Welcome Text

Welcome! Books, movies, music, original stories, interviews, writing, libraries, literacy, humor –all with the YA reader in mind, are just a few of the topics you’ll find here. New to the blog? Say hi! Like it? Follow away! Thanks for visiting.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Creating a following BEFORE your novel is ever published?

Yes, that's right. The literary market these days is so unstable, uncertain and uncomfortable with taking risks on authors (especially first time published authors) that, with each passing day it becomes more and more difficult to find an agent or publisher who will even look at your manuscript.
Is it the end for all of us first-time authors? What can we do? The answer comes in three words. Build a following.
An agent or publisher picks up your query letter, glances it over, likes what she sees but your genre is too risky right now. She's had dozens of submissions (and rejected them all) in this genre, some of which she's liked but it just isn't worth the risk to take on a new author when she isn't confident the book will sell. Then she sees something at the bottom of the query letter that changes her mind.
Between my blog and my facebook page, I've managed to generate over 1000 followers.
In her mind that's 1000 book sales, which isn't a bad run for a first time author in the fiction market. What if that number were 2000 or 5000 or 10,000? Think she'd be interested then?
It's a new world for writers. Follow along with me as I research and implement the fruits of my research. Through my experimentations, I hope to be able to pave the way for all new writers looking for a path to publication. Let us begin...

No comments:

Post a Comment