I think most unpublished authors see “the problem” as “getting a publisher” but the real problem is getting readers once published. Like most writers, I’m a reader. I have a list of authors I’ve come to love and whose writing I trust to deliver to me the reading experience I want.
Some of those authors I discovered because they were just so big and famous I had to be living under a rock NOT to discover them. Like Stephen King or JK Rowling. And actually I read JKR because everyone was saying she was evil and demon possessed. PR is PR and sometimes even bad PR intrigues a reader enough to pick up your book.
Some authors were recommended by friends who share similar likes. A couple now have been from online communications. I would have never read a book by Rachel Caine or Erica Orloff, if not for their blogs. I stumbled across Cynthia Eden before I found her blog, from the Secrets anthologies.
I was in Rachel’s nanowrimo LJ group. She’s a likable person who comes off as someone who genuinely wants to help other writers and who loves what she does. Erica is the same way. Without this interaction and likability factor these writers would be “strangers” to me. And I probably wouldn’t pick up their books. Why should I, out of all the books to pick from?
I think you really want to get past the “strangers” stage to build a readership. And that’s the point of a blog. Not because every other writer is doing it and it’s “expected” by publishers now, but because you’re trying to connect with people who are in some way like you, who then might make the step to pick up something you’ve written and take a chance on you. And who if they like you, because of that small online connection, are more likely to recommend you to their friends than someone who discovered you in a less interactive way.
The other authors I’ve picked up had really fabulous covers that intrigued me, followed by back copy that intrigued me and a first page that made the sale. If I wasn’t absolutely grabbed by the first page, it was no dice. Sometimes by the first paragraph. As I write this I realize my novella that’s “out there” right now, could have a much better opening paragraph. Should it come back to me, it will be getting one, because I don’t want to stand in my own way.
July 6, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Everything I do is with the reader in mind. That’s the gift my pseudonym taught me. Everything else is just a step.
That said, I don’t try quite as hard to sell pseudonym’s beginnings. I mean, as long as it starts in the action with some story suspense, then that’s done. They already know what they’re getting, pretty much. With real name, I feel so much pressure to sell the whole story in the first page.
But when I write, a dual part of my mind is stepping back, trying to see what the story experience is for the reader.
July 6, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Yep, Spy. Also, I would definitely pick up your fiction, just from reading your blog.
July 6, 2008 at 6:26 pm
It is true that there are many challenges to publishing your manuscript and many go unpublished every year. Then, as you mentioned, there is the difficulty in getting readers to find your work. Trying to publish a book I have found a site called crestbooks.com that enables you to sell your manuscript electronically without all the up front investment of self publishing. It gives writers from all backgrounds an avenue to distribute your work to the masses and get valuable comments/critiques.
This is an awesome avenue to present your piece to the world and for readers to find those, up and coming, great authors.
Check it out.
July 6, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Thanks for commenting Tipper! Anything that can connect you directly with your reader is worth further exploration. Investment has to happen one way or the other, whether it’s time or money or a combination.
But spending vast amounts of money up front is no longer the only way to get your message to the people.
July 7, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Zoe, I think you hit the problem dead-on. Because really, what good is being published if you can’t get folks to read your books? (You sure won’t stay published long that way!)
And thanks for mentioning little ole me.
July 7, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Hey Cindy,
Very true. I think so many are focused on just the short term problem, when from the very beginning we need to be thinking about “now how am I going to reach my audience?”
No problem. I just ordered Hotter After Midnight on Amazon (Finally.) So now it’s in my TBR pile.
July 7, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Zoe, Hotter After Midnight is great. Speaking for myself, I need to get the book published before I get the people to read it.
We’re having an electrical storm, so I have to get off the computer. I was off for over two hours, and I thought it stopped, but guess not.
July 7, 2008 at 9:05 pm
hehehe Edie. Obviously.
I just mean that writers act like getting published is the BIG problem. 