Where should your book be reviewed? What literary journals and magazines should you submit excerpts or adaptations to? Which bookstore events will be worth your while? Are there podcasts or radio interviews you should book to promote your new release? These and other questions you may have when you begin to put together a marketing strategy are not easy to answer. Studying your comp titles can help. If you are preparing a book proposal, you will need to put together a list of comparable or competitive titles. These are books that are similar to yours in that they are competing for the same readers. And these authors have successfully found their audiences so it behooves you to study their efforts. Start by looking at the comp titles’ product pages on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound. You’ll notice there will be short excerpts from reviews and blurbs from those who have endorsed the book. This will help you grow a list of places where you might get your book reviewed. While publishers may send out advance review copies to Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, or Shelf Awareness, they need you to tell them where else galleys should be sent. If you are writing for children or young adults, should your book be reviewed at The Horn Book? School Library Journal? Where else? See where the books on your comp title list have been reviewed. If you’re a female author with a book that interests women readers, do you see your comp titles…
It is the author’s responsibility to seek endorsements for their books and publishers expect you to get them. Blurbs – often only a few words from an endorsement from a high profile author, celebrity or expert – appear on a book’s cover or dust jacket flaps. Blurbs are used in letters to solicit book reviews, on tip sheets to booksellers, in marketing materials and press… [Read More]
Filed Under: advance review copies, blurbs, celebrities, Endorsements, experts, opinion leaders, public figures, reviews
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Vinyl records, No. 2 pencils, yellow-ruled tablets and cork bulletin boards. What I thought I needed in the 1970s to write has changed. But I still need a place to stick things that I don’t yet know where to file but inspire. I’ve used the outside of kitchen cupboard to tape up newspaper clippings, flyers for upcoming events, photographs, maps, postcards, and ticket stubs. Push-pin… [Read More]
I read a lot, for both work and pleasure. When I read for work, my eyes scan every line, sentence, paragraph, page, chapter, and full manuscript for different criteria. I check spelling, grammar, punctuation, style, voice, tense, pacing, continuity, plot, narrative arc, tension, climax, resolution, and other less definable qualities such as honesty, heart, and whether the work might bring something new and necessary into… [Read More]
Filed Under: extra space between sentences, just, over used words, Passive voice, really, That, very, zombies
Shortly after her novel Ten Thousand Saints came out in early 2011, Eleanor Henderson answered a question at a book reading held at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca. When asked how long it took her to write the novel, Henderson said nine years. Nine years. She explained that the first version didn’t even include several of the central characters in the final version. It made… [Read More]
POV. Point of View. When you begin to write, you must decide who will tell the story. You will, of course. Duh. You are the narrator if you are the writer. But who are you? Are you the heroic character? The omniscient voice of God? The fly on the wall? Journalist reporting from the scene? How do you find the right narrator’s voice? One of… [Read More]