Social media, SEO, marketing and writingWhat To Do When Your Manuscript Is Done
The incredible thing about a great author, Margaret Mitchell, was that she never thought or even considered the possibility of publication for the novel she worked on for years. During the late 1920s, she had to stay in bed several years for health reasons. To amuse herself, she wrote about Atlanta, the Civil War, and lost herself creating characters like Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler, and others.
Margaret worked on her manuscript for one reason––her own interest and amusement. It was years later, after a Macmillan editor heard about her work and came to Atlanta, that Gone With the Wind was published (in 1936).
Margaret Mitchell is a strong example of an author who never thought about the marketplace while writing her novel about the old south. She didn’t think it was any good. What a far cry that is compared with today’s aggressive authors who pull out all the stops in marketing their books. Some authors of today even plan strategic campaigns to place their manuscripts.
The first thing an author of today should be aware of is that it’s a buyer’s market. Everyone and his brother’s cousin is writing, and that means most of the better publishers have a much wider choice. Publishers today no doubt reach for the rejection forms or “thank you but it’s not right for our list” reply much quicker. After all, they have stacks and stacks of other manuscripts and proposals sitting on most editorial desks.
One of the best strategies for approaching the marketplace is simply to let a worthy and capable agent do it for you. This allows the author to focus on writing and not have to think about marketing. Effective agents know which publishers are the right ones for a given book, so you don’t waste valuable time sending work to the wrong companies. And the agent can get you a decision a great deal sooner, whereas if you try one publisher at a time, on your own, it could take years to get even a handful of decisions.
But for most new authors, getting a quality agent is about twenty times harder than finding a publisher. So that puts the newcomer author back at square one and means you give up or market your work yourself as best you can.
A strange but very true fact about today’s publishing industry is that authors with up to fifty published books, including several or more bestsellers, cannot get an agent to represent them. It’s a paradox and proves that the so-called importance of a track record of published works does not really count for much anymore. Many of the top publishers and editors simply won’t consider anything unless it comes in from a powerhouse agent with clout. Powerful agents have to a large extent taken over the industry. They have become the gatekeepers today instead of editors.
Other leading editors focus their time on big name authors and proven commodities. It’s a catch-22 that frustrates a lot of authors, driving many of them out of publishing. Every now and then, however, a newcomer manages to slip in with good timing, a great proposal or manuscript, and lots of luck.
Another strategy is to already know someone in publishing or have a friend or relative who does. Networking may get your foot in the door.
Some patient authors have even obtained positions in publishing, in publicity, advertising, marketing, rights, or general office work, and then proceeded to show their work to contacts already made.
It’s helpful to read the trade journals and to attend publishing conferences and conventions. All of this together helps to keep you well-informed on what is going on in the industry, what the current trends are, types of books being bought and published, and contact names at various publishing houses.
A number of authors believe attending conferences for authors is a waste of time. Others claim they have made some contacts this way and actually later sold one or more books to editors and agents who attend the better author conferences.
Remember, too, that you can always pick up the telephone and call an editor, publisher or agent, whether it irritates them or not. You can send a letter, email, fax them, or try some unusual stunt to get their attention. A combination of these methods applied persistently should bring you some success or, at the very least, more knowledge about the way the business works.
Authors in the New York area have been known to eat at the same restaurants editors frequent in hopes of meeting one or more.
If and when one of your books goes over the top, and hits the blockbuster level, assuming there is enough publicity about it, editors and agents may come after you. Nothing gets their attention, makes them sit up and take notice, like a new author who just turned out a blockbuster. They will then find you.
