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How to write a bestseller
They say everyone has at least one book inside them. But is it true? Could we all turn our hands to writing best sellers for a living?
Author Claudia Pattison, author of Wow! and Fame Game, believes we all have potential. And she should know. Claudia wrote Wow! - a satire on the world of celebrity journalism - in eight months, was taken on by the second agent she met and started a manic bidding war between rival publishers for her very first book.
It's a sign of her potential that the winners, Pan Macmillan, offered a six-figure sum for a two-book deal - the average a debut author can usually expect is between £5,000 and £10,000.
'I do think everybody has a book in them, I really believe that,' says Claudia, who describes her genre as 'chick lit'. 'I think the hardest thing is starting. Everybody's certainly got enough experience. You can have the most humdrum job in the world, but if you've got family or you've ever been in love or worked in an office, you've got enough experience to write a book. You don't have to have a mad life or incredible experiences. You just need to be able to make different scenarios interesting.'
And writing doesn't have to be a lifelong dream. A writer on OK! for four years, Claudia never had a burning ambition to pen a novel. However, she'd always fancied the lifestyle that went with it. She says: 'I had this vision of me getting up at 9am, wafting around in my pyjamas until midday then taking to the chaise-long to write a few hundred words or so.'
The reality was different. It took a lot of hard work and dedication but it paid off in the end.
Now Claudia has agreed to share her tips for success with budding iVillage authors. Click over the page to find out if you could do it too.
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