Well, IMO it wasn't just "luck and marketing" that got Rowling and/or Meyers published.

They both had to at least conceive and then write a story that connected with their audience in the first place.
That's a matter of skill & perseverance.
Heavy on the  perseverance.

Those things had to take place 100% prior to any 'luck' or 'marketing'.
Virtually every author professionally published will have some story variant of how much sheer perseverance it took to get noticed and published.

Luck plays into it here - Once they had something to sell, and that something was recognized by *someone* reading the slush pile  (or however it happened for them) as "Hey! This has a market - I can make some cash with this stuff!"

THEN the marketing comes in.
And, generally speaking, the real big marketing isn't done by the author. It's done by the publisher. 


And while I would not say that either authors works are the kind of thing where one starts reading and cannot put it down because of the gripping narrative, or deathless prose, (or whatever superlative works for you), it isn't exactly "bad".   (I've browsed the slush pile before. The word is usually dreck. Or gawdawful. Or "Pleasemakeitstopnooo!")

Both authors works tap into a certain commonality of human experience, and despite the writers limitations, they manage to do it well enough to sell boatloads of books.

The Backstreet Boys aren't Bach. But they are exceptional for what they are. 

Ditto Rowling & Meyer.

I had to fix that for clarification, it was a little ambiguous, and I added some more comments.

I agree that Rowling is a much better writer, but I have read King's writitng and he really isn't a very good writer so I am not sure where he gets off telling a girl almost half his age that her writing isn't very good.

Kind of like if I took a elementary school kids paper and told him it sucks, and that his writing is not as good as mine.

Hm... Maybe it isn't a scam.



Seems accurate enough to me.

Gross stuff under the black.

(click to show/hide)

Arms: Tourniquet them to stop the flow of blood for a while. Chop with big hatchet for dramatic effect. Use a bone saw if you want the slow pain.
Legs: Pretty much the same thing, but you'll want to tourniquet a little lower. There's big arteries that go through the inner thigh.
Eyes: A good deep sea fish hook sounds like it would to the trick. Once it's out of the socket just nip the stalk with some good kitchen shears.
Jaw: This is interesting. There's a lot of bone involved there. You could shatter the jawbone with a ball-peen hammer, then knife the bone out, or you could do it a little more gruesome, knife your way in from the lips to the back of the mouth to get your horizontal, run a vertical cut from jaw to jaw under the chin (careful to avoid the arteries. You don't want to slit his throat.), then once you have the bone and teeth exposed you break out the bolt cutters.

NOTE: H E A V Y sedation is involved. It's highly doubtful you could pull off this kind of thing if the person is awake. They'd likely die from the trauma of missing limbs, etc. The only way I could see someone getting away with someone staying awake through most of it is a spinal block (I think that's the right term for the big needle that goes in your back?)

Yes, to do all this some medical knowledge would be required.