Break Into Writing - Wrapup

Fantasy Author Jim C. Hines has wrapped up his survey of first novel sales over at www.jimchines.com. Overall, I found his results fascinating. Here's some more highlights:

• a majority of successful authors have
  • attended writers conventions
    
  • attended one or more writers groups
  
  
• since 2000, the majority (over 65%) of successful authors have sold novels via agents (and recall many of these authors are spec fic authors)
  

Thanks to Jim for all this info!

In my personal opinion, the most important factor for writing success is input from one or more other writers. This could be a critique group (Yay!) or just a trusted reader--but should not be your spouse/parent/kid (because their job is to support you).

Recall, we have the First Page Game here. You can still send in your story first page and get some feedback from editors and blog-readers. Use our usual submission address: submissions at electricspec (dot) com but put First Page Game in the subject line. Good luck!