I Interview Bestselling Crime Fiction Authors and Reveal Their Candid Views on How They Made It
Idol Talk finds the inside dish about your favorite authors.
A lot of authors talk to me. Why? I’m a nice guy I guess, but it probably has a lot to do with my monthly column in CrimeReads.com (circ. 1.4 million).
Each month I interview famous authors who tell me the story of how they got their first crime novel published. Everyone has to start somewhere. They weren’t always rich and famous. I track their unique path to fame and fortune.
If you’re an aspiring writer, these stories should give you some insight into your own path ahead. There is no better way to learn than from those who have been there. The biggest difference between those who get published and those who don’t is persistence. These bestselling authors never gave up. (That’s why they’re bestselling authors.)
Yet, David Baldacci hit it out of the park with his first novel, Absolute Power. (Actually, he’d sold the movie rights before it was published.) So did James Grady with Six Days of the Condo. (The movie version cut it down to three days.) But then there’s Steve Berry, who calls himself the poster boy of persistence. For seven years, his agent, Pam Ahearn, submitted his manuscript to publishers and received 85 rejections. The magic number was 86. (By then he had seven other novels written and sitting in a drawer.) It was years in the making, yet almost overnight he had a two-book deal, cash in his pocket, and was making regular treks to the New York Times bestseller list. Today, he lives in a stunning Disney-theme home in Orlando, next to Disney World.
You’ll recognize names and learn some of the inside dish on the likes of Harlan Coben, Tess Gerritsen, Lee Child, Diana Gabaldon, S. A. Cosby, Michael Connelly, Laura Lipman, Gayle Lynds, Robert Dugoni, Lisa Gardner, James Patterson, Walter Mosely, Tosca Lee, Meg Gardiner, and so many more.
Read through the archive and sign up for my newsletter. If you like what you read you may even want to show your support and donate $6 a month to the cause to keep this newsletter going.
Who’s Rick Pullen?
I’ve been a journalist all my life, first as an investigative reporter and then as a magazine editor and publisher. In 2015 I was named to the FOLIO 100—the 100 most important people in magazine publishing. That same year I was runner up for editor of the year. I retired early so I could write novels full-time.
I love a good Padron cigar (look carefully at the hat and room behind me. I was at Padron Headquarters in Little Havana, Miami hanging out with one of the owners who gave me the hat.) I divide my time between Virginia and Florida. Some say I look like Ernest Hemingway and I should enter the annual Key West contest for Hemingway doppelgängers. (Still, others say I look like Rob Reiner.)
In 2011 I started my first novel, Naked Ambition, which was published in the spring of 2016 and rose to number one in thrillers on Amazon. (Steve Berry and I were competing for the top spot at the time.) Since then I’ve written a sequel, Naked Truth (nominated for the Silver Falchion award) and a stand alone, The Apprentice. My agent is currently shopping my fourth novel and I’m getting ready to start on number five. All this while writing my monthly column for CrimeReads.com and this newsletter, Idol Talk.
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