F. Paul Wilson's Debut Story
NY Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson agreed to be the debut authors’ guest to address the issues of (1) writing a series character and (2) building and sustaining a career. It’s amazing that after more than seven million copies of his books in print in the U.S., he still remembers his debut. And remember it he does with humor and a bit of nostalgia.
When asked what one thing in his background would
most surprise his readers, Paul answered that he is still a practicing
physician. “I help stamp out diseases and fight pestilence on Mondays
and Tuesdays, the rest of the week patients are on their own.”
The story continues. Fifteen years later,
Paul was signing books at a convention and a reader asked him to sign a
copy of Galaxy Mission. Paul had never heard of Galaxy Mission, let
alone sold a story to it. But when he opened the issue there was “The
Cleaning Machine,” under his byline. The story he initially couldn’t
give away had been pirated and reprinted within months of its first
publication and he still hadn’t seen a penny for it. “No wonder so
many writers die drunk or mad.”
Paul remembers vividly where he was when he got
“The Call.” Actually “The Call” for his first novel sale (Healer) was
a letter from Sharon Jarvis, the editor of Doubleday’s science fiction
line. The book, Healer, built on an earlier novelette, picked up the
story line a few decades after the end of the novelette.
Writing was something Paul had to do, not thinking
he could actually make a living at it. So, he wrote and sent in
stories. He sent off a book proposal for Healer and a couple of months
later he landed a whopping $2000 contract. “My first thought,” he
says, “is how long has this been going on and why didn’t anybody tell
me about it?”
When asked what he would do differently as he
looks back at his debut, he says, “I would love to have been less
naïve.” His novel, Healer, had garnered decent reviews in the SF press
so he did nothing to market the book but waited for the reviews and the
checks to roll in. He figured the publisher would soon be mounting a
huge publicity blitz. For months he scanned the New York Times Book
Review, waiting for the full page ads. Visits to bookstores didn’t
reveal his books on the shelves.
The shock sank in when he checked and found out Healer
was out of print. The final insult settled in when he was told that
copies of his book that couldn’t be sold for pennies on the dollar
would be used for sanitary landfill.
This was his welcome to the wonderful world of
big-time publishing. His track record since then shows clearly that
all these early lessons have been well-learned. We debut authors look
forward to learning from his expertise on how we can move ahead into
that world of big-time publishing.
