultimately, it is the quest to find meaning and spirituality in the natural world that drives the 

characters in The Horse Whisperer. 

At the beginning of a bestselling story, the reader needs to feel that there will be a 

perilous but believable journey for the hero, a quest, too, for truth and justice, and not a 

little love, friendship and adventure along the way. 

Building and developing bestseller characters is a process – one you can easily 

master if you understand the principles I have outlined above. 

When constructing a template for a bestseller, start with the central character. Write 

down the simplest of outlines for him or her – don’t get caught up in the standard advice 

that says you should know your hero’s blood type, inside leg measurement and favorite 

beverage. This is all just padding. First you need to know the essence of your hero, his/her 

type – and what agenda, as an orphan, they might have. 

Then go from there. All of the other characters, the plot and the story, start with this 

central orphan character – and move outwards. 

Character Relationships 

When you begin planning an outline for your blockbuster, think in Shakespearean terms. By 

this I mean, deliberately raising the stakes within the protagonist’s relationships. 

From all those tedious lessons about Shakespeare’s plays at school, you will have 

noticed that his characters were rarely ordinary folk. They were kings and queens and 

emperors with loyal advisers and firm friends and powerful enemies. Their stories of 

intrigue, loyalty and love revolve around their families and their countries, their wealth and 

their responsibilities. This is in no way accidental. 

The character relationships in bestselling novels are strengthened by the people 

themselves being literally related – their fates therefore in each other’s hands. Their actions 

and words have a direct affect on each other – just as in real life, we are far more likely to 

33 



be offended, moved or angered by a family member – or someone we greatly admire – than 

by a stranger. 

Use this phenomenon in your writing. 

On its most basic level, you can see this principle at work in every TV show you ever 

watch: the way that the new love interest gets the hero’s attention and inspires his loyalty 

has become a huge cliché – because it works. 

It is the attachment of the hero to 

his latest love that makes his motivations 

and agenda more important – in the eyes of 

the reader or viewer. 

Therefore, when designing your own 

story, try to make connections between 

your characters that go beyond mere 

familiarity. Explore the greater issues 

provoked by the clash of familial agendas. 

Brothers, fathers, uncles, mothers, sisters, 

lovers – they all help to contain and intensify the action and stakes for the main character. 

Drawing Strength from Relationships 

Given that the hero is usually unprepared for his journey through the story, it’s not 

surprising that much of the plot can be seen as a process of the hero ‘drawing strength’ 

from the characters around him or her. 

Harry’s friends, Ron and Hermoine, serve 

much the same purpose as Frodo’s friends in Lord of 

the Rings. In Twilight, Bella’s various friends at her 

school, Eric, Mike and Jessica, and the faithful Jacob, 

all serve as a learning experience for her: she draws 

strength from her relationships with them in her 

34 



quest to have Edward seduce her (and don’t tell me that’s not her plan all along!) In The Da 

Vinci Code, , Langdon’s sidekick, Sophie Neveu (which literally translates as ‘new wisdom’) is 

the person through whom his quest for knowledge is strengthened ened and fulfilled. 

These are the 

type of relationships 

that should foment your 

own story outline as 

your hero passes from 

innocence to knowledge 

of the truth. The truth 

of course is relative to 

your hero – and 

different for each of the 

novels we are studying. 

The conspiracy behind Opus Dei for Langdon, the power of magic for Harry Potter etc – any 

kind of enlightenment a character might experience in a hundred other novels. 

The Antagonist 

In all great fiction, there’s always the ‘bad guy’ 

who represents the antithesis of the hero’s 

agenda. As we know, in order to grow, we need to 

confront our demons. And in novels our demons 

are people like Voldemort in Harry Potter, Teabing 

in The Da Vinci Code, , James ‘the tracker’ in 

Twilight and ‘the most powerful chief in the 

desert’ in The Alchemist. 

These common elements are not coincidental – they appeal to our collective 

subconscious, where the template for our life’s experience is laid out. And it’s this template 

– and your unique take on this sense of symmetry and meaning – that you need to tap into 

35 



when designing your novel’s outline – the practicalities of which we will explore fully next 

lesson. 

Point of View 

In a bestselling story there is a greater need to focus on the dilemma of the hero, ultimately 

the character with the most to lose. 

Giving too much focus to the other characters will essentially weaken your story and 

dilute its emotional impact, if for no other reason than it may confuse or distract your 

reader. You want the reader to focus on the hero’s plight – and only cut away to non 

essential characters for the sake of plot. 

Bella’s tale is in the first person point of view, considered to be the simplest to 

maintain for newbie authors (Twilight was allegedly Stephenie Meyer’s first novel after all.) 

The single point of view helps the reader establish an effective bond with Bella – just ask any 

fifteen year old girl who has read her story! 

In The Alchemist, Santiago too holds the story – because it is only his journey that is 

of interest to the reader. But his story is told in the third person. Third person is useful 

because the writer is not constrained by the “I” perspective. 

The Da Vinci Code is told in third person 

omnipotent, where many points of view can be examined. 

Multiple point of view is often a necessary component in 

the adult thriller because circumstances the hero cannot 

know are required to heighten tension and raise the 

stakes. Brown has proven to be a master of multiple point 

of view because he tightly controls it – and the information 

we receive from extraneous characters. Although we meet 

them, we don’t always know the motives of the bad guys – 

except through their actions and dialogue. In Dan Brown’s 

book, like his others, we are essentially watching the 

36 



action unfold as though it’s on TV, an increasingly common way of telling stories. As 

wannabe authors, we should all aspire to write multiple point of view stories because doing 

it well is the most challenging – and fulfilling. 

Harry Potter, unusually for a book initially aimed at children, is also third person 

omnipotent but is much more focused on Harry’s plight – with only rare exposition from 

alternate perspectives – including some nasty passages of authorial intrusion that should 

not be encouraged nor emulated. 

To be honest, I have issues with The Horse Whisperer. It’s a fine story, well crafted to 

be sure but it has what I call a ‘floating point of view’ that can be somewhat distracting. 

Though essentially the story is told in third person omnipotent, Nicholas dips inside all the 

main character’s heads at certain points to reveal inner thoughts of all the main players, 

even the truck driver at the beginning of the story – who really has no real bearing after the 

crash. Although I wouldn’t personally recommend head hopping, Nick redeems himself by 

increasing the emotional intensity of interactions by deliberately withholding internal 

thoughts at certain later points in the story when the focus is, as it should be, on the hero 

with, as I often point out, the most to lose at any particular point. 

Plotting Your Own Bestseller 

Story comes from the interactions of your characters. Period. 

Jo Rowling once said that on a solo journey (after flat hunting) from Manchester to 

London, she imagined what it would be like for a young boy to be on his way to an unknown 

school – and how that would feel. 

She said she started with Harry and all the people he might meet and the story just 

sort of fell into place. In her own mind the entire saga of Harry’s journey through 

adolescence into wizardry was mapped out before she started any writing. 

She then began writing, she said, as soon as she got home. Even though the writing 

changed over time, Harry was more or less fully formed in her mind as a ‘scrawny, little, 

black-haired, bespectacled boy’ – although the first couple of pages she wrote ‘look nothing 

like the finished product,’ she says. 

37 



When visualising your own story, start with your main character. Think through who 

that person is – what their motivations are, how they feel, how they see and interact with 

the world. 

In the case of Harry, and most bestselling heroes, it’s the unknown that he is 

surrounded by – it’s the sense there’s a whole world of experience open to him at the 

beginning of the story that was previously outside of his world view. 

This is a common image in all esoteric literature since the beginning of writing – and 

one that you should plunder in your own. 

Here’s the concept: 

In all occult traditions, the acolyte, the 

beginner – the fool, if you will – is on a journey from 

ignorance or innocence to wisdom via the people he 

meets and the adventures he experiences. On the 

road to enlightenment or riches – spiritual as well as 

actual – the ‘fool’ must meet all kinds of characters 

on his road to wisdom and self-actuality. 

This esoteric journey is surprisingly easy to 

transpose onto the modern bestseller. 

For instance, the characters around Harry Potter represent his trusted friends, his 

mentors and his enemies – all of which he must absorb into his being to appreciate his 

potential – and defeat the evil that besets the world. On a very simple level, Harry’s story is 

about the age old battle between good and evil – and having power – or at least the 

recognition of the power inside of him – and us – that will 

set him and others free. It’s the large scale of Harry’s quest 

that is appealing to the reader. 

We all want to relate to the fundamental issues of 

life and believe that we are doing our bit. We all want to 

feel as though our lives are important and significant on a 

large scale – especially when we’re growing up. I think this 

is the level on which Harry Potter – and the other 

bestselling books we are studying – that ultimately appeals. 

38 



The heroes in these books represent ‘everyman / woman’ (or boy / girl) who ever wanted to 

‘be somebody’ when they grew up and matured. 

The Alchemist’s Santiago is a seeker. A seeker of truth and knowledge, convinced 

that the end of his quest will lead him to great treasure, which in the book is really a 

metaphor for the wisdom and contentment that comes with the knowledge that your life’s 

journey had purpose. 

It’s interesting because much of Santiago’s journey is about the way we get waylaid 

in life. How we all believe there are certain skills we need – or knowledge we must attain – 

before we can move towards the prize. I think this is Coelho saying to us, ‘Isn’t this what 

always happens?’ We get stuck in ruts at various times in our lives. We think we’re not going 

anywhere, that the prize we once sought is disappearing. But Coelho is saying, ‘No, that’s 

not true because everything you do is part of the journey.’ When Santiago works his 

apprenticeship for the crystal merchant, he is not wasting his life away (as we may be 

inclined to feel). No, he is learning, growing inside, until he is ready to seek the treasure of 

the Pyramids – which as we later find out, doesn’t exist. The real treasure was always back 

at his home – buried under the tree where he spent his youth dreaming about the future. 

This whole story is a very clear metaphor of course, one that is common to all bestselling 

stories. 

Namely: 

We journey to find ourselves. We look for home – but life’s sweet irony is that our 

true home is inside of us all along. 

Jo Rowling invented Harry and then cloaked his world in her own life experience and 

borrowed imaginings from her childhood – taking personalities she had known and merging 

them into characters for her books, taking impressions she’d built up over a lifetime of 

experience and her own imaginary worlds. 

In the same way, Coelho used his own sense of yearning for knowledge and meaning 

and transplanted his experiences onto the character of Santiago. His own frustrations with 

life have become Santiago’s – and by drawing on himself, Coelho made Santiago everyman – 

all the more believable because the hero is beset by the same problems as all of us. 

39 



This is the significance of bestselling characters to plot. In the same way that 

characters dictate the plot in all good stories, so ‘epic’ characters like Harry and Santiago 

and Bella and Robert Langdon have ‘epic’ plots that are laden with significance and import. 

The elements of story are not just happening to the characters – they are shaping 

their world – and the story’s – though their actions and reactions. 

The quest for knowledge works in this way because it’s not just a writer’s plot 

device, it is one of life’s fundamental truths. 

Each bestselling story therefore becomes a metaphor for everyman’s journey 

through life. The message is that experience is not just something that happens to us but a 

tool for growth and change. If you, the writer, can tap into these issues, then I believe you 

have the makings of bestseller. Because it’s not just what happens to us that is important – 

but how we are changed and who we become as a result of our life experience that really 

counts. 

Destiny 

The sense of ‘destiny’ is important to the bestselling novel - but it should be ‘destiny fulfilled 

for the little guy.’ 

Harry, the ordinary bespectacled boy, was always destined to become a 

wizard. 

Santiago, the lowly peasant with dreams, was always destined to find his 

treasure. 

Bella, the ordinary blameless adolescent, was always destined to belong to 

Edward. 

Robert Langdon – in his humble way (Brown goes out of his way to make 

Robert essentially ordinary) was always destined to ‘save the world’. 

And finally, Grace MacLean, again the blameless adolescent, was always 

destined to regain her pride and dignity through the work of Tom Booker, the horse 

whisperer. 

40 



Conclusion 

A bestseller requires thought and careful planning on the part of the author. It is not enough 

just to start writing and hope for the best. 

Joanne spent six years planning, plotting and working through the complexities of 

the entire Potter saga while she was writing the first Harry Potter book. 

Similarly Dan went through a dozen or so outlines that went back and forth between 

his agent, Heide Lange, his wife, Blythe and himself over a four year period as, between 

them, they thrashed out the plot and storyline to The Da Vinci Code. 

The message? 

Don’t hurry the plotting process. 

Okay, so Stephenie Meyer apparently took only three months to write Twilight but 

she’s clearly the exception to the rule – and I would argue that perhaps this feat was only 

possible because she wasn’t cluttered by her own preconceptions as a writer. The story is 

that she’d never even written so much as a short story before Twilight – and maybe it was 

her complete lack of illusions about ever being a writer that led her on an inspired journey 

that, allegedly – there’s still some controversy – started with a dream she had about a girl 

and a vampire. 

Inspiration does not always come quick. Be patient with your own bestseller – and 

give it the proper attention it deserves – but don’t get so bogged down with thinking and 

research and procrastination that you don’t write. 

My advice for the long term would be to keep writing every day – perhaps bits and 

pieces from all over the manuscript. Snippets of dialogue, odd scenes. 

Stephenie says she started with what is now Chapter 13. She also experimented with 

telling the story from Edward’s point of view instead of Bella’s. 

41 



Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because you’ve written something that it 

must to be included in the final draft. Any writing you do now should be seen as mere 

development of your central idea. 

James Follett literally writes a different version of his book with each new draft. 

There’s nothing wrong in doing that. In fact it might be necessary. 

The last thing you want is a hodge-podge of pieces that don’t work as a whole – or a 

set of people that at various times act out of character – or plot holes, as I call them, that 

trip the reader out of the fictive dream. 

At this stage, simply collect and expand on your ideas. Keep looking at the whole and 

try to see its consistency, its essential symmetry. This will pay huge dividends later on down 

the track, when you start writing proper. 

42 





Module Three 

43 



44 




Module Three: 

SCENE STRUCTURE & PLOTTING 

In this module I’m presenting to you a simple template for plotting and structuring a 

bestselling novel. It works on the principle that any good story needs to be paced correctly 

by using a series of on/off moments that engage a reader to root for your protagonist. 

The structure I present is not set in stone – you can adjust the precepts to suit your 

story. However, I think that if you at least attempt to graft your own story on to the 

template you’ll see the necessity for keeping the stakes high, the obstacles ongoing – and 

the hero’s journey, at least in some sense, heroic. 

First, you will need to have a story in mind, based on the concepts I have outlined in 

the previous lessons. Next, write out your answers to the following five questions: 

1. Who is your main character? (name, description, type of person) 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

2. What does your main character want? (Main goal or agenda) 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

3. How will your main character achieve this goal or agenda? 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

4. Who or what is trying to stop your main character? 

45 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 



5. What will happen if you main character fails? 

Focus 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

You’ll notice that the questions focus primarily on your central character – without whom 

there is no real compelling story. Harry Potter, Bella Swann, Robert Langdon, Santiago and 

Tom Booker are all easily identifiable heroes. This is deliberate on the part of the authors 

who invented them. Good writers always choose one strong personality to carry their 

novels. It’s the easiest and best way to engage a reader’s interest and sympathy. 

In terms we can all understand I hope, simply put, you cannot write a good novel 

without having ONE strong central character – someone that is clearly taking the role of 

‘hero’ in the story and is not lost in amongst a myriad of other (probably less interesting) 

characters. 

Fact is, if you’re writing a story without a strong central character that propels the 

plot, you’re probably not writing a bestselling novel – or even a publishable novel. 

The central character’s purpose then is to engage the reader. The reader has to care 

what happens to the hero – and to be rooting for them throughout the book. Resist the urge 

to develop other supporting characters – except the bad guy of course – and focus all of 

your energy on telling the story with the protagonist’s point of view as the most paramount 

feature of your story, so that every major plot point, hurdle and mini resolution are 

significant ONLY to the hero. 

In the course of your ‘big story’ template your hero must be clearly engaged in a kind 

of metaphorical journey, with four distinct parts: 

1. The Orphan 

2. The Seeker 

3. The Fighter 

4. The Victim-Saviour 

46 



We discussed the Orphan archetype in the last lesson – and I hope by now that you will 

have seen the relevance and veracity of this concept. 

The Seeker archetype is the main character engaging on a quest for information and 

guidance based on his/her goals and agenda in conflict with their surroundings. 

Examples: 

• In Twilight, Bella Swann is a seeker while she’s trying to make sense of who the 

Cullens are, and why they are at her school. 

• In The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon is the seeker while he’s trying to unravel 

the mystery of Sauniere’s death. 

• Harry Potter is a seeker while he’s trying to understand the rules of wizardry at 

Hogwarts. 

• In The Alchemist, Santiago is the seeker of his treasure as he gets waylaid on his 

journey. 

• And lastly in The Horse Whisperer, Annie is seeking answers and a cure for her 

daughter’s condition by engaging the help of Tom Booker. 

Don’t be dismissive of this concept. The Seeker archetype is not simply a formulaic 

‘coincidence’ that occurs in these novels – the examples show how we are all part of the 

collective subconscious, a metaphysical place where the author and the reader figuratively 

‘meet’ to explore the human condition. 

The Fighter archetype becomes relevant when, armed with the necessary resources 

– which are typically information, friends and usually higher stakes – the hero is then in a 

position to begin ‘fighting’ for what is right and just in relation to his / her original agenda. 

The Seeker usually becomes the Fighter at around the half way point in the story. In 

terms of the Hero’s Journey is the usually after a symbolic ‘death’ where the hero changes 

perspective and is willing to act on the principles he / she has acquired or developed during 

the first half of the story. This is an important transition point in the readers’ minds – 

47 



because they, like the hero, have been led to this point. It is equally important that the 

reader ‘believes’ this transition and continues to identify with the hero. 

Again, these plot transitions are part of all good bestselling stories – and are easily 

identifiable in the books we are studying. 

Examples: 

• The Seeker/Fighter transition point in Harry Potter is when, after the incident 

with the three headed dog, Hermione, Ron and Harry become united as a team 

to unravel the mysteries connected with Flamel’s philosopher’s stone. 

• In Twilight the transition occurs when Bella finally admits to herself she is 

‘unconditionally and irrevocably in love with Edward Cullen.’ 

• In The Da Vinci Code, the transition occurs at the point where, after escaping 

from the bank, Langdon decides to seek out Leigh Teabing – who at the time he 

believes will be an ally. 

• Santiago becomes the Fighter in The Alchemist when, frustrated by his progress, 

he decides to pursue (oddly and coincidentally enough) the philosopher’s stone 

with the enigmatic Englishman. 

• And again, in The Horse Whisperer, the transition comes when Annie decides to 

move her office from New York to Montana – to be with Grace permanently. 

The final Victim-Saviour archetype is the most interesting because, rather than 

typically acting heroically towards the end or denouement of a story, the protagonist is 

often found to be hapless. Rather than forcing an issue or confrontation with the bad guy, 

the hero will often be compelled into a stand-off and, although not killed by the experience, 

will come out of it badly, and only just survive. 

Think in terms of Harry when, confronted by Voldemort/Quirrell, he passes out and 

awakes after the action is over. This is almost an exact replica of the climax scene of 

Twilight, where Bella passes out during the struggle with James, to awake in the hospital, 

48 



after the Cullens have dispatched the enemy. Curiously in these two examples there is also 

the sense of surrender, even martyrdom involved in the showdown. Bella in particular has 

chosen to confront James because she feels she has no choice. So it is with Langdon in The 

Da Vinci Code. In a way, his confrontation with Leigh Teabing is not even necessary to the 

plot, except in terms of resolving Langdon’s personal demons. More on this fundamental 

issue during the template. 

This Victim-Saviour point is crucial because it’s here that it is easy to lose the reader’s 

sympathy. It’s the old cliché of when the hero is forced to take action, it’s in spite of it 

clearly being bad for his / her health. 

The thing is: if your reader doesn’t feel absolutely compelled to confront the bad guy 

– along with the hero – then your main character is probably not working properly. That’s 

why it’s important to keep the reader engaged throughout the story – using the following 

suggested template. 

Here we go: 

The First Third of Your Story 

After having answered the first five questions in this module, use that information to then 

work through this template. On a separate piece of paper, write anything from a short 

sentence to a paragraph for each ‘plot point’ below. 

That’s sufficient at this stage. You can polish it into a proper story ‘outline’ later. 

1. Show your hero ‘at home’, usually in some extreme circumstance 

2. Establish your hero’s agenda – in relation to his / her flaws 

3. Establish your hero’s main obstacle – or antagonist (symbolically if you wish) 

4. Show your hero ‘deflected’ from his / her path (by circumstance or a character) 

5. Incite your hero to ‘get involved’ in his / her journey 

6. Clarify your hero’s problem – show what’s at stake 

7. Show your hero assisted – either by events or ‘helpers’ 

49 



8. Show how progress is hard for your hero 

9. Have the hero’s agenda threatened by his / her antagonist or a ‘deflector’ 

10. Establish the intensity of what’s at stake 

11. Show that the hero has no control over his / her fate 

12. Show the hero finally deciding to take back that control 

At this point in the story you – and the reader – should be aware of three main issues: 

a) That the hero has problems that are apparent to all the characters around him / her 

b) That the hero has personal demons that are clear to the reader 

c) That the hero has an innermost need to fulfil his / her destiny 

These three issues define your story ‘theme’ and will provide the conflict and ideas for 

obstacles to your character’s agenda for the rest of your novel. 

The Second Third of Your Story 

1. Show your hero learning and growing in a series of scenes that firstly endorse and 

then obstruct the protagonist’s quest and / or journey through the story: 

2. Endorsement One 

3. Obstruction One 

4. Endorsement Two 

5. Obstruction Two 

6. Endorsement Three 

7. Obstruction Three 

During this process you should be showing that things are getting ever more complicated for 

the hero, that the stakes are getting higher and the antagonist, bad guy, is getting stronger. 

If you have a subplot that you believe will work for your story, here is the place to begin it 

(and not before). 

8. Endorsement Four 

50 

9. Obstruction Four 

10. Endorsement Five 



11. Obstruction Five 

12. Endorsement Six 

13. Obstruction Six 

By now the hero should be becoming more aware of his / her abilities, testing them and 

having some success against increasingly tough obstacles. At this point too, the antagonist 

should be aware the hero – if he / she wasn’t already. 

14. Endorsement Seven 

15. Obstruction Seven 

16. Endorsement Eight 

17. Obstruction Eight 

By now the stakes are often life or death in nature – either for the hero or for those that he 

/ she have sworn to protect. Here too there may be some foreshadowing of the final 

showdown – though its significance may be lost on the hero. At this point too, the hero is 

most definitely the Fighter, strong and resourceful. It is time to enter the antagonist’s world. 

18. Endorsement Nine 

19. Obstruction Nine 

20. Endorsement Ten 

21. Obstruction Ten 

At this point the central questions in your story are confronted. Will the hero have what it 

takes to resolve the story issues and face his demons, issues and the antagonist? With every 

endorsement of the hero’s actions, the obstructions ‘tighten the screws’ on the ‘theme’ of 

the story. 

22. Endorsement Eleven 

23. Obstruction Eleven 

24. Endorsement Twelve 

25. Obstruction Twelve 

Though your hero may have had some success, he / she is now in direct conflict with the foe 

– and perhaps realizes he / she does not have the power and / or resources to defeat the 

51 



bad guy(s). This is usually the place in which your hero is in the most peril – and what’s at 

stake is almost lost completely. Your hero must face his / her darkest hour. 

Examples: 

Lost for ideas? You’re writing a bestseller, right? Think in terms of Harry facing the 

Mirror of Esired, Bella and the Cullens facing the tracker, or Langdon confronting 

Teabing, Santiago arriving at the Pyramids and Grace being put on Pilgrim’s back. 

These are all very similar, deliberately constructed scenarios that test the hero’s 

mettle to the limit. 

The Last Third of Your Story 

1. Show the hero emerging as a ‘born again’ protagonist, often reckless 

2. Show the threat / antagonist / circumstance as being almost unbeatable 

3. Show the hero rising to the moment 

Think again here of the three main issues that face the hero – the obvious, the personal and 

the innermost. At this point in the bestselling story, the protagonist must deal with each of 

them in turn – to satisfactorily resolve the story in the eyes of the reader. 

4. Show the hero resolving to deal with his / her innermost agenda 

5. Show the hero willing to risk everything to protect what’s at stake 

6. Show the hero fail when trying to help the characters / situation around him / her 

7. Show the hero undaunted, getting up to fight again 

At the final denouement of the story, the central theme must be confronted – good versus 

evil, the expulsion of the hero’s demons and the protection of the innocent. The best stories 

at this point require the hero to make the ultimate sacrifice – often his / her own life, so 

that the hero was literally willing to die for his / her values. 

8. Show the hero in control 

9. Show the hero in danger of being defeated 

10. Show the hero ‘apparently’ defeated 

52 



11. Show the hero finally triumphant 

The hero’s victory should resolve the three main issues facing the protagonist as well as 

affirming positive human values and endorsing the novel’s central theme. 

12. In the ‘wrap up’ you show the hero ‘at home’ again, safe, with a new outlook and a 

promise of a better life to come unless… 

13. You’re planning a sequel and you need to introduce the hint of another threat. 

So there you have it – a template for a bestseller, based on lots of my personal research, 

accepted conventions in fiction, film and television, and intimate study of the bestsellers in 

this course. I recommend you use it. 

Despite what you may want to believe, plotting modern stories is no longer a 

random series of happy writer mishaps. Perhaps it never was. It’s probably only amateurs 

that like to believe these things happen by accident rather than design. Plotting a modern 

novel, I believe, is a logical sequence of carefully considered judgements that a committed 

bestseller author must make. 

Judgements that you too can make. 

While there is certainly more flexibility in novel writing than there is, say, in TV and 

in film, there are still useful conventions you can use when it comes to plotting a bestselling 

story. Pace can be formalized, as above. So too, can scene structure be shown to be a series 

of predetermined decisions based on the effect you are trying to achieve. 

Scene Structure 

I have covered overall scene structure and how to link scenes together into satisfying whole 

in the Art of Story course – which you have received along with this course. Here, I will 

attempt to précis that information in light of the above template. 

There are five elements to an effective scene, often called ‘beats’ – which signify 

moments of emotional intensity. Clearly in a bestselling novel, these ‘beats’ move beyond 

being mere ‘moments’ into larger and more significant events in the character’s 

interactions. 

53 



Simply put, the five ‘beats’ of a normal scene are comprised of: 

1. The introduction 

2. The initiating event / circumstance 

3. The reaction / response 

4. The consequence / follow up action 

5. The hook / link 

To clarify, the introduction acts as a kind of bait, to get the reader involved. This 

could be something as simple as a description of the setting in which the action is about to 

take place. Sometimes the introduction of a new idea is enough – or a juxtaposition of 

disparate ideas. More often though, in the modern bestseller, it is a dramatic opening 

gambit – a piece of strong dialogue or a burst of emotion in the first line. 

Next, the Initiating Event is another title for a significant plot point – one of the 

‘endorsement’ or ‘obstruction’ events from your template in all likelihood. 

From the initiating event comes the reaction or emotional response to that event – 

how it impacts on your characters. As you know, from every action there is a reaction. In the 

same way, a plot device will lead to a: 

Consequence, which then impacts on the characters and leads them towards a 

course of actions that are motivated by the initiating event. And, rather than a static 

recording of the effect of the consequence, you would end the scene with a: 

Mini hook, in the form of action or suspense or cliff-hanger to take the reader out of 

the scene and into the next one. 

How Long is a Scene? 

Scene length is your prerogative. 

In the above template, each plot point represents about 3000 to 5000 words for a 

normal length novel of between 80000 to 100000 words. If it makes it easier, think of each 

plot point in the template as being the length of a chapter. In years gone by, a chapter was 

usually considered to be around 10000 to 12000 words or longer. Modern audiences have a 

shorter attention span. So, rather than include 4 or 5 plot points in a chapter, you would 

54 



probably want only one plot point per chapter – thereby making your chapters shorter – 

anything from 1000 to 3000 words. A good scene length for the modern bestseller is around 

1000 to 1200 words – about 4 to 5 five pages of a paperback or 10 pages of your double 

spaced manuscript. Therefore your chapters would each include either just one significant 

plot point or two maximum. Of course this is only a rough guide and the ultimate decision 

about chapter length is yours to make. 

Bear in mind that the likes of Dan Brown, James Patterson and other bestselling 

authors tend towards shorter chapters – to intensify the action and to maximize the 

‘unputdownable’ factor. Obviously if you have hooks at the end of each short chapter, 

you’re making the story harder to put down, which can only be good. Right? 

Conclusion 

My purpose in these lessons is to help guide you towards writing a bestseller. In this module 

I have presented to you formulas which you may embrace or reject, based on your needs 

and your intuition. 

However, I hope you can see that from the five bestselling books cited in this course, 

I have also offered evidence that certain conventions are best adhered to if you sincerely 

want to write a bestselling novel. 

I suggest you re-read the above lesson carefully – and try plotting your own novel 

using the template I have outlined. (If by chance you’re still having problems wondering 

what a an effective ‘story’ is – and how fiction works, you probably need to go back to basics 

and purchase my AWA Easy Writing (which includes the Fiction 101 Master-class) – call us 

for details of that if you don’t already have it. 

If you then have any further concerns, read The Art of Story and The Hero’s Journey, 

and combine this information into your novel writing arsenal. Then, I believe, you will be 

assured of publication and even critical success. 

55 



On Feedback 

As you may have gleaned from some of the above points in this lesson and the ones prior, 

writing bestsellers is more and more a team sport. 

When you have completed your ‘bestselling novel outline’ – a document that could 

be anything from five to thirty pages long – bite the bullet and begin showing it to people 

and asking for feedback. This is an incredibly powerful way of honing and perfecting a novel 

idea before you do any of the writing proper. Better to have agents, friends and other 

writers point out the plot holes in your story before you write the first draft. 

Of course you need to find people whose opinion you trust – but almost anyone will 

do when it comes to constructing a potential bestseller. The ‘man on the street’ after all is 

who you are likely to sell to if you write a bestseller. Ken Follett says he hands out his 

outline to as many people as he can – including casual acquaintances, the doorman to his 

apartment, as well as his agents and friends. This way, over the course of a year, he says, 

you can build up a more coherent impression of how your story will work in the marketplace 

once it’s written. 

This may seem like an odd way of writing to you – but clearly the benefits can be 

enormous and, literally, world changing if, at the end of the ‘feedback process’ you end up 

with the kind of story that becomes a bestseller. 

Next lesson we look at the writing itself – and more especially rewriting. 

After that, the final lesson will reveal a new trend that ensures publishers will be 

falling over themselves to publish your book. Till then, 

Keep writing! 

56 





Module Four 

57 



58 




Module Four: 

Story Writing, Editing and Revision 

Introduction 

Well, here we are, at the writing stage of your novel. 

You may actually be writing your bestseller now, or not. It doesn’t matter, this 

information is still pertinent whatever your current status as a fiction writer. 

I may be a good teacher – it’s not for me to decide – but, of course, the actual fiction 

writing is the part I can’t do for you. Much as I’d love to, the writing is your part of the 

bestseller equation. And at some point, you will need to start... 

Whenever you do finally take the plunge, you will need to allocate time, write 

consistently every day – around an hour or two at least – and keep going until each draft is 

complete. There’s no way around this aspect of novel writing. 

Consistency is the key – all successful writers agree on this. You need to do 

something every day. When you do, writing ceases to be a chore or an act of divine 

inspiration – it’s ideally neither, because the writing becomes simply something you do that 

is necessary to the completion of the work. 

Though the above is probably self evident in one regard, in another it neatly 

encompasses the real secret to success in writing – that when writing becomes a natural 

daily activity that you do without question, then you’re fully on your way to completing the 

novels you believe in and want to get out there. 

There really is no substitute for habit. 

59 



However, you’ll be glad to know that most bestselling writers don’t think that writing 

all day is the answer. Some do, of course, but most see three or four hours as a maximum – 

more than that and the mental concentration involved can become physically taxing. 

So even if you personally have the luxury of writing all day, as lovely as that sounds 

in theory, I wouldn’t recommend it. 

Mornings would strike me as the best – and prior to doing your emails and other 

correspondence. You don’t want to use up your inspiration on writing that is wasteful and 

transient. Far better to use your writing motor to get down some good story! 

The Writing 

Under normal circumstances, you have two choices. 

One, allocate specific increments of time – say two or three hours – a day. Or, have a 

daily ‘ideal’ word count you want to habitually fulfil. The latter is often the preferred choice. 

Decide on a realistic daily word count for you – just you. Writing fiction is not a 

competitive sport. It’s your call. Wilbur Smith says he finds 200 words a day to be his limit. 

Not because he finds it hard – but because that’s enough for him, whether it takes him an 

hour or all day, he’s happy with 200 words down. 

Others, like Stephen King work towards 3000 words a day – which he will spread 

over several hours, with breaks. It depends on your temperament and what makes you 

happy. 

Time of day is personal too. Tolstoy was a day writer, Dostoyevsky was a night 

writer. Both were equally productive (and successful – despite both having died poor!) 

There’s no right or wrong way. Just whatever gets the job done – for you. 

60 



Often what’s more difficult is getting in the right mood. The time is one thing, the 

motivation another. As I say, habit is often the best motivator. Because habit makes you do 

things without thinking. 

I don’t know about you but I find that writing fiction, that is when I’m doing it, tends 

to take me away mentally from everything else – and though I love that headspace, it’s not 

always conducive to doing any other work. I find I have to mentally shift gear into and out of 

my fiction, which I admit I sometimes find a difficult transition. 

Whatever, my advice would be that if you have the time, write without delay or time 

spent questioning yourself, every day if you can. The investment is worth it – because you’re 

unlikely to get any time back in the future if you don’t use it now. 

The First Draft 

Having allocated time – let’s say ninety minutes a day during which you’re expecting to 

write 1000 words – you would plan to have the first draft of a novel done within around 

three or four months. You may want to write 3000 words a day and have the novel done in 

around a month. That’s possible too, but long-term, go for the easier path – one you can 

easily fit into your normal routine. 

Use your template. Write quickly and don’t go back and edit. Simply transcribe your 

story, scene for scene, onto paper. With each new scene think, show don’t tell. 

Telling a story usually requires pages of exposition where you passively describe 

each new plot twist and turn. Resist this temptation. The result will be dull dry prose that 

no-one is likely to want to publish. For a bestseller, you need something more alive. 

Instead, for every new scene on your template, imagine your characters acting, 

talking and interacting with dialogue, physical presence and real time actions. Create your 

scenes as mini events – with beginnings, middles and ends – just as I teach in the Art of 

Story. 

61 



Sometimes this kind of imagining – showing – is admittedly more work than simply 

telling your story. It requires more of a mental effort because it requires you to see your 

characters and their stories in your mind first. But this is the trick you need to master – that 

when you’re write engaging ‘showing’ fiction, you’re not really writing at all, you’re merely 

transcribing the events as you see them in your mind. 

Listen. Good writing is not about the words you use – it’s about the images you 

conjure in the reader’s mind. This is why the bestselling authors we are studying are often 

criticized for their lack of writing skills – because their critics are missing the point. 

Essentially, in a bestselling novel, the words are irrelevant. While good sentence 

construction and grammar are important, they are pertinent only to their effect – which is 

what takes place in the reader’s mind. 

Over-wordy, lyrical and beautifully handled words often have the effect of distancing 

the reader from a story – which is, of course, the complete opposite of what you want! 

When it comes to writing a bestseller, first focus on the story – forget about the 

words – you can always fix them later. (As we discuss below) 

For the first draft, simply write out one scene after the other, get it all down without 

fear, without any thought of showing the work to anyone, without any purpose in mind 

other than to transfer your template (outline) to paper form. When you’re done, 

congratulate yourself and put the MS away for at least a month. Then come back for the 

edit. 

The Editing Process for a Bestseller 

As writers, we all know that careful editing makes the crucial difference between rejection 

and consideration and acceptance. Only a complete novice thinks that editing is not as 

important, if not more important than the actual writing. 

62 



If you’ve taken this course I assume you know all the usual advice about editing for 

publication. You can get all the pertinent information you need from the bonus included in 

this course. That’s all good for any and all manuscripts. But editing a best seller requires 

more, a clearer focus on some very specific issues. The object of the editing and rewriting 

process is to get your bestseller into a shape that is instantly recognizable as such by the 

agents and publishers you will send it to. 

These people – people who read manuscripts all the time – recognize when you’ve 

done this work correctly. The signs are in fact all too clear. Right up front. 

For instance, if your first chapter is meandering and vaguely pointless (a common 

enough scenario for 90% of all manuscripts), they know that the rest is likely to be the same. 

In order to impress, you need to show that your prose is focused and strong right from the 

outset. Your story – and only your story – should be blatantly apparent from the first line. 

This is why you must not get caught up in the actual words. Do you understand what 

I’m saying? I fear not. 

Here’s a clue. If you absolutely love what you’ve written from one page to the next, 

then it’s probably self indulgent – and unlikely to be published. 

I know this sounds contrary to logic but trust me, it’s the way it works. 

Because actually, the way to tell if your writing is any good is if the words don’t touch 

you anymore. The only thing that matters is STORY. And it is this that you should focus on 

when you’re writing a bestseller. Any attempt whatsoever to look like you’re a good 

wordsmith will lead to failure – in the eyes of a publisher and in the eyes of a reader. 

So how does this work in practice? How do you remove the literary writer in you and 

focus purely on the story? First, take a look at your own page one. 

63 



How’s Your Opening? 

Look at the opening line for The Da Vinci Code: 

Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the 

museum’s Grand Gallery. 

What is actually here? For a start, there is nothing in this sentence that suggests 

literary prowess, no sense that Dan is trying to show off. It is simply story – nothing more, 

nothing less. 

In reality, he may have struggled over which precise words to use to get the exact 

image across. He may – and probably did – edit this first line a hundred times, but to what 

end? 

Simple. To make it look as though it was the first thing that came into his mind. 

The first line of The Da Vinci Code is simple and direct with no affectation 

whatsoever. There is no author present. No narrator. Only the story, because that’s all that 

is necessary. 

This is the lesson. 

Great writing is that which appears not to be. 

And, conversely, writing that aspires to greatness, ironically, often ends up sounding 

crap. For this reason, choose your own writing style carefully. And, if you want to be a 

bestselling writer, choose story over the love of words – every time! 

Look at the opening line of Chapter One of Twilight: 

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. 

Again, there is no affectation, no desire to impress, simply the facts of the story 

moment. The writing is deceptively simple because it places an image in the mind of the 

reader – and serves no other purpose! 

64 



To reiterate, too many writers – perhaps the majority – believe that their words 

should somehow be beautiful and flowing and show great intellect and mastery of the 

English language. For the bestseller, this is simply not the case. The purpose of good writing 

is to place images in the mind of the reader, transparently, with no barrier – that is, without 

the WORDS getting in the way of the story. 

Again, from the Alchemist: 

The boy’s name was Santiago. 

How simple do you need to get? Do you understand yet that writing bestsellers is 

not about the words? Don’t fall in to the trap of loving your own words. Only amateurs do 

that. Many professional career writers actually end up loathing words because they get in 

the way of what they’re trying to say. 

Just ask an old writer. 

Serious Editing 

This desire for simplicity extends from the first line of your story to the last. Editing to a 

professional standard is where the real writing takes place – when you’re engaged in 

systematically re-arranging words to get exactly what you meant across. 

Normal editing is of course about the technical issues like spelling, grammar, 

punctuation, phrasing, logic and credibility. But editing a bestseller requires a more 

dedicated focus on story, impact and emotional involvement. The true professional – or the 

truly committed amateur – must have the courage to look at his/her own work with a more 

critical, even ruthless eye. 

Essentially it’s about removing your ego from the process. 

Start from the beginning of your first draft and then calmly and methodically read 

every single sentence to see if the meaning is clear – and conveys the image you were 

intending. If it does, and it reads well, and is logical, leave it. 

65 



But, if there’s a particular sentence you like but you know there’s something wrong 

with, copy and paste it to a separate sheet. Then just work on that until it’s as perfect as you 

can get it. Not in a literary sense – but in the sense of meaning and, ultra-importantly, ease 

of reading. When it’s perfect, paste it over the old line. 

Keep going like this all the way through your manuscript, making sure each line is 

perfect and works in the context of everything else in your story. If ever you’re in doubt, 

delete a passage and leave a note for yourself that you’re going to need to rewrite this 

section. There’s no stigma in that. Many bestselling writers work this way – deleting and 

replacing scenes so that each is more effective than its predecessor. Why do you think 

modern writers prefer shorter chapters? Simple – they’re easier to rewrite, replace or 

delete. 

The difference between a bestseller and a normal literary work is that the bestseller 

should be EASY to READ – and the meaning of each scene and character interaction totally 

apparent without even a second glance. No clever similes are required, no long clumsy 

sentences, no dangling participles or misplaced metaphors, or cliché. Just pure story told 

with the minimum number of words EVERY TIME. 

When editing, as hard as it may be to you, if there’s anything that strikes you as 

‘good writing’, immediately delete it and rework it into simple words that say what you 

mean. Trust me, your writing will come across stronger if you concentrate on clarity and 

resist the urge to write because you like the sound of words. 

Things to Look Out For 

Editing and revising a potential bestseller is a new frontier for many writers, but one that 

can be mastered. I’m assuming that all the thrills and spills are there in your template – and 

you have successfully, at least in part, transferred the bulk of that excitement into your first 

draft. At this point, there will be several aspects of your writing you will need to examine in 

the subsequent drafts of your story. Here are the main things to look out for: 

66 



Author’s Voice 

Remember: You are not telling the story, your characters are. 

I wish I could leave this comment as it stands – it’s the single-most powerful lesson a 

fiction writer can learn. Many writers I come across never learn this simple fact. Luckily we 

have proof all around us. Fact is, there is no author present in bestselling novels – no 

omniscient observer, no narrator, no witty and talented raconteur or skilled master of the 

anecdote. The best writers are completely invisible to the reader. Dan Brown is not a 

character in his books. Neither is JK Rowling. 

To make the concept simple, let me put it this way: 

Stephenie Meyer did not write Twilight, Bella did. 

Write for the reader 

You are not writing to impress anyone. When you do, you impress no-one except yourself. 

We all know that you would never trust someone who had an exceptionally high 

opinion of himself. Such a person would often lie and mislead you. 

Your job as a writer is to be totally trustworthy – you therefore need to suppress 

your ego, remove it from the story and appear completely dispassionate. Your feelings 

about anything one way of the other should never be apparent. Even if a particular 

character you create has strong feelings, the reader should never be under the impression 

these are in any way a reflection of your feelings – do that and you’ve lost the reader’s trust. 

The story is all. 

Whenever you see yourself in your writing, delete, delete, delete. 

67 



Don’t be chatty or cute 

Many new writers think their own voice is charming and endearing. It may well be – but if 

the reader knows you think that, you become irritating. Charming and chatty is for 

newspaper columns or non-fiction articles. It may even work for longer works of non-fiction, 

like travelogues. But in novels, unless it’s the character’s voice, cute doesn’t work. Period. 

Don’t joke or try to be funny 

In the same vein as above, don’t try to be amusing or ironic in your telling of the story – and 

whatever you do, don’t use exclamation marks to draw attention to your jokes. Your ability 

to see the absurd – or profound – may be acute and insightful but any attempt to display 

your talent to the reader will result in their contempt. Bad writing is that which draws 

attention to itself. If you believe you are talented, let the story show it on its own – without 

you feeling the need to tug on the reader’s shoulder and nudge them into seeing your 

prowess. 

Stay focussed on the story 

Don’t meander off into unnecessary detail. I see this all the time. In an attempt to seem 

literary – or simply fill the page with words – new writers will often describe everything that 

occurs to them. Details regarding the character’s life story... the economic state of the 

country... the history of the colour blue... Gah! 

Too much description or back-story is simply not required. Don’t feel the need to put 

down everything. Less is more. And if you overdid the detail in your first draft, have a saved 

copy, but delete everything that doesn’t forcibly push the story forward. 

Paragraphs of unnecessary exposition are the first passages that readers skip anyway 

– and for good reason: they’re dull. 

68 



Anything you find clever, witty or profound, your reader will not 

The writer is not, and never should be, more interesting than the characters. 

Forget what university lecturers say – the best writers have no personality, at least 

none you can discern from their fiction. It is not the job of fiction to relate the author’s life 

or feelings on any issue. The writer is simply a conduit for a story, nothing more. 

Do not reveal your attitudes towards things, issues and people through the use of 

adjectives. It is not clever, witty or profound to attach words to objects and characters that 

display your personal preferences. 

Know what I mean? Maybe not. Let me give you an example – something I see all the 

time in new writers’ work. They will describe a person as beautiful, sweet or pathetic or 

lonely – or perhaps something the character says as painful, mysterious or amusing or deep 

– with no clear indication as to whether this is a character’s point of view or the author’s. 

So what, you might say. Well, if it’s the character’s description, these extra adjectives 

are excusable. However, if it’s clearly the author’s point of view, it makes the writer seem 

shallow, affected and judgemental – not something you want to appear, ever. 

Successful reader engagement is with the characters or the story, never the writer. 

Delineate Your Characters 

At some stage early on, you will have decided which one of your characters is the main 

protagonist. Don’t forget – and go developing minor characters and making them seem 

more significant or important. It’s okay to do this in your first draft – we all do it. But when it 

comes to the subsequent drafts, you need to cut back all but pertinent mention of ALL of 

the lesser characters. No exceptions – except perhaps the bad guy, within limits! 

69 



Not only does too much focus on another character confuse the reader – who 

normally wants to stay with the protagonist anyway, but you also run the risk of making 

other characters more interesting than your hero. Something to be avoided at all costs. 

Consciously make your lead character the most interesting. But don’t make him / her 

unpredictable. 

Another fault I see all the time in new writers work is the desire to make their hero 

capable of anything – a kind of metaphysical and literary James Bond. This is a mistake 

because the hero then becomes unbelievable. 

You need to be sure of your own hero’s limitations. Limitations are what define 

Robert Langdon, Bella Swann, Harry Potter, Grace and Santiago. It’s their limitations that 

make them who they are – and make them seem real. If Bella could suddenly deal with her 

love for Edward, there would be no Twilight. If Robert Langdon was Mr Universe, there 

would be no interesting plot. It’s important to remember that your ‘real’ fictional hero is not 

a superhero – and, if you study my Hero’s Journey course, you’ll see that neither are ‘real’ 

superheroes inconsistent. 

To emphasize, don’t write long chapters, even long passages, about other characters 

– except if it’s from the protagonist’s POV. Only then does it work. 

Keep on Target 

When it comes to editing the individual scenes or chapters, delete anything that doesn’t 

directly affect or cause the plot to move forward. This includes back-story, any part of your 

setting, much description, character development, anything. Cut it out. If you’re ever in 

doubt, delete it – it shouldn’t be there. 

You don’t need to describe much at all because your reader already knows what 

most things and places look like. You need only describe things that are pertinent to the 

story. 

70 



Some people criticize The Da Vinci Code for its long descriptions of churches, works 

of art and religious concepts. However, Dan only ever does this in the context of story. 

There are never any descriptions that are not directly relevant to the plot. 

If I had to pick one trait that separates the bestseller from the ordinary well written 

novel, it’s connected to this element. ‘Ordinary’ books describe many things that are not 

relevant to the story. 

Of course, some exposition about technology, history, background is okay AS LONG 

AS IT’S VITAL to the plot. But don’t feel the necessity to over-explain. 

Besides which, describing everything is boring – often to the writer and the reader. 

You need some mystery, a few unanswered questions to keep the reader interested. 

Readers want to fill in at least some the blanks themselves. 

Suspense from one chapter to the next is fine – but don’t leave the reader hanging 

while you describe things that are irrelevant to the plot. Not just the story – but the plot. 

This is how to achieve good pacing. Focus. Delete meanderings and get on with the story. 

Cliche 

Okay, we talk in cliché, we may think in cliché, but we must NEVER write in cliché. 

Many writers don’t spot their own clichés – they write in what they think of as 

‘accepted word clusters’, not realising it’s really just lazy writing to accept that everything 

has been described adequately by someone else already. You must strive to edit out every 

cliché in your writing. 

And don’t just think in terms of famous phrases like ‘pot calling the kettle black’ etc. 

There are many more phrases we take for granted. Here are a few off the top of my head: 

When the dust has settled 

Give an arm and a leg 

71 



Burning with desire 

His patience was limited 

Bring them up to speed 

Fleshing out 

Hidden agenda 

Deep pockets 

Motley collection 

Fraudulent activities 

Faded from the radar screen 

How far this cancer had spread 

Get your beauty sleep 

Voila! 

Cover plenty of ground 

Follow the breadcrumbs 

All hush-hush 

Raring to go 

Pasted over the cracks 

Jumped through hoops 

Drinks began to flow 

Worth every cent 

Blissfully unaware 

Came out of nowhere 

There are a million others. At least. 

As I hope you can see there are many innocent looking phrases that we might miss in 

our editing – but which display a lack of intellectual individuality. It’s your job to be very 

vigilant when it comes to editing your own material – and remove these unwanted 

affectations in your work. Because, simply put, if you use a cliché instead of actually working 

through what you’re trying to say, you say nothing much at all. 

72 



Conclusion 

Actually editing is, if a long process, an easy one, because there are three simple rules. 

1. If it’s hard to understand, simplify it. 

2. If it’s not telling the story, delete it. 

3. If it’s causing you problems, rewrite it. 

That’s it. Three simple rules that apply to every word, every line, every sentence, and 

every chapter of your own bestseller. 

As the great man, Ernest Hemingway, said, “It’s better to have one page of clarity 

than ninety-nine pages of shit.” (His word, honest!) 

It may seem like a daunting task but don’t struggle when editing. Take your time – at 

least twice the time you spent writing the first draft – it’s worth it. Take each piece and 

analyse it, section by section, word by lovely word. 

If something is not working, simply get rid of it – or start again. And if it’s not 

absolutely necessary to the plot, even if it hurts, especially if it hurts, delete it. 

If anything in your manuscript strikes you as literary genius, then definitely delete it. 

That’s not what you’re here for. Only the dead have written genius. You’re still alive – and 

writing for publication, which is completely different. 

Only posterity can judge whether you wrote well or badly – and how is posterity ever 

going to know if you don’t get published first? All career writers need commercial success 

before they can have any claim to being literary masters. It rarely works the other way 

around. 

When editing your own potential bestseller, you need to be relaxed and objective. 

73 



For best results, try to read your MS as though it’s not even yours and that you are 

reading it for the first time. If you’ve never actually achieved this position of calm objectivity 

in regards to your own writing, you need to get there and soon. 

It’s a state of mind. The trick is to embrace your work but to let it go at the same 

time. Most of all, do anything you can to see it through the eyes of a reader. Question every 

line, make no compromises, make it better, no matter how many drafts it takes. 

I realize that editing is ultimately personal. No one but you can know whether you’ve 

done a great job. You can’t always give over the responsibility either. Other writers will edit 

your work to make it more like their own. And simply put, if 95% of the bestseller isn’t 

already there, in your own words, no amount of expensive editing is going to make it better. 

You have to decide what is good and bad, what works and what doesn’t. But you do 

need to have high standards and question every single line many times before you’re 

satisfied. Don’t fear dissatisfaction – let it push you. 

You may need to edit your bestseller manuscript a hundred times – but it’s okay to 

aspire to perfection because, if you have any kind of faith in your work at all, then every 

single word could be potentially worth about a million dollars EACH to you. 

No pressure! 

But if you think about it in these terms you see why every word is so important – and 

hopefully you’ll be much more careful about what you leave in! 

74 





Module Five 

75 



76 



ANATOMY of the MODERN BESTSELLER 

Module Five: 

Submission and Success 

Greetings! 

Here we are at the last of the modules on the writing of a modern bestseller. We’ve 

come a long way. 

First we looked at the type of people who write bestsellers – and how their 

attitudes and their work habits contribute to their success. There are glaring 

similarities between the five authors we studied. All had mixed success in previous 

careers, all appeared to almost haphazardly (at first) gravitate towards writing as the 

most effective way to express their creativity, all had a strong fictional vision they 

could not shake and most importantly, all showed a willingness to persist whatever 

the odds against their eventual – and by no means guaranteed – success. 

As an aside, they all had very supportive partners too – and if they didn’t, 

they moved on – a stark reality that many would-be successful writers must face if 

they’re serious about their chosen career. (And let this be a warning to your 

partner!) 

In the second module we saw how epic – and memorable – characters are a 

fundamental part of the modern bestseller. It has always been the case, from 

Sherlock Holmes to Scarlett O’Hara, from James Bond to Jack Ryan, creating a highly 

believable fictional person with traits and abilities the average person would like to 

aspire to, is the ultimate quest of the bestselling writer. 

We also recognised that the hero’s journey is an implicit and an explicit part 

of a protagonist. Growth and change are necessary components of effective 

77 



characterisation – and this is something that can be studied, formulated and 

emulated by any competent writer – especially if you know The Writing Academy! 

In the third module we discovered the ‘magic formula’ for creating the plot of 

a bestselling novel. An actual template that will allow you, the writer, to construct 

your own bestselling story. Based on the the five novels we have studied, and our 

intimate knowledge of fiction genre, we now know how to plan and structure a story 

that will resonate with the majority of the reading public – and beyond, to the movie 

watcher and eventually even to the consumer of your idea’s related merchandising 

(well, you have to think big, don’t you?) 

In the fourth module we examined manuscript revision. We discovered there 

are certain affectations the average writer must lose in order to come across well to 

agents and publishers – our first readers. We learned that we must write well – like a 

professional – in order to ever reach our readers. Coming up with the best story in 

the world is not enough. We need to be able to transfer that idea successfully into a 

recognisably well-written format. We discovered the main ‘don’ts’ in other words. 

We concentrated on these because in my view, once you know what not to do, the 

rest is fairly easy and straightforward. 

You’re just telling a story after all. 

In this fifth and final module, we’ll be examining a secret strategy for 

publishing success, one that is slowly gaining in momentum – and popularity, 

because it works – and one that you will need to master before, simply put, everyone 

else is doing it. 

78 



The Bestseller Publishing Strategy 

Before I let you in on the secret, you’ll need some background – in order to understand why 

it works. 

Fact: The majority of publishers wouldn’t know a potential bestseller if it hit them 

over the head with a baseball bat. When you submit a great manuscript, there is no 

guarantee the publisher will see it that way because, without the necessary hype, he / she is 

most likely going to be unimpressed – because it’s their job to be. 

• Harry Potter was initially rejected for many reasons. It was too long for the target 

market, it was badly written, it was too dark, only boys would like it, etc, etc. It 

was only when the daughter of Bloomsbury UK’s owner said she liked it that they 

decided to take a punt on publishing it – never expecting what eventually 

happened. 

• Dan Brown was dropped from his publishing company when he began touting 

The Da Vinci Code – they had so little faith in the idea. It was a lone agent that 

liked his previous books that decided to take Dan under his wing and help him 

develop the book that would become the biggest selling book of the twenty first 

century (so far.) 

• Similarly, Paulo Coelho took back all his books from his first publisher when they 

stopped printing them. He began self publishing them for free on the then 

burgeoning Internet to show his disgust at the publishing industry. To this day, 

The Alchemist is the most downloaded work of fiction of all time. 

• Twilight couldn’t find a publisher in the US. Most thought it plodding and 

wouldn’t appeal to its target market because so little happens. How wrong could 

they be? Okay, so the original manuscript needed a serious edit to remove the 

bad stuff – see Lesson Four – but after that, well, the rest is history. 

79 



• Nicholas Evans was a struggling screenwriter who couldn’t get publishers 

interested in The Horse Whisperer until, smart guy that he is, he pitched the idea 

as a movie to Robert Redford, who loved the idea and optioned it for film – 

before it was even written! 

Which leads on nicely to my next point. 

Fact: The only way that publishers know if a manuscript represents a 

potential bestseller is if other people tell them so. 

That’s the bottom line. 

The entire publishing industry is set up to say ‘no’ as a reflex. Have you noticed this? 

Of course. It’s self evident. Plus, it makes sense. If only one in a thousand published books 

ever sells more than 60 copies (did you know this was the shocking reality?) then saying ‘no’ 

does them little harm. In fact it saves them a lot of hard work, paper and money. The 

majority of publishers survive on re-printing books that have proved themselves first 

anyway – whether that be in the small presses or on other publisher’s lists. No-one, it 

seems, is prepared to stick their neck out anymore – if they ever were – and say ‘this is it’ – 

this is a potential bestseller. 

For good reason – it’s impossible to predict these things. 

But let’s take a step back for a moment. 

Let’s look at what Nicholas Evans did with The Horse Whisperer. 

It’s Not Who You Know, but What They Say about You 

Nick Evans used what I call ‘The Jack Canfield Method’. 

It’s hard to fault Jack Canfield. Not only is he talented, focused and inspirational, he’s 

great bloke – and an inspiration to writers everywhere. And as a newbie guru said 

recently, if he endorses you, he’s got a name you want to put in bigger type than 

your own on a book cover or website. 

80 



Once upon a time, Jack was a small-time motivational speaker with a dream. He 

wanted to write an inspirational book that would become a bestseller. Not only that, but he 

was prepared to work for it. He duly got friends and a hundred or so writer’s anecdotes and 

pulled together Chicken Soup for the Soul. As we do, he submitted the manuscript to 

publishers, fully confident it was only a matter of time before it was published and he’d be a 

millionaire. 

Except that’s not how it worked. The book was rejected by over one hundred and 

seventy publishers. Can you believe that? What more evidence do you need that publishers 

wouldn’t know a bestseller if it ran them over in a monster truck? 

It’s all too easy to say ‘no’, you see. Just ask the numerous record labels in the 1960s 

that rejected The Beatles because they thought the guitar band would never catch on! 

Publishers, like many corporate enterprises, have no vision. It’s beaten out of them 

by their own industries – which always has some other bandwagon (pun intended) to jump 

upon. Publishers like a sure thing – and we, as writers, have a responsibility to give it to 

them. 

How do we do that? 

Back to Jack. 

Totally bemused by his failure to attract a publisher, Jack Canfield thought hard and 

long until he developed a strategy. Later he called this ‘The Power of Five’, though I’m not 

sure if he called it that at the time. 

‘The Power of Five’ is an all encompassing strategy for creating success in 

your life. It’s no doubt effective – but also smacks like hard work, something not all 

of us need more of in our lives. Doesn’t matter, we’re only interested in a small part 

of it – which will be effective enough for our purposes. 

81 



Basically Jack decided that every day, he would do five things to promote his as yet 

unpublished Chicken Soup book. All kinds of things like personal appearances, radio 

interviews, contacting magazines with promotional articles, whatever. 

But he also had one very powerful idea – the one we’re interested in. 

He decided he wanted reviews of his book. 

He figured that if he could get endorsements to his book then the publishing 

industry would surely be impressed that so many people thought his book was fabulous – 

even if they, the publishers, didn’t. 

So he systematically began sending out his manuscript and self published copies of 

his book – even small excerpts – to anyone and everyone. Not just to the rich and famous or 

to other writers, but literally to everyone: friends, family, people he met, shop retailers, taxi 

drivers, trash collectors – on one proviso: they had to tell him what they thought of it. 

Within a year Jack had over two thousand reviews! And then, when he submitted to 

publishers, editors and agents, he included the top twenty reviews alongside the manuscript 

or excerpt submission. So successful is this strategy, Jack still does it to this day. Even 

though his name alone would now convince a publisher to publish his work, he makes sure 

he has testimonials from around a hundred people when he sends in his book submission. 

Doesn’t this sound like something you could do? 

It’ll Work for You 

Here’s a little anecdote that proves the power of this technique. I can’t tell you the name of 

the author or his publisher because he would probably kill me – but this is a true story. 

Let’s call him Matthew. 

82 

Matt’s a writer, has been since he left school. His best friend, after ten years working 

his way up, is now a commissioning editor at a large New York publishing house. After much 



soul searching, Matt decided to officially submit his latest novel to his best friend. John had 

always encouraged him to write and said he was a fan of Matt’s work… 

To cut a long story short, John rejected the manuscript. Over beers, Matt berated 

John for being a bad friend but John simply said, the publisher decided it wasn’t right for 

them – and besides which, you’re not famous, man. ‘Yeah, yeah,’ says Matt. ‘I’ve heard all 

the excuses.’ 

Matt went home depressed – but in a semi drunken fog, he had an idea. 

Matt cobbled together a manuscript. He copied and pasted any old bits of writing he 

could find – some diary entries, a few poems, short stories, underworked ideas, anything, it 

didn’t matter. The quality wasn’t important. He just needed word count. The resulting 

manuscript was nonsensical and frankly, appalling. 

He then set about contacting people on his Facebook page, asking for a review of his 

manuscript. To make it easier he said, they didn’t even have to read it, as long as they wrote 

some kind of comment back to him and that he had their permission to use their name. 

Within a couple of weeks, Matt had twenty reviews, not all of them great, some not 

even serious. The one I liked the most was, “I laughed, I wept, I had to go to the bathroom.” 

Undaunted, Matt came up with a fake – and somewhat silly – female name, 

submitted the manuscript to his friend using a PO Box – along with all of the reviews. A 

mere two weeks later, John, in his official capacity, sent the imaginary author a letter saying 

they’d like to publish her work. 

Matt took great pleasure in calling his friend and shouting, “Gotcha!” 

I know this doesn’t sound like a true story but, sadly, it is. 

Matt has actually written a very long article about this telling incident which he 

planned to publish on his blog but decided against when John’s publisher threatened legal 

action. The article was shown to me on the condition I would never reveal the names of 

anyone involved. 

83 

So what does this tell us about publishers? 



For one, something perhaps we’ve always suspected, publishers aren’t in the least 

bit interested in your work. They rarely even read any of it before the automatic ‘no’ 

response kicks in. They immediately judge you by who you are not. Your work is essentially 

irrelevant to their decision. 

And two, if you’ve got enough reviews, good and / or bad, the publishers don’t even 

feel the need to consult the manuscript. And even if they do, they’re still more swayed by 

the reviews – and the reactions of other people – than by the content of the manuscript 

itself. 

Just imagine what you could do if your reviews were real – and serious. 

Your Own Bestseller Strategy 

It’s all about perception nowadays. 

If you’re seen to be good, or other people say you are, then that often becomes the 

accepted reality, without question. Gone are the days when you even need to prove you 

have something to offer. At the extreme, all you need is to appear famous – and have 

people talking about you. In marketing terms, your notoriety is way more powerful than 

your talent. 

Talent? Who needs it! 

Of course this is an exaggeration – but the point I’m trying to make is that it’s the 

perception that matters. Publishers, like any other modern marketers, only care about the 

money. And if apparent notoriety and popularity makes you visible – then visibility equals 

cash. 

This is why so many publishers nowadays want you to submit your plans for self 

publicity in with your submission. Visibility, the desire to be seen by the media, means sales. 

And, like it or not, the author willing to go the extra mile, is the one who will get the deal. 

84 



Sadly, not the best writer, but the one who does all the hard work the publisher used to be 

responsible for. 

So, before you send in your manuscript to another publisher, especially if you think it 

could well be a bestseller, stop – and take stock. 

Start putting together a list of people to email or write or call. Construct a short pitch 

that asks people for their comments on your manuscript. Even ask if they’re willing to give 

you a review without seeing the manuscript. You’d be surprised at how many people would 

rather do this. I know. People have done it with me. They’ll say, “Oh I know what you do is 

great. What do want me to say?” Even better, “Tell you what, you write it and you can put 

my name on it.” Did you have any idea this is how it works? I’m willing to bet this might 

come as a surprise to you – but, though not usual, it’s certainly not uncommon. 

What you need is a vast set of reviews to choose from and depending on the 

publisher or agent or editor, pick the ones you think they’ll be most impressed by. 

They don’t all have to be famous names. But why not send your self published book 

to Stephen King or Stephenie Meyer? You never know. 

What’s it going to cost you? 

Postage? Printing? You were going to spend a fortune on that submitting to 

publishers anyway – especially over the course of a lifetime! Why not get some positive 

results – some nice comments – instead of endless rejections? 

But as I say, I’ve noticed over the last few months more and more writers are using 

this strategy of getting their peers and other writers slightly higher up the chain than 

themselves to endorse their work. I believe it’s got to the stage that you have to do the 

same – or will have to soon – in order to in any way compete. 

Especially because print on demand is now so cheap, you can afford to publish you 

own set of say, 50 review copies – and have your book go out looking like the real thing. 

People are much more likely to read and like your book if they can hold it in their hands – 

and will give you a more favourable review because of it. 

85 



Besides which, self publishing at least makes you focus on getting the writing perfect 

before you commit to having it printed, which ultimately helps you look better anyway. 

It’s really worth thinking about. 

Seriously. 

Publication 

When the writing is all over, your quest for publication begins. But rest assured, if 

you’ve followed the teaching of this course up to this point, you are streets and 

houses ahead of the competition. When you follow the advice laid out in the 

previous modules, I’m convinced you’ll reach a state of absolute surety that your 

work is a bestseller merely looking for a home. 

This, believe it or not, is when you, the author, has the most power you will 

ever have in your writing career. At the beginning, you can define who you want to 

become – and you have none of the attachments of fame or notoriety to tie you 

down. Famous artists, writers and movie stars often bemoan the diminishing of 

opportunities that can accompany success. 

Genre writers sometimes find it hard to break out of a mould or their fans’ 

expectations. An Academy Award can be the kiss of death for a screenwriter’s 

career. Success often makes you a ‘type’ that it becomes difficult to break away 

from. Ever wondered why pop stars reinvent themselves every couple of years? They 

have to, in order to appeal to each new generation of trends. Failure to stay relevant 

has become the most systematic killer of an artist’s success. 

So don’t be put off by lack of success. Remember that now you’re in a great 

position to define your future. You get to call the shots – and choose the deals you 

want to sign. You have the freedom you will one day lust over – and may regret that 

86 



you’ve lost. Success is a responsibility, you see, so you need to be sure you actually 

want it before it happens. Set goals, know what you want and go for it. 

Don’t ever settle for second best, even at the start. 

Conclusion 

To come full circle, let’s take a few more tips from bestselling author, Ken Follett. 

He spends three times as long planning a bestseller – making notes, constructing 

templates and writing treatments – than on actually writing it. And he devotes two months 

out of every year focused on self publicity – and has done since before he was famous. Even 

now he says, he doesn’t particularly enjoy the self publicizing but does it because, in the 

modern world, he knows it needs to be done. 

Wise advice indeed. 

Now, at the end of this course, you know all there is know about writing a bestseller. 

So here’s my sincere advice to you: 

Go back to your writing desk – write your bestseller – and prepare for fame and 

riches. 

Keep writing! 

Rob Parnell 

Your Success is My Concern 

Australian Writing Academy 

PS: If you’d like me to publish your books for you at less than $10 - $15 each, get in touch. 

There are many benefits to self publishing nowadays – even for bestselling authors! 

87

Anatomy of the Modern Bestseller - The Easy Way to Write

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?