First time out of the traps as an embryo author I got three offers of publication.
The first two were from long established publishing giants and the third from a smallish comparative newcomer.
I chose the newcomer.
Now why did I do that when clearly the book must have something special going for it to interest mainstream publishers?
Here's why...
The owner of the small house persuaded me with reasoned argument that the text required substantial reworking if it was to become a page turner and then proceeded to instruct me on how to accomplish that.
What he effectively did was to teach me how to re-format my work so that it became injected with the mystery ingredient that leads to bestseller status.
As a result, that initial effort (out of 35 subsequently published titles) is still my front runner 15 years on with no obvious signs of slowing down.
I have never altered the structure, only updated it as required with the passage of time, and yet on each reprint and new edition it continues to sell more copies than before.
On my fourth or fifth offering (I cannot recall which) I was tempted by the lucre of a major house by way of a hefty advance but the experience was less than satisfactory; the book died on the shelves after less than two years due mainly to lack of aggressive promotion by the publisher.
The moral is: don't be star struck when choosing your first publisher.
Smaller houses are invariably hungrier; eager to snap up proposals with potential and they go out of their way to ensure success.
The mystery ingredient; what is that?
I'm not about to give that away in an article but I will give you a hint; it has to do with what bestsellers are all about: the durability factor.
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