Getting Noticed

In the old days - by which I mean ten or fifteen years ago, before the ebook explosion -  getting published was tough. The number of slots available for new authors was limited by the costs of producing print books, as well as the cost of buying them (for readers). A typical reader chose carefully when a novel cost between ten and thirty dollars. Publishers were reluctant to gamble on books that weren't an obvious sure thing. They didn't want to lay out the cash for editing, proofreading, cover art, catalogs, promotion, sales teams, book fairs and of course, the printing of the book itself, unless they were pretty confident that they'd at least break even.

Slush piles were enormous. Author success stories were few and far between.

Ebooks and the Internet profoundly changed the economics of publishing. Most of the expenses listed above shrank dramatically or vanished all together, aside from editing and proofing (and, alas, some e-publishers don't seem to spend anything for those, either). The Internet made it cheap to advertise books, and its ubiquity justified pushing the marketing burden onto individual authors. Covers could be assembled from a $5 stock image with a couple hours of Photoshopping. Meanwhile, the price of ebooks dropped to a low enough level that readers could be comfortable impulse buying.

Book sales surged. Publishers needed to satisfy the reading public's seemingly insatiable appetite for fiction. As a result, getting published became much easier. Anyone with a halfway sensible story could find someone who'd publish it. Poor grammar, lexical confusions, spelling errors, were no longer a barrier to being an author. Many more individuals were able to fulfill that dream.

Then self-publishing arrived, and even the most minimal barriers to publication disappeared.

Now it's easy getting published. What's difficult is getting noticed.

You may have written a fantastic book, one you know could be really popular, but how do you let people know? How can you make your book stand out from the literally thousands of books that get published every day?

It seems like an impossible task. Indeed, it's terribly discouraging. I blog like crazy. I participate in email lists. I run contests. I guest at other people's blogs. And almost every time I get some comment like "This is a new author for me..."

I'm doing everything I can, given my other real world responsibilities. But it's not enough.

I'm pretty close to giving up. Not giving up on writing - that's too much a part of me to let go - but on pushing to market my work. I have a few fans whom I know will buy my books. Maybe I should simply be satisfied with that, along with the knowledge that what I write is better, at least from a craft perspective, than a large percentage of the books flooding the world.

The other alternative is to figure out some wild stunt, something totally off the wall that will get me some publicity. Since I'm a very private person - hey, I'm not even on Facebook - this is an unlikely path.

Of course, if I could get each of my regular readers to tell just one friend about my books, that would multiply my fan base by two. And then if those people would just tell their friends...

Maybe that's a ridiculous dream. Still, if you're reading this post, and you have a minute - why not send a link to my book list or free reading page off to one of your friends?

http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html
http://www.lisabetsarai.com/freereads.html

Thanks!

Tales from the Slush Pile

By Misty Malone (Guest Blogger)

So how many of you know that when an author sends a query letter off to an agent or editor, sometimes the agent/editor never even sees it? And no, I’m not talking about Postal Service fail or the vacuum of cyberspace eating a lost email. These days, many houses and agencies have gotten so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of unsolicited query letters they receive, they’ve had no choice but to ask for help. Enter: other published authors.

For the last year, I’ve been lucky enough to offer my services as one of these Slush Pile Readers for a New York agency, and let me tell you, it’s been a wake-up call. The sheer amount of rookie mistakes—that every author can avoid just by doing a little, tiny bit of homework—makes me want to spork some people.

But fear not, my friends! I’m going to give you a short list of just some of the mistakes that make slush readers like me mark your letter for the Rejection pile within the first thirty seconds. And for the non-writers out there, think of this as a sneak peek into the world your favorite authors came from, emerging from the slush like Nessie from the Loch.

1. “Dear Sir/Madam”

• Okay, really guys? It doesn’t take much to surf the ‘net for the proper names (and properly spelled names) of the agents/editors you’re submitting your work to. If you want them to give your query the proper respect and consideration it deserves, show them the same courtesy and address your queries properly. Ditto for avoiding slang-y greetings and anything overly informal: things like kthxbye, omg, l8r, ;-) , and ‘sup should appear nowhere near your query letter.

2. Get to the Point

• Truth is, agents/editors don’t really what inspired you to write this book. They don’t care if your cat, mother, neighbor, or the brain-eating zombie in your dreams told you to write it. The purpose of a query is to sell your product; i.e., tell the buyer (otherwise known as the agent/editor) exactly what the book is about in three paragraphs or less. Leave the other stuff for the book tour and interviews.

3. Avoid the Squick Factor

• I have seen tons of queries that try to catch attention by being overly graphic, disturbing, or flat-out gross. This includes any mention of bodily functions, graphically described X-rated acts, or human/animal torture. Don’t laugh—I’ve seen it done. Even if you write horror, just give the agent/editor a brief (five sentences or less) summary of the main plotline and a reason to care about your characters. Save the gore for the actual manuscript.

4. Be Professional

• Remember when I mentioned your query should be professional? Well, beyond addressing it to the right person, you want to make sure it’s in an easy-to-read, business-style font (such as 10 or 12 pt Arial or Times New Roman). For e-queries, delete the hyperlinks and pretty font colors. Always double-check that your correct contact information appears somewhere on the query (near the bottom is usually preferred). In case you’d been considering it, queries written in crayon, Wingdings, or alpha-numeric code will be automatically rejected. Proper punctuation is a plus. While you probably won’t get slushed for missing a comma or two, not using a single capital letter or period will make query readers like me want to shove a Strunk and White’s down your throat.

5. What Not to Say

• Please, for the love of Barnes and Nobles, avoid using phrases in your queries like:

  • “I don’t know what genre to call this.”

  • “I know your submissions guidelines say not to do this, but I’m going to do it anyway because I’m just that spechul.”

  • “This book has no beginning, middle, or end.”

  • “You may call this experimental fiction.”

  • “I’m a great writer, but need you to tell me if this story idea is any good before I waste more time on it.”

  • “So let me tell you about my super, awesome, guaranteed-to-earn-a-gajillion-dollars future New York Times Bestseller. I’m about 5,000 words into the first chapter but can totally tell you who should be cast when they make it into a movie.”

  • “Manifesto”

(And nope, I’m not making those up, folks. I really, really, really wish I was.)

Though specific guidelines vary between houses and agencies, it’s the writer’s responsibility to find out what those differences are and tailor their queries appropriately. Unless you’re planning to line your cat’s litter box with all those “Thanks, but no” rejection letters you’ll receive, take my advice and avoid becoming another casualty of the slush pile.

Bio for Misty Malone: www.MistyMalone.com

A new voice in town, Misty hails from the Big Apple itself. A Taurus with a penchant for angsty romances gone wrong and good ol' fashioned epic fantasy, Misty writes male/male romantic erotica. Her short stories can be found at Ravenous Romance, and her longer works at www.Phaze.com, including Dead Men Get No Tail, and her forthcoming historical fiction, The Consort.

Check out the book trailer for Dead Men Get No Tail online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTg_IZCRy7k.

Happy reading!