People are forever telling me “You’ve got to read this book!”, but my stack of to-reads is already overwhelming, so I wouldn’t say this to anyone if I didn’t absolutely mean it, but if you’re at all involved with writing or publishing… you’ve got to read this book: How I Became a Famous Novelist, by Steve Hely. You will wet yourself.
It’s about a guy who works as a copywriter and discovers that his ex-girlfriend from college is getting married. He wants to show her up, but he’s a nothing, so he decides to become a famous novelist by writing a perfect con-job of a novel, reverse-engineering the bestsellers so he’s guaranteed to get rich.
Hely sets every last clump of publishing world horsesh*t on fire. He parodies every type of fiction going, and it’s note-perfect. but in the end, he surprised me by transcending it all to tell a story that isn’t just a collection of snark, but has a heart, too.
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