What similarities were there in starting a company and getting a book published?
KR: More than you’d think. In starting a company, you need to find investors who believe in you, who will back your vision, and will put millions of dollars to work on making it a reality. Except that the money at stake is a lot less, that’s pretty similar to finding a publisher. In both, you need to believe in yourself and what you’re doing because there will be incessant attacks on your ego. Venture capitalists turned down Google and fifteen publishers turned down John Grisham’s first novel. Here’s another similarity: Entrepreneurs are extremely generous. When you call another entrepreneur and ask about a prospective hire or about what it’s like to have a certain venture capitalist on your board, you get the unvarnished truth. The odds against success are long enough, and we need to stick together. When crime fiction writers get together, it’s the same “us against them” fellowship you see among entrepreneurs. They suggest agents, publishers, conferences worth attending, etc. In addit
