Andrew Jack Writing

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Change is coming to you

Posted on | June 25, 2009 | No Comments

One the major themes of The Shadow Library is that no matter how you resist change in your life, change is coming to you whether you want it or not. Right now, publishing is undergoing a change that many people are resisting.

Consequently some (lots) of publishers are going under, those that are still around are having to more careful where they put their money and that means that the old model of sending out queries and waiting for a publisher or an agent to come to you just isn’t going to work. Sure, someone out there will be the exception to the rule and if you have truly gargantuan talent you might find this doesn’t apply to you.

You might also find your gargantuan talent sitting in a slush pile for a month and then sent back to you unopened. You need a hook, a reason for an editor or an agent give some of their time to. Editors and agents are incredibly time starved, even before they pick up a manuscript. You want to get published? Give them a reason.

Better yet give them 10,000 reasons.

In the world of webcomics, having 10,000 regular readers is a benchmark of success, the point where you can at least consider making a living from your comic. The same applies for your novel. If you can go to a publisher and say to them “Hey, I got me 10,000 built in fans, they can’t all be insane.”* you will have a far more attractive proposition than simply telling them about how great your book is.

Of course all of this means you’re going to need to do even more work than before. Not only are you opening a vein into your laptop, you’re going to need to get a website going, interact with your audience and perhaps even get a podcast going. I use Scott Sigler as the benchmark for excellent self promotion, blogging and podcasting. Scott seems to have a thing for his characters going to bad places with butchers scissors, but I can’t fault anything he does, both in writing and on the internet because it’s so damn good. Hit up Scott’s site and listen to the podcast of his ongoing series Nocturnal for an example of a podcasted novel done right.

Without some way of showing a potential publisher that you’re a little different from the millions of others that send their writing in, you’ll be another grain of sand on the beach. Having a website is also great incentive to work on your novel, as you want to have something of significance to show that you’re not just spending all day reading twitter posts and eating astonishing sandwiches**.

*Some rewording may be necessary
**The more wasabi paste you put in it, the more astonishing the sandwich.
Category: advice

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