Your First Novel : A Top Agent and a Published Author Show You How to Write Your Book and Get It Published

Your Expert Guide to Writing and Publishing a Novel

In this revised and expanded edition of Your First Novel, novelist Laura Whitcomb, seasoned literary agent Ann Rittenberg, and her knowledgeable assistant, Camille Goldin, team up to provide you with the essential skills needed to craft the best novel you can--and the savvy business know-how to get it published. Complete with updated references, analysis of new best-selling novels, and the same detailed instruction, Whitcomb will show you how to:

   • Practice the craft of writing, using both your right- and left-brain
   • Develop a flexible card system for organizing and outlining plot
   • Create dynamic characters that readers love--and love to hate
   • Study classic novels and story structure to adapt with your ideas
Featuring two new chapters on choosing your path as an author and understanding the world of self-publishing, Rittenberg and Goldin dive into the business side of publishing, including:

   • What agents can--and should--do for your future
   • Who you should target as an agent for your burgeoning career
   • How the mysterious auction for novels actually goes down
   • Why you should learn to work with your agent through thick and thin
Guiding your first novel from early words to a spot on the bookshelf can be an exciting and terrifying journey, but you're not alone. Alongside the advice of industry veterans, Your First Novel Revised and Expanded also includes plenty of firsthand accounts from published authors on their journeys, including Dennis Lehane, C.J. Box, Kathleen McCleary, David Kazzie, and more.

LAURA WHITCOMB is the author of the young adult novels A Certain Slant of Light, Under the Light, and The Fetch, as well as the writing guide Novel Shortcuts. Her fiction has been published in eleven foreign languages and her first novel was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection. She lives in Wilsonville, Oregon with her son.

ANN RITTENBERG acquired her first book, a biography of the Irish short story writer Frank O’Connor; Judy Kern, a genius editor, taught her how to edit it, and the late Harry Ford, the head of production and the poetry editor (at Atheneum and later at Knopf), designed the jacket. Ann became an editor at Atheneum before leaving to join the Julian Bach Agency. When Julian soldhis agency in 1992, she went out and incoporated her own, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency 

CAMILLE GOLDIN has worked with novelists in a variety of capacities: as the head of foreign rights at a literary agency, in the contracts department of a top publishing house, and at a book scouting company.