An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown
by Lisa Rogak
Andrews McMeel Publishing Kansas City
This book was interesting for two reasons. It explains how Dan Brown's exposure to Prep Schools and Secret Societies as a student moved him towards that subject matter for his world-wide best seller, The Da Vinci Code, and it explains his writerly life, researching first, heavily plotted schemes before writing, his use of a voice command computer rather than typing, and what went on with his agent and publisher that made the book a very marketable effort, but one that has interfered with his ability to get another book done. Dan Browns wife, Blythe, (a woman behind her man) who was responsible for the strategy of promotion for Dan's music CD's and his earlier books is given ample credit for her contributions to his success.
Page 23
He discovered he possessed a fortitude that was extremely rare among other aspiring young artists. Essentially, Brown couldn't understand how others just like him could fall into a deep depression and give up after only a few months of receiving countless rejection letters. he thought he was missing something because he viewed each rejection as instruction in how he could try harder. With that realization, he knew that Phillips Exeter was responsible. .... "Exeter vaccinated me against the fear of failure," he said.
Page 47
"Besides writing first thing in the morning, Brown also got into the habit of meticulously planning every plot point and twist, each character's relationship with the others, and the forward movement of the story before he wrote even one word of the novel. He realized that the more he knew about the story and its direction in advance, the better. Specifically detailing the tension from one chapter to the next was a great help when the time came for him to actually start writing." .... He knew some novelists wrote blindly, by starting with an idea or image and then writing to see where it would take them. In literary works where the pace moves slowly and tension isn't integral to the plot, Brown could understand this. But the kind of story he wanted to write depended on building lots of suspense, keeping the reader guessing what would happen next, and throwing in lots of surprises - in other words, a page-turning novel....
Page 49-50
"I know I am supposed to name all the great writers who have inspired me, but I'm ashamed to say that I am so buys writing I have almost no time to read anything other than non-fiction and research books," he said. "On vacations I grab some mainstream thriller off the best-seller rack. Not glamorous, I know, but the truth... But there's another reason he shies away from reading current popular fiction. "I read almost exclusively nonfiction, because I am always researching the next novel, but I don't like to read fiction when I'm writing because it tends to color what I am doing," he said.
Page 61 (On marketing his first book, Digital Fortress)
"Brown pulled out all the stops. He had learned from promoting his music that you never knew how someone could help you, so he prepared postcards with an image of the cover of the book on one side and reviews, comments, and a toll-free ordering number of the other. He also devised a succinct motto for the novel: "The government's greatest secret is that they know all of yours." He sent the cards to everyone he had ever known in the music business, as well as to his fellow classmates at Amherst College and Phillips Exeter.
Page 71
"Seasoned authors - and even those with only one book under their belt like Brown - quickly come to realize that once the manuscript has been handed in, their responsibilities to the production phase of publishing are over. Of course, he'd have to answer copy editing questions and check the galleys for typos, but typically only the art department and the sales force have the final say over the content and design of the cover.
