There is a saying that goes like: 'A good book will always find an audience.'
Finding that audience via the modern publishing industry is going to be extremely tough. You, the author, may have a great story and a product that is genuinely commercial. The reality is you will have to be marketable for your book to stand any chance of finding that audience.
To get any face time with a publisher you will first need an agent. Getting an agent is going to be nigh on impossible and extremely time consuming for you. Back in the olde days people sent manuscripts to publishers. That was back when getting a printed copy of your manuscript was very difficult. Just as hand typing a script was. With the advent of personal computers just about anyone could knock up a script, print it and send it to the publisher. The publishers became swamped and Literary Agents evolved. Except a decade after the technical boom more and more people are sending in scripts and the agents are swamped too.
To make their task easier, each agent will have specific requirements that will necessitate different criteria for submitting your work. The reality is they are very busy, they will rarely read more than your cover letter. If they get to your synopsis, they often won't read your submitted chapters. Agents very seldom take on any new authors, because when they do they have to sell your manuscript to a publisher to make any money. They are incredibly selective about what they choose. The submissions they receive will be spread across the spectrum of 'not good', through 'average' to 'good' and 'very good', in decreasing increments. Very often what they choose will be down to circumstance and individual perspective, like I said, it will be as much about you.
There are no stories of walls covered in rejection slips here, because I quickly realised the futility of the whole process. I submitted to thirteen agents in total and spent a lot of time making sure the submission contained exactly what they requested. It took months. It felt increasingly like writing an inventive begging letter. I got five replies. Two were short emails from summer interns, one from the very nice Camilla Bolton at Darley Anderson, and two others as photocopied rejection letters including the signature.
For me the question is simple. What is it you want from publishing your book? If it is notoriety or acclaim within the publishing industry, then you need to come up with a innovative idea, write a flawlessly innovative book and make yourself notable. And preferably find a way around agents. Good luck, I hope to read your book some day.
If you want to entertain and enthral, to have people read your books and hope above all hopes, to carve out a modest living, then you will need to find some other way of getting published. For me the choice was easy. I want people to read what I write.
To start you need two things. You need a great product and you need self belief and determination. That's possibly three but the last two are kind of intertwined. In getting a great product you cannot afford to cut any corners, to hope it will just work. You have to look at your work from every angle and when those nagging voices in your mind tell you something doesn't work, you listen. Same for the proof readers. You cannot afford to be precious. Know what you're writing and who for and take on board everything within context for what you want to achieve.
As for self belief, who knows where that comes from? Wherever you get it from, you're going to need unimaginable quantities. The irony is everyone assumes I have bucket loads. Of course I don't. I wouldn't be human if that were the case. So many times I have despaired and I admit, shed a tear or two at the overwhelming sense of fear that I might fail. Every time I have these dips I eventually come round to a very simple saying: 'Just Do It'. It should be tattooed on me somewhere. Just like I live by the saying: 'Every journey starts with a single step'.
So, you might be asking, what about being published and all that? Well, that's the interesting bit. That's why I created Creative Crow. I became my own publisher. You might call that self-publishing, and maybe even sneer a little, many do. Judge the book by it's cover, I like to say. I like to say that a LOT these days. The cover for Chasing Innocence matches the content.
The boundaries between self and (real) publishing are quickly diminishing in terms of potential quality. I believe the publishing industry is about to go through a major but gradual change over the next decade. I can only see agents becoming a minority, that publishing companies will focus on and consume the increasing number of successful independent (self) publishing authors like large corporates currently do with tech. start-ups. The self publisher makes a good idea, shows commitment in bringing quality with a commercial product, and someone might take notice. Right now I am loving this whole process, the creation and production of my books. And most important, what I write being available for anyone to read at the click of a button. It's about being in control and not about my book and it's begging letter waiting in vain hope. Who knows where it will lead.
For Authors was originally posted on the The Creative Crow Publishing Site For Authors page
Finding that audience via the modern publishing industry is going to be extremely tough. You, the author, may have a great story and a product that is genuinely commercial. The reality is you will have to be marketable for your book to stand any chance of finding that audience.
To get any face time with a publisher you will first need an agent. Getting an agent is going to be nigh on impossible and extremely time consuming for you. Back in the olde days people sent manuscripts to publishers. That was back when getting a printed copy of your manuscript was very difficult. Just as hand typing a script was. With the advent of personal computers just about anyone could knock up a script, print it and send it to the publisher. The publishers became swamped and Literary Agents evolved. Except a decade after the technical boom more and more people are sending in scripts and the agents are swamped too.
To make their task easier, each agent will have specific requirements that will necessitate different criteria for submitting your work. The reality is they are very busy, they will rarely read more than your cover letter. If they get to your synopsis, they often won't read your submitted chapters. Agents very seldom take on any new authors, because when they do they have to sell your manuscript to a publisher to make any money. They are incredibly selective about what they choose. The submissions they receive will be spread across the spectrum of 'not good', through 'average' to 'good' and 'very good', in decreasing increments. Very often what they choose will be down to circumstance and individual perspective, like I said, it will be as much about you.
There are no stories of walls covered in rejection slips here, because I quickly realised the futility of the whole process. I submitted to thirteen agents in total and spent a lot of time making sure the submission contained exactly what they requested. It took months. It felt increasingly like writing an inventive begging letter. I got five replies. Two were short emails from summer interns, one from the very nice Camilla Bolton at Darley Anderson, and two others as photocopied rejection letters including the signature.
For me the question is simple. What is it you want from publishing your book? If it is notoriety or acclaim within the publishing industry, then you need to come up with a innovative idea, write a flawlessly innovative book and make yourself notable. And preferably find a way around agents. Good luck, I hope to read your book some day.
If you want to entertain and enthral, to have people read your books and hope above all hopes, to carve out a modest living, then you will need to find some other way of getting published. For me the choice was easy. I want people to read what I write.
To start you need two things. You need a great product and you need self belief and determination. That's possibly three but the last two are kind of intertwined. In getting a great product you cannot afford to cut any corners, to hope it will just work. You have to look at your work from every angle and when those nagging voices in your mind tell you something doesn't work, you listen. Same for the proof readers. You cannot afford to be precious. Know what you're writing and who for and take on board everything within context for what you want to achieve.
As for self belief, who knows where that comes from? Wherever you get it from, you're going to need unimaginable quantities. The irony is everyone assumes I have bucket loads. Of course I don't. I wouldn't be human if that were the case. So many times I have despaired and I admit, shed a tear or two at the overwhelming sense of fear that I might fail. Every time I have these dips I eventually come round to a very simple saying: 'Just Do It'. It should be tattooed on me somewhere. Just like I live by the saying: 'Every journey starts with a single step'.
So, you might be asking, what about being published and all that? Well, that's the interesting bit. That's why I created Creative Crow. I became my own publisher. You might call that self-publishing, and maybe even sneer a little, many do. Judge the book by it's cover, I like to say. I like to say that a LOT these days. The cover for Chasing Innocence matches the content.
The boundaries between self and (real) publishing are quickly diminishing in terms of potential quality. I believe the publishing industry is about to go through a major but gradual change over the next decade. I can only see agents becoming a minority, that publishing companies will focus on and consume the increasing number of successful independent (self) publishing authors like large corporates currently do with tech. start-ups. The self publisher makes a good idea, shows commitment in bringing quality with a commercial product, and someone might take notice. Right now I am loving this whole process, the creation and production of my books. And most important, what I write being available for anyone to read at the click of a button. It's about being in control and not about my book and it's begging letter waiting in vain hope. Who knows where it will lead.
For Authors was originally posted on the The Creative Crow Publishing Site For Authors page
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