Having finished my novel KUNDELA I have sent out samples to different publishers. Having religiously followed their submission guidelines in the hope that someone would chance upon my masterpiece, I have checked the e-mail inbox daily with dissapointment. Weeks of waiting and with response times now passing I have to face the possibility of not being picked up on this first round of enquiry letters.
I have been through most of the self publish websites and now have would be publishers from all over the world willing to publish and market my book for a fee, in some cases a rather large fee. I don't have that kind of money to spend, and I'm not sure that Francis from Frisco can be bothered with the marketing plan my novel needs. I think it's an opportunity for them to make money from the author rather than the other way around.
Taking the view that I'm a trades person with a commodity to sell takes the marketing of KUNDELA into an area I know well. I've spent all of my previous career in sales and marketing so I have the skills. What I don't have is the contacts, therefore I will need an agent or at the very least the contacts an agent has. The first question raised now, is how do I do I gain that knowledge. Therefore I started to research the people who have been in a similar situation to me and gone on to become successful and published authors.
From my research I find that it is necessary to embrace rejection as something that teaches you a lesson, and to learn from it. Another point I found helpful was to create a business plan for your proposal. To sell anything you need to know everything about it, what it is, what products it competes with, the strengths and weaknesses of both yours and your competitor's product.
Now I am on a quest to structure a business plan for KUNDELA, complete with a marketing plan, sales strategy and finance plan. Now I find that I'm on familiar ground with a product to sell.
Proving that writing is a business.
One of the sites I found helpful was a Youtube Interview by Stacey Cochran with John Fuhrman as his quest. It is over 50 minutes long but contains some wonderful information.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKLr9eWucrw
Unfortunately, Terry, a lot of good books don't get picked up by a publisher. When one of your books does get picked up and sells well, all those readers will want to read your first novel, Kundella. Don't get disheartened. You have achieved something so many people only dream of - you have written a novel!
ReplyDeleteHi Chris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment,
I'm certainly not disheartened more trying a proactive approach to becoming published. With a copy edit completed a cover in place and a book launch date and publicity campaign in place I'm very excited. I now have to lock in the printer and press the start button.
Look out everyone cause I'm going to pester you into buying, reading, and getting your friends to buy my book either in print or e-book.
Cheers,
Terry
Rejection happens.
ReplyDeleteIt is like dirt.
It washes off.
It’s how you choose to wash it that matters.