You created a strong relationship with your local bookstore. You shop there. You know the staff and are familiar with the inventory, programs and events. And now you’ve committed yourself to a public reading of your work-in-progress at your local independent bookstore. How can an author best prepare to make the experience – for the bookstore, for those who attend, and for an author – a positive one? First, find the perfect excerpt. This sounds much easier than it is. You want the piece to pull the audience into your narrative. Select a scene that opens with action, reveals the central premise and hooks the interest of the reader. It should also have a clear endpoint and leave the listener begging for more of the story. There may be a time limit imposed on the length of the reading, but even if there is not, keep your reading time under 15 minutes, or less than 10 pages. Shorter is better than an excerpt that is too long. Write up a brief bio and prepare an introduction to the reading. Use third-person in this document since you will provide the host or moderator with this information well in advance of the event. Provide the premise, or a brief synopsis of the work from which your reading is excerpted, and just enough information for the selection to be put into context for the listeners’ comprehension. Once you have identified the excerpt, be sure to print it out and read it aloud. You may…
More than any other reason, acquisition editors use the lack of an audience platform to reject a book project. They look at more than the numbers of followers, friends, tweeps and subscribers to assess the size of your reading audience. Social media metrics are one indication of an author’s potential customer base. There are many others. Here’s a list of what an agent or acquisition… [Read More]
Filed Under: Face-to-face connections, Media appearances, professional associations, Work-in-Progress
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So you think you need an agent? Most agents do not represent poetry, short stories, non-fiction or material suitable for academic or small presses. If you have written a novel or a memoir, you might consider finding a literary representative. The best reference guide is Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents published annually by Writer’s Digest Books and the 2014 issue has just been released. Before you… [Read More]
Spend more time on writing and less on social media. There. I said it. I mean it. Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google + can suck your precious time. I see many authors use these social media platforms like megaphones to shout out into the wilderness “Buy my book!” One author, who shall remain nameless to protect his guilt, spent four hours one evening spitting out such… [Read More]
Pop-up book club. Literary trading post. Community book swap. Wrap your head around this growing global phenomena: Little Free Libraries. In 2009 Todd Bol built a wooden box, made it look a bit like a schoolhouse, mounted it on a post in his front yard of his home in Hudson, Wisconsin, filled it with books, and stuck a note on the front door to take… [Read More]
You’ve finished writing your manuscript and you’re ready to publish. Or at least you thought you were. Think again. Do you have a proposal and a platform? There’s no book without a manuscript. It’s a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for publishing today. No matter how good the manuscript, it’s only one of three legs on which to step up to publication. In fact,… [Read More]