How to Write Best Selling Fiction
by Dean Koontz
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Description
Tells would-be novelists about the fiction market, offers advice on grammar, style, character development, and plot, and explains how to deal with agents and editors.Tags
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Member Reviews
Out of print but worth getting your hands on even if you only fantasize about writing fiction. My daughter grew up with this book and wanted to take it to college because it is such a pleasure--using one of his exercises we made up a title for a book we haven't yet written--Orbiting Body Parts.
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The Great Courses: How to Write Best-Selling Fiction
36 works; 2 members
Author Information

531+ Works 228,520 Members
Dean Koontz was born on July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania. He received a degree in education from Shippensburg State College in 1967. A former high school English teacher as well as a teacher-counselor with the Appalachian Poverty Program, he began writing as a child to escape an ugly home life caused by his alcoholic father. A prolific writer show more at a young age, he had sold a dozen novels by the age of 25. Early in his career, he wrote under numerous pen names including David Axton, Brian Coffey, K. R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, Richard Paige, and Owen West. He is best known for the books written under his own name, many of which are bestsellers, including Midnight, Cold Fire, The Bad Place, Hideaway, The Husband, Odd Hours, 77 Shadow Street, Innocence, The City, Saint Odd, and The Silent Corner. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1981 (copyright) (copyright)
- Epigraph
- It is the writer's privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart - William Faulkner, 1897-1962
- Dedication
- This book is dedicated to my fellow worker, my toughest critic, my greatest fan, my inspiration, my best friend, and my wife - who are all the same person: Gerda Ann Koontz
- First words
- In 1972, Writer's Digest published my book Writing Popular Fiction, in which I attempted to show new writers how to build successful careers as category novelists. By "category," I meant those books to which pub... (show all)lishers - in their ceaseless and determined effort to pigeonhole every writer - could affix comfortable labels. The categories I discussed in Writing Popular Fiction were science fiction, fantasy, suspense, mystery, Gothic romance, Westerns, and erotica.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Perhaps your name will appear on the next list of this sort that I compose, in the revised edition of How to Write Best-Selling Fiction, five or ten years from now. I truly hope so. Good luck.
Classifications
- Genre
- Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 808.025 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism Composition Rhetoric and anthologies Authorship techniques, plagiarism, editorial techniques Plagiarism
- LCC
- PN3365 .K63 — Language and Literature Literature (General) Literature (General) Prose. Prose fiction Technique. Authorship
Statistics
- Members
- 80
- Popularity
- 396,702
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 2






















































