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Writing Advice |
Thoughts on Traditional Publishing First, you must write. I know of a writer who followed this advice until an unending chorus of rather nice personal rejections finally drove him over the edge. Not to self-destruction; just to self-publication. After this writer submitted his project to every appropriate house, he finally decided that a print on demand service would be the only way for his story to find an audience. Self-publishing can work for those few writers who have the both the temperament and the know-how to market themselves and their work. But I have a different perspective to share with you, one born of experience. Your next book next could be the one that sells the project sitting on your hard drive. The seventh novel that I completed is the first one that I sold. The sixth novel that I completed is the second one that I sold. I’m not the only writer with this kind of story. So why should people keep storming the gates of traditional publishing when they could market directly to the consumer? Here are a few of my reasons. My editor at Peachtree helped me make both stories immeasurably better. The staff at Peachtree sent sample copies out to print and web reviewers. They continue to pitch my books to librarians, teachers and booksellers at events like the American Library Association national convention and BookExpo. Because of their efforts, kids are checking my book out of town and school libraries around the nation. Most self-published books never make it across the library threshold. So let me revise Heinlein’s classic advice. Write your book. Finish
it. Put it on the market. And while you’re keeping it on the market,
start in on the next one. With this kind of approach, you raise the odds
of being able to put the following announcement in the subject line of
an email: SOLD!!!!!! |