Call me a cynical publisher, but looking out at that sea of faces, I figure that at least half of them want to write or have a manuscript tucked away somewhere. The seduction that a "literary" writer exercises on the reader is to lure you into a world you couldn't have created or imagined on your own. The seduction that a writer of mass market bestsellers exercises on the reader is to lure you into the belief that you could, like him, create something similar.
So how do you write a bestseller? Here are some tips from Archer's speech:
1) Read a lot of books in the genre you want to write in, but write about what interests you. His first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, happened because he found a far-fetched idea interesting: what if four men lost their fortunes to another person, and decided to steal back the exact sum. His more recent books, including A Prisoner of Birth, have showcased his fascination with the story of The Count of Monte Cristo. Some of his previous novels have drawn on his love for art. He assumes that if a subject interests him, no matter how esoteric it is, he can make it interesting to the reader.
2) Don't give up; push for what you want.
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less was rejected by 16 publishers before the seventeenth took it on. (The corollary to this, however, is that you should know when to give up. Sometimes you get 16 rejections because no one wants to take a risk on an unknown author; sometimes you get 16 rejections because the book's no good.)
Even after NPMNPL was accepted, it took Archer a lot of work to persuade the publishers to increase the print run from a few thousands to the first 25,000 in paperback. "That sold out in a month, and I said, print another 25,000! The publishers said, no, no, Jeffrey, that's pretty much it, but I said, print another 25,000!" That sold out in a month, too, proving Archer's point. ("It's still in print, and I still make that call every month!" he quips.) Both sides were taking a risk; if the publishers hadn't listened to Archer, they would have lost out on a huge profit, but if Archer's instincts had been wrong, he would have lost a lot of bargaining power as an author.
3) Keep your contract with the reader.
Some bestselling authors, like Barbara Cartland, become manufacturers. Cartland had an entire team of researchers, plot line writers and dialogue writers assisting her; she produced books the way Toyota churns out cars. But when the estate of the late Robert Ludlum brought out a
