Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

How I Became a Famous Novelist

by Steve Hely (Goodreads Author)

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 2,238 ratings · 632 reviews

What Pete Tarslaw wants is simple enough: a realistic amount of fame that will open new avenues of sexual opportunity; the kind of financial comfort that will allow him to spend his life pursuing hobbies such as boating or skeet shooting at his stately home by the ocean or a scenic lake; and perhaps most importantly the chance to humiliate his ex-girlfriend at her wedding....more

Paperback, 322 pages

Published July 8th 2009 by Grove Press, Black Cat

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

How Not to Murder Your Grumpy by Carol E. Wyer

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

Yellowest Books Ever

25th out of 644 books — 292 voters

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Stories For Book Lovers

259th out of 676 books — 2,019 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 30, 2013 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Funniest thing I've read in a while. Innumerable chuckles, chortles, snorts, and lots of LOLs. Recommended for writers "sick of all this lit shit." Read it thanks to reviews on here. Never heard of it. Gulped it down in 100-page days. Unputdownable. Perfect reproduction/satirization of craptastic literary styles, not to mention book expos, MFA programs, Oprah, author interviews, Hollywood types, Tom Clancy types. So many funny similes, asides, setups. And just when you think it's becoming too ja...more

7 likes · like · see review

Apr 08, 2010 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, favorites

The Set-Up

To impress his former girlfriend at her upcoming wedding, Pete Tarslaw decides to become a famous novelist. Figuring it couldn't be all that hard, he spends an afternoon at a bookstore studying bestselling books. His studies reveal the keys to a successful book:

Rule 1: Abandon truth.
Rule 2: Write a popular book. Do not waste energy making it a good book.
Rule 3: Include nothing from my own life.
Rule 4: Must include a murder.
Rule 5: Must include a club, secrets/mysterious missions, shy...more

7 likes · like · see review

Sep 27, 2012 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

From what I can tell, slacker humor, as a sub-genre, is observant, slightly self-deprecating, very ironic, and inherently smart – all without appearing to try. This book’s got that and more. The most important part of the "more" is that it’s very, very funny. It’s a satirical look at the world of books: publishing, promotion, schlock, sensationalism, selling out, and above all, literary pretension. Pete decides that writing a bestseller will be the best way to save face, and to be in-your-face,...more From what I can tell, slacker humor, as a sub-genre, is observant, slightly self-deprecating, very ironic, and inherently smart – all without appearing to try. This book’s got that and more. The most important part of the "more" is that it’s very, very funny. It’s a satirical look at the world of books: publishing, promotion, schlock, sensationalism, selling out, and above all, literary pretension. Pete decides that writing a bestseller will be the best way to save face, and to be in-your-face, at his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. He gleans what he can from today’s popular choices, adopts a writer’s lifestyle (in Vermont, no less), and waits for the fame he’s convinced will soon come. I believe the operative phrase is, “hilarity ensues”.

The thing about satire is that so much can go wrong. It can crane to silly extremes, it can be too obscure, it can miss the intended target, it can be tin-eared, or simply not that funny. But read this List of Bestsellers that Hely used to inspire Pete and see if you don’t agree he got it just about right. (I still laugh at Guess - An economist analyzes the importance of random choices in everything from investments to choosing sushi to professional bull-riding. I’m glad I never got around to writing its equivalent only to see it parodied.)

The only reason I’m taking one star away is that he did, for a brief stretch, go a wee bit over the top. I know --- it’s a satire --- he’s allowed to indulge. I was just a little disappointed when his near-perfect pitch seemed slightly sharp at some key moments. Hely (and Pete) were soon back on track, though. Ironically enough, his final irony was satisfying for its lack of cheek.

I’m asking you, with all the earnest intention my pre-slacking generation is known for, please read this book. It’s truly a good laugh. If you don’t believe me, wait for my wife to confirm. She’s doped up on Nyquil, but still chuckling at every page. I’m tempted to give back its missing star just for that.
(less)

19 likes · like · see review

Dec 26, 2011 Luke Devenish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Such a wicked piece of chicanery. Loved this. Very funny and very naughty. The spot-on lampooning of bestsellers and all the seemingly cynical formulae behind them was a scream, and all too horribly accurate - so much so, that I now feel positively enlightened! It's ruined them for me! The faux New York Times list was a riot. I wish I'd read this before I started writing books myself - I think I would have stolen a few of hero Pete's very well considered tips. His St Paul on the Road to Damascus...more

4 likes · like · see review

Aug 08, 2009 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I was eleven and saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark" at the theater with my family, we all enjoyed it so much that when it ended we stayed in our seats until the next screening and watched it again. For the first time, I have done the equivalent with a novel -- I got to the last page and started right over. "How I Became a Famous Novelist" is the funniest, most enjoyable book I've read in a very long time.

Steve Hely's satire of the modern book-publishing industry is acutely observed. The crazed d...more

7 likes · like · see review

Mar 16, 2011 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Gimmick novel about gimmick novel-writing

Not a top recommendation, but a funny quick read; but be prepared to roll your eyes.

Steve Hely's novel is funny and entertaining, though I feel that the novel is far more autobiographical than he'd want to admit. I obviously can't know that for sure, but I get the feeling that he may have even originally planned to write his own novel and thought about what might sell. Giving up on that, he used his thoughts as fuel for his character's aspirations to get...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 08, 2009 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

A former liberal-arts major and professional washout, Pete Tarslaw decides to write a bestselling novel in order to upstage his ex-girlfriend and pick up women at her wedding. Realizing that writing a plotty thriller is "exhausting," he decides to write a literary novel since "with literary fiction, you can just cover everything up with a coat of wordy spackle." He comes up with a book called "The Tornado Ashes Club," which is about man falsely accused of murder who drives off across America wit...more A former liberal-arts major and professional washout, Pete Tarslaw decides to write a bestselling novel in order to upstage his ex-girlfriend and pick up women at her wedding. Realizing that writing a plotty thriller is "exhausting," he decides to write a literary novel since "with literary fiction, you can just cover everything up with a coat of wordy spackle." He comes up with a book called "The Tornado Ashes Club," which is about man falsely accused of murder who drives off across America with his grandmother in order to find a tornado and release his grandfather's ashes into it (or something). The book also includes WWII flashbacks, researched from Wikipedia. We're given a brief excerpt of Tarslaw's prose:

In strewn banners that lay like streamers from a long ago parade, the sun's fading seraphim rays gleamed onto the hood of the old Ford and ribboned the steel with the meek orange of a June tomato straining at the vine. From the back seat, door open, her nimble fingers moved along the guitar like a weaver's on a loom. Stitching a song. The cloth she made was a cry of aching American chords, dreamlike warbles built to travel miles of lonesome road. They faded into the twilight, and Silas leaned back on the asphalt, as if to watch them drift into the Arkansas mist.

As someone who has read literally reams of similar drivel, I found Hely's observations about how to write a bestselling literary novel (based on insights gleaned from a spot-on satire of the NYT bestseller list) absolutely hilarious. Tarslaw's whole cynical attitude towards writing is also a funny contrast to the platitudes offered up in defense of literary fiction.

Writing a novel--actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs--is a tremendous pain in the ass. Now that TV's so good and the Internet is an endless forest of distraction, it's damn near impossible. That should be taken into account when ranking the all-time greats. Somebody like Charles Dickens, for example, who had nothing better to do except eat mutton and attend public hangings, should get very little credit.

The fun here is in Tarslaw's perverted yet totally accurate worldview; the plot seems more or less beside the point. If you have a publishing background or even just follow the NYT bestseller list, this book is not to be missed.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 01, 2011 Kerry added it

This book made me laugh out loud, which is no mean trick. Written as a memoir of a fictional novelist, it manages to skewer the current state of American "literary" fiction while retaining some real heart. At first I thought it was going to be pure sardonic amusement, but in the end, Steve Hely managed to put a fork into the overstuffed turkey that is popular literature and publishing in the 21st century while simultaneously giving us all hope that real, talented authors are still out there writ...more

like · see review

Mar 19, 2013 MJ Nicholls rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: merkins, novels, tortured-artists

An uproarious assault on the sorts of manipulative middlebrow fictions that sit, with smug pastel or pastoral covers, on every highstreet booksellers’ bestsellers shelves and shift enough units to keep real writers impoverished for nine lifetimes. Next time you encounter someone talking up The Kite Runner or The Poisonwood Bible, slap them across the head with copies of Hely’s witty novel until the message is received that laziness in book choice kills. Bestsellers should come with warnings on t...more

22 likes · like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Lisa Eckstein rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2010, favorites

Pete sets out to write a best-selling novel by analyzing the New York Times Best Seller list and incorporating every element that seems to contribute to popularity. Improbably but hilariously, his scheme works, and THE TORNADO ASHES CLUB achieves success, though the consequences aren't quite what Pete had hoped for.

When I first heard Hely discuss HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST on NPR, I laughed at the concept, but it also sounded a little too easy, a bit too one-joke to be worth actually reading...more Pete sets out to write a best-selling novel by analyzing the New York Times Best Seller list and incorporating every element that seems to contribute to popularity. Improbably but hilariously, his scheme works, and THE TORNADO ASHES CLUB achieves success, though the consequences aren't quite what Pete had hoped for.

When I first heard Hely discuss HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST on NPR, I laughed at the concept, but it also sounded a little too easy, a bit too one-joke to be worth actually reading. My humble apologies to Hely, and my sincere gratitude to the friend who pressed the book into my hands. (And also sorry to everyone within earshot who had to listen to me giggle my way through the book.)

The story of Pete's rise to fame is not, as I perhaps imagined, based on deciding that THE DA VINCI CODE sucks and quickly knocking out a better version. Pete finds that compared to thinking up an idea, "Writing a novel -- actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs -- is a tremendous pain in the ass." And he also discovers that to write a plot-focused page-turner requires even more effort, more than he wants to expend. Instead of worrying about intricate plotting, Pete writes a literary-type blockbuster full of engineered emotional moments, pointlessly flowery language, and a plot that makes no real sense. I appreciated that Hely went in this direction, because as much as I might enjoy mocking THE DA VINCI CODE, I am well aware that Dan Brown's books are popular not because they are so carefully written, but because they have plots stronger than I could ever hope to write.

But don't worry, this book still lets you enjoy mocking Dan Brown and everyone else who writes novels that sell better than yours. Pete's literary world is full of fictional but easily recognizable stand-ins like Tim Drew, whose works include THE DARWIN ENIGMA and THE BALTHAZAR TABLET. And Josh Holt Cready, "the precocious author of MANASSAS, a novel about a precocious author named Josh Holt Cready who retraces the steps of his ancestor who fought for the Union and died at Cold Harbor," if Schadenfoer is more your thing.

Throughout the book, we are treated to excerpts from Pete's novel and those of his competitors. These are spot-on parodies of their genres, and the humor isn't that the writing is bad (it's not) but that each excerpt is so exactly what that particular style is like. Kudos to Steve Hely for this difficult accomplishment, which must have taken a lot more work than Pete was willing to put in. If you have a familiarity with the kinds of books that sell these days and some skepticism over what makes the lists, read HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST and scare those around you with your outbursts of laughter.(less)

like · see review

May 11, 2012 JBradford rated it 1 of 5 stars

I think I recall saying or writing earlier that I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of books I had started to read but decided not to finish. I guess I have just gone to the other hand. I read the first chapter in this book, developing a thorough dislike of the first-person narrator's character and a great deal of suspicion about the claims being made about his high school and college experiences. I then checked on the Internet and confirmed that there was n o such college, hence...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 23, 2012 Fred Forbes rated it 5 of 5 stars

I won't spend a lot of time rehashing the contents of this book since it has been very ably done in previous reviews. As a "constant reader", I thoroughly enjoyed this work - it is clever, creative, laugh out loud funny and one of the best I have read this year. (What is it with humour = yellow cover? Dave Barry's new book is also yellow.)

What I find a disturbing trend arose when I noticed on the back of the book "a paperback original". How is it that someone of Hely's comedic chops - writer for...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 15, 2011 Barb rated it 3 of 5 stars

easy, humorous, satirical look at what makes a best seller! excerpt explaining the rules:
Rule 1: Abandon truth.
Rule 2: Write a popular book. Do not waste energy making it a good book.
Rule 3: Include nothing from my own life.
Rule 4: Must include a murder.
Rule 5: Must include a club, secrets/mysterious missions, shy characters, characters whose lives are changed suddenly, surprising love affairs, women who've given up on love but turn out to be beautiful.
Rule 6: Evoke confusing sadness at the...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 26, 2011 Elizabeth added it · review of another edition

The bad [books]! These bad ones - terrible ones, ones that don’t even make sense and have adverbs everywhere and made-up words - they sell ten million copies and they make movies out of them. I used to cry every night, literally… because I thought I must be stupid. I had these dreams, every night, where everybody speaks some foreign language and I don’t know it.

I KNOW, RIGHT???

It is impossible to say how much I enjoyed this send-up of modern literary trends. I recommend it for everyone in the pu...more The bad [books]! These bad ones - terrible ones, ones that don’t even make sense and have adverbs everywhere and made-up words - they sell ten million copies and they make movies out of them. I used to cry every night, literally… because I thought I must be stupid. I had these dreams, every night, where everybody speaks some foreign language and I don’t know it.

I KNOW, RIGHT???

It is impossible to say how much I enjoyed this send-up of modern literary trends. I recommend it for everyone in the publishing business. If it doesn’t make you laugh, you are probably making too much money.

It is true, though, that the book drags a bit toward the end, especially as the narrator, Pete Tarslaw, completes his spiral dive into becoming a complete and utter certified jerk. And considering that Pete *is* a certifiable jerk, I also feel Hely sold out a bit by having Pete decide “I wish I’d written something that good.” Yes, great literature is great, but there’s an uncomfortable amount of truth in Pete’s original, less popular view that “The financial success of an author is inversely proportional to the literary worth of the book.” It almost feels like Hely, the real author, is backpedalling, worrying that some of Pete’s ugliness will wash off on HIM. Nabokov is not Humbert, you know? I wish Hely had let his antihero stick to his guns with “THE EMPEROR IS NAKED” rather than, “well, the emperor’s not wearing any clothes at the moment, but he does have some REALLY NICE CLOTHES.”

------------------------------

Writing a novel would be easy if it wasn’t for the frills. Take, for example, the scene early in The Tornado Ashes Club where Luke parachutes into Normandy a month before D-Day. The local resistance fighters find him, and together they celebrate his arrival over a bottle of calvados in a Bayeux root cellar.

This scene took me two days. Lots of Internet research was required to find out pesky details like what they drink in Normandy, and the name of a town, and what kind of parachute they used in the Second World War…

AHAHAHAHA MY COVER IS BLOWN, THIS IS MY LIFE

here’s me thinking I’m the only one who spends TWO HOURS getting the name of a single WEED right or trying to discover if continental Europe was on daylight saving time in 1943… I always think it must be so much easier for those of us making up our own magical vegetation.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 08, 2011 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humour, mainstream

Ah, the great American novel. Many have tried, many have failed. History is littered with those who have come off a little worse for wear for having attempted such a thing: shattered marriages, flabby livers, unfortunate shotgun accidents and, well, plenty more flabby livers abound. Creating a novel that will touch the hearts of the everyman is a lofty goal, and it takes a certain amount of passion and skill, and a rather liberal addition of je ne sais qoi to succeed.

Unless you’re Pete Tarslaw....more Ah, the great American novel. Many have tried, many have failed. History is littered with those who have come off a little worse for wear for having attempted such a thing: shattered marriages, flabby livers, unfortunate shotgun accidents and, well, plenty more flabby livers abound. Creating a novel that will touch the hearts of the everyman is a lofty goal, and it takes a certain amount of passion and skill, and a rather liberal addition of je ne sais qoi to succeed.

Unless you’re Pete Tarslaw. Embittered by a soul-destroying career writing university entrance applications and shattered by the news of the upcoming marriage of his ex-girlfriend, Pete sets out to turn that shruggable “I dunno” element of Great Fiction into a paint-by-numbers affair–and a profitable one at that. The key elements of his plan for literary world domination? To show up smarmy pseudo-literary author Preston Brooks, and to show his ex exactly what she’s missing.

The planning component of Pete’s literary fervour involve stalking Borders patrons and flicking through the Lifestyle channel for tear-jerker topics (widows, WWII, and abandoned dogs), must-have settings (Vegas! France! Peru!), and elements required for bookclub consumption (clubs and societies! baking and muffins! a depressing and/or ambiguous ending!). It’s hilarious, but painfully so, because I’m quite sure than in the past year or so I’ve reviewed plenty of such books (high-concept YA and secret society thrillers I’m talking about you).

Hely continues his teeth-grittingly accurate depiction of the writing process (procrastination, junk food, and an over-reliance on non-prescription medication), and of course the publishing process (“if we’d turned down the books we’d accepted and accepted the ones we’d turned down we would probably be in the same situation”). It’s unflinchingly rude and cynical, and it’s a riot. But the novel really gets going when Pete’s novel starts to climb the Amazon charts–an occurrence that’s about as transparent as Ulysses. Pete’s unashamed hubris and his vindictive motivations start to give way under the combined pesky forces of insight and conscience, and he slowly begins to realise that he’s dressed about as appropriately as the proverbial emperor.

Like the hilarious Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch by Richard Hine (see my review), How I Became a Famous Novelist is a spot-on satire of both the publishing industry and those who populate it. Although Hely’s approach does occasionally veer more towards condemnation than critique, there’s more going on here than a railing-against-the-establishment furore. While no publishing stone remains untouched (book reviewers cop quite a clout!), there is a certain warmth here: the novel, for all its bilious ardour, is also a frank assessment of the power of story and the costs of cynically manipulating it for financial gain. Tarslaw may not be the most easy character with whom to sympathise, but the emphasis on situational (and systemic) humour will keep the reader chuckling away.(less)

like · see review

Jun 21, 2011 Helen (Helena/Nell) rated it 2 of 5 stars

I bought this at an airport in a two for one deal. I bought it because I liked the idea of what it said on the back jacket" "A gleeful skewering of the publishing industry and every cliche of the writing life."

I like gleeful skewerings. But EVERY cliche? Maybe that was a wee bit too ambitious.

I think the book might have been very funny. It wasn't very funny. It had bits of wry and bits of amusing and bits of quite clever, but not very funny. Also I wasn't dead keen on where it went in the end, w...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 11, 2011 Kater Cheek rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good humor straddles that razor's edge between what we all know and what we dare not speak of. This novel started out balancing on that fine line very well. The protagonist, Pete Tarslaw decides to write a novel so he can become famous and show up his ex-girlfriend at her wedding. I found myself alternating between laughing uproariously and laughing uncomfortably. "Ha ha! He's making fun of writers and writing!" and then "Ouch. He's making fun of writers and writing." I had to read it in spurts,...more

like · see review

Nov 30, 2010 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars

How I Became a Famous Novelist is a tidy, and very funny, example of simultaneous multi-layer cake having/eating. Bitter Pete Tarslaw decides the best way to get back at his ex-girlfriend is to write a chart-topping novel. He inventories the best seller list, discards genre fiction as requiring too much actual work, and decides to write one of those "literary" bestsellers -- a treacly tearjerker ripe for transformation into an Oscar-bait flick. The sort of book you find under the the Christmas t...more How I Became a Famous Novelist is a tidy, and very funny, example of simultaneous multi-layer cake having/eating. Bitter Pete Tarslaw decides the best way to get back at his ex-girlfriend is to write a chart-topping novel. He inventories the best seller list, discards genre fiction as requiring too much actual work, and decides to write one of those "literary" bestsellers -- a treacly tearjerker ripe for transformation into an Oscar-bait flick. The sort of book you find under the the Christmas tree and unwrap with a sense of mounting dread, disappointment, and a sense of weary obligation. Tarslaw takes the David Allen Coe "perfect country song" approach -- "I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison." -- cobbles together something called The Tornado Ashes Club, and jumps on the rags/riches ride.

What's really impressive is that How I Became a Famous Novelist itself clearly follows a best-seller template, although pitched to a snarkier, more cynical audience segment and (thankfully) without The Tornado Ashes Club's overwrought prose.

Including multiple pages of deliberately bad parody prose and pulling the-joke-is-that-it's-not-a-joke are risky moves. What makes it work for me is that Hely, bless him, fully commits to his satire: he insults the three most significant audiences for his book: the editors and publishers who decided to buy it, journalists who discuss it, and ordinary people who read it. (A fourth audience, people who make film option decisions, gets a virtual pass, which would seem suspicious if I could envision How I Became a Famous Novelist filmed as anything other than a shoestring-budget indie quirkfest.) Tarslaw's a bit of a skeeze, but he's aware of his skeeziness and possibly trending toward future reduced skeeziness, which I thought kept him adequately sympathetic. And when Hely's authorial point of view shines through Tarslaw's voice, it just might, y'know, tug at your heartstrings, because, like all good satire, How I Became a Famous Novelist has a hot, angry core.
(less)

like · see review

Oct 24, 2010 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I laughed out loud many, many times during the course of this book. Who can't relate to a guy who wants to do something so profoundly awesome that it will ruin his ex-girlfriend's wedding? Who doesn't dream (even secretly) of being a rock star, a gold medalist, a hero of some sort, all for the glee of knowing that one's ex must then acknowledge "yeah, I broke up with that (rock star/gold medalist/hero). I'm an idiot."

This book takes some very good-natured jabs at the literary world today, skewer...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 31, 2010 Spirit Staff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: staff-picks

We chose this book as our first "pick" for the staff book club; as it turns out, the staff book club really only met for one month, so it was also our last "pick." All questions to our commitment and tenacity aside, this was a *perfect* choice! Here is all you really need to know about the plot: Peter Tarslaw, who has recently been laid off from his job forging students' college admissions essays, finds out his college sweetheart is getting married. Determined not to show up a pathetic loser, he...more

like · see review

Aug 30, 2010 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars

For anyone who loves (to laugh at) books and the people who write them, HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST offers plenty to enjoy. In composing the fictional memoir of first-time novelist and literary scandal-monger Pete Tarslaw, comedy writer Steve Hely finds ways to gleefully skewer all forms of literary genre and pretension. The spoof New York Times Bestseller List (linked to in the Amazon Best of the Month Review above) is a classic in its own right and sets much of the tone for the whole book....more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 29, 2010 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone in need of a laugh

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction

This one is truly funny. A spoof on the publishing industry that skewers everyone from the authors who write books intentionally following trends to create a blockbuster to the agents, publishers, reviewers and readers who encourage it all. Hely's main character, Pete Tarslaw, is your usual modern day slacker/anti-hero, with a twist. When he learns that the college girlfriend who dumped him in senior year is getting married, a desire for revenge gets him off the couch.

He "studies up" on bestsell...more

like · see review

Feb 10, 2010 Kurtbg rated it 2 of 5 stars

An author takes a poke and jab at the bidness of writing novels by analyzing the ingredients of best-sellers and crafting a hodge-podge novel to make it as a novelist (and show up an old flame).

The author simultaneously crafts a piece of marketing for himself by 1) doing the analysis and 2) peppering the book with creative story ideas and snippets of fictitious novels.

Every author has a style, but there's something about the same structure and format that gets recycled that really stands out to...more

like · see review

Jan 25, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the funniest book I’ve read in a long while. Jilted Pete Tarslaw cooks up a plan to write a blockbuster novel, just to show the woman who got away. And heck, also to attract a fresh bevy of ardent bibliophiles, just like his adopted mentor, Preston Brooks, who is sort of a cross between Nicholas Sparks and Robert James Waller, and whose saccharine oeuvre includes “Kindness to Birds.” Tarslaw goes to work studying the bestseller lists and bookstore shelves, recording his astute and funny...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 09, 2010 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very funny book! It's fiction, in case the title misleads you into thinking this is a memoir. It's about a young slacker guy (late 20s? early 30s? can't recall) who decides to become a famous literary novelist to show up his ex-girlfriend at her upcoming wedding. He studies the best-sellers list and comes up with some rules he follows to ensure his success, such as "At dull points include descriptions of delicious meals."
Sample funny passage to give you a sense of the narrator's voice :

"The act...more

like · see review

Nov 22, 2009 Rainey rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: writers, readers, angry exes

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Steve Hely’s main character, Pete Tarslaw, is a failure. He’s done nothing since college except waste his life, and the book opens with him urinating into empty bottles of beer and scraping out a living writing bogus entrance essays for English-challenged college hopefuls. He hasn’t read a book in years. In “How I Became a Famous Novelist,” Tarslaw decides not only to turn his life around by writing a book, but to make a ton of money doing it by unlocking the tricks of successful novel writing....more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 07, 2009 Charlotte rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was totally great. I loved it & laughed out loud in the airplane. It just perfectly skewers the world of publishing, both literary & popular (it is two worlds, or just one--ah ha!) and the main character Pete Tarslaw and his best-selling novel The Tornado Ashes Club are both hilarious. It's the kind of book you can't resist reading excerpts from to whomever you're with--much to my husband's dismay. Excerpt from the fake book within the book:
"In strewn banners that lay like streamers...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 02, 2009 Jake rated it 3 of 5 stars

Usually, an entry into the 'light humor' category would send me running screaming into the night, frantically searching for the $14 I just pissed away. Christopher Moore, for instance, usually makes me want to place a shotgun in my mouth. And also to kill myself.

Steve Hely falls firmly into this category. However. Hely DOES take it upon himself to eviscerate pretty much every wildly successful American author who has no right to be successful. The Pattersons, Browns, Cornwells -- they all get a...more

like · see review

Sep 28, 2009 Todd rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle

Funny, funny novel that I impulsively bought on my Kindle after hearing an interview with the author on Fresh Air. [[Aside: I've said it before and I'll say it again: Terry Gross is the Virgil to my Dante, guiding me through America's Middlebrow Inferno.]]

This book is as premise heavy and improbable as an SNL sketch, but the big difference is that this novel works.

The plot is something to hang jokes on: An invitation to an ex-girlfriend's wedding spurs a desperate slacker to resolve to become a...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 24, 2009 Jenny rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-humor, adult-lit-fic

Pete Tarslaw's college girlfriend broke up with him on graduation day, and, several years later, he's still not over it. So when he gets the email announcing that she's engaged, he realizes he can't go to the wedding and tell people that he writes college entrance essays for idiots for a living... So he decides that he's going to become a famous novelist. After analyzing the NYT bestseller lists, he creates a list of 16 rules for bestselling books and starts writing.

I made it 80 pages into this...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (6)

More editions...

Genres

Humor

60 users

Language > Writing

13 users

Book Club

12 users

Humor > Funny

12 users

Novels

11 users

Writing > Books About Books

11 users

Adult Fiction

9 users

Adult

6 users

Humor > Comedy

4 users

Literary Fiction

3 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Books by Steve Hely

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About How I Became a Fa...

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from How I Became a Famous ...

“Writing a novel— actually picking the words and filling in paragraphs— is a tremendous pain in the ass. Now that TV’s so good and the Internet is an endless forest of distraction, it’s damn near impossible. That should be taken into account when ranking the all-time greats. Somebody like Charles Dickens, for example, who had nothing better to do except eat mutton and attend public hangings, should get very little credit.” — 7 people liked it

“I try not to hate anybody. "Hate is a four-letter word," like the bumper sticker says. But I hate book reviewers.

Book reviewers are the most despicable, loathsome order of swine that ever rooted about the earth. They are sniveling, revolting creatures who feed their own appetites for bile by gnawing apart other people's work. They are human garbage. They all deserve to be struck down by awful diseases described in the most obscure dermatology journals.

Book reviewers live in tiny studios that stink of mothballs and rotting paper. Their breath reeks of stale coffee. From time to time they put on too-tight shirts and pants with buckles and shuffle out of their lairs to shove heaping mayonnaise-laden sandwiches into their faces, which are worn in to permanent snarls. Then they go back to their computers and with fat stubby fingers they hammer out "reviews." Periodically they are halted as they burst into porcine squeals, gleefully rejoicing in their cruelty.

Even when being "kindly," book reviewers reveal their true nature as condescending jerks. "We look forward to hearing more from the author," a book reviewer might say. The prissy tones sound like a second-grade piano teacher, offering you a piece of years-old strawberry hard candy and telling you to practice more.

But a bad book review is just disgusting.

Ask yourself: of all the jobs available to literate people, what monster chooses the job of "telling people how bad different books are"? What twisted fetishist chooses such a life?” — 5 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: How I Became a Famous Novelist
avg rating	preview: How I Became a Famous Novelist Goodreads rating: 3.69 (2238 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://gr-assets.com/book/show/6013046-how-i-became-a-famous-novelist?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328822619l/6013046.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://gr-assets.com/book/show/6013046-how-i-became-a-famous-novelist?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely[/url]

How I Became a Famous Novelist

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website