[Travis McGee]

This is going to be a fun thread! I picked up a "Left Behind" book once. Literally: I found it on the sidewalk. It amazed me how badly written a mega best seller can be! It told me, "go forward Matt, with your novel, you don't have to be Hemingway to write a best seller!"

If anyone wants to pick a bone with me over the comparative level of writing, click to this sample chapter from my novel. It stands alone pretty well as a short story, which is why I'm linking it. It's old, so it's been edited slightly in the printed novel.

"The Raid" from Enemies Foreign and Domestic

[Mr. Jeeves]

It amazed me how badly written a mega best seller can be!

Anyone who has read Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn knows that, too. What matters is the ability to tell a story - for some reason the ability to tell stories and the ability to write well don't often coexist in the same author. "Writers" tend to spout brilliantly crafted nonsense, and "storytellers" make grammatical and structural mistakes that would make a fifth grader blush.

People don't read anymore, anyway. In the late 60's, a bestselling paperback would sell twelve million copies - today a book that sells three million is considered miraculous. The television generation has killed writing.

[Jeff Head]

I've read the first nine volumes of the Left Behind Series. For me it got to where it was drgging way too much...almost purposely to drag it out to get more volumes and so I stopped. I know how it ends anyway...hehehe.

Still, the success is amazing and worth studying. It was a relative unknown until several volumes in and then it picked up and the resulting promotions and awareness kicked started all preceding volumes.

I also believe that it is not a very well written story...but I hate judging literary capabilities given my own novice status. At the same time, I did buy most of them and read them.

Like with Travis, it has given me hope for my own series:

THE DRAGON'S FURY SERIES OF NOVELS
A techno-thriller series about America and the next World War

We shall see.

[Long Cut]

Haven't read 'em, don't intend to. Why in the WORLD would anyone pay good $$$ to be (poorly) preached to? One can, if one wishes, go to church whilst the preacher is drunk for that.

I read to learn, to have my imagination stimulated, to have flights of fancy in adventures I will probably never experience, and to watch my favorite characters triumph.

If I want a Bible study, I'll sign up for one.

The authors of this scribbling even admit that entertaining and challenging the reader is completely secondary to them, after the preaching. What an insult to a reader.

[GeronL]

You and Jeff Head are awesome writers. I can only dream of being that good. 'Left Behind' is only a best seller because the christian media has been boosting it.

[CARepubGal]

Matt:

This Proddie agrees that not one of the Left Behind novelettes will NOT be on my bookshelves. Ever. I would prefer Harlequin Penny Dreadfuls. :-) All that drivel does is amuse my athiest relatives to death. :) Your book looks good though. What is the turn around time (and please FRmail me the link to order: having a blonde day) :)