What I didn’t like so much is that it is really not a model for quality. That isn’t to say that following this process will mean that you don’t do quality work. Beaumont makes it clear that this package is not about how to write, but how to become a successful author – that’s quite a different thing. Quality, however, isn’t always something you can do just because you’ve planned it. A great game plan and a terrific title may still result in mediocre work that is panned by the critics who count when it comes to sales and respect. This kit, and the claims it makes about both the quantity of your output and the success you will have with it, understates the importance of quality dramatically. This is more the case, I think, for fiction rather than the kind of nonfiction ‘how-to’ books written by those people who have inspired the course. Great fiction takes time and skill that rarely comes without an apprenticeship. You’d have to be extraordinarily skilled and prolific (and probably already famous) to produce a worthwhile best-selling novel every six months as Beaumont suggests. I can’t think of any decent novelist, beginning or advanced, that can do that. Most novelists take several years to write their best fiction, and in many cases, the first one takes a lot of help and support from creative writing courses, mentors, and fellowships. It can't be knocked out as part of a plan to make money.
Beaumont cites the classic examples of JK Rowling and Dan Brown as money-making fiction writers, but both of them suffered through years of poverty and rejection, not to mention a steep and slow learning curve, before hitting the big time. It just isn’t easy, and using that word so enthusiastically gives the wrong impression and false hope to fiction writers who might purchase this kit. On the other hand, Beaumont does cite a number of ‘best-selling’ nonfiction writers who have turned their considerable expertise into successful books around the area of their expertise. That situation is definitely where this kit will work best and his suggestions around planning for multiple books and working up a plan around them is actually very sound.
Article comments
1 - Helen Gallagher
Gosh, Maggie - I agree with you. A thousand dollars would buy an author a lot of publicity, marketing or internet placement, instead of a boxed set of DVDs.
Helen