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How to Write Publish and Market your Novel into a Best Seller

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Section 1 Where to Start

Welcome!

If you’ve purchased this book you clearly want information. Perhaps you want to write a novel but don’t know where to start.

Maybe you’ve already written a book but don’t know what step to take next.

You might be seriously considering self-publishing but are overwhelmed by the learning curve.

Or maybe you’ve already done all the above but can’t figure out how to get your novel into the hands of the book buying public.

Well you’ve come to the right place. In this book we’ll show you how to do all of those things and more!

But before we get started let’s find out how many of the following standard novel writing questions you can answer?

  • What is the accepted format for manuscript submissions?
  • What are the 10 most common grammatical errors writers make?
  • What are the 10 most commonly misused words?
  • Why you don’t submit in August?
  • What does the phrase ‘As you know, Bob’ mean?
  • What are the KISS and ‘Pick One’ rules?
  • Why are contractions (for the most part) necessary in dialogue?
  • What’s more important: developing your writing style strengths or minimizing your weaknesses?
  • How do you contact and query literary agents?
  • Should you attend writer conferences if you are unpublished?
  • What is the ‘first 5 pages’ rule?
  • Should you have your manuscript professionally edited before submitting?
  • Should you pitch a fiction story to an agent or publisher before you finish writing it?
  • Should you join a writers group?
  • Do you know the Do’s and Don’ts of your opening pages and, most importantly, how to keep your readers from putting your book down?

We do. And you will too, as well as the answers to many other publishing questions once you finish reading How to Write, Publish and Market your Novel into a Bestseller.

Today’s publishing environment is very different than it was only a few years ago. Most publishing houses are down to a skeleton crew while submissions continue to rise. So if you don’t know the rules of manuscript submission YOUR CHANCES AT SUCCESS ARE SLIM.

Most agencies no longer accept hard copy queries. Today you e-mail your query and are told that you will get a response if the agent is interested. You could be waiting for months and not know if they even received it. Yeah, it’s rough out there, but we’ll show you how to stay ahead of the pack.

Traditional publishing houses no longer nurture talent or turn manuscripts over to a team of professional editors for polishing. That’s your job now. They expect your submission to be a top-notch, carefully edited, market researched product before they even read the first page.

There are 2 ways to get your book in the hands of the public. Sign with a traditional publisher or go the Indie/self publish route. Both have advantages and pitfalls.

Let’s look at THE PROS AND CONS OF THE TRADITIONAL PUBLISHER…

Pro: They have experience and a recognized label. They know the market and have a distribution network already in place.

Con: It can take up to 2 years before your book hits the shelves.

Pro: They know the most effective ways to publicize your book.

Con: If it doesn’t cause a buzz within the first few months, they stop promoting it and move on to the next project.

Pro: They pay authors an advance. Stephanie Meyer of the Twilight series received $750,000 for her first 3 books.

Con: The AVERAGE advance for a new author is $3-7 thousand dollars. That will last you about a month or 2 and you only have 12-22 months to go before your book hits the shelves and four months after that before you get your first royalty check

The Pro and Cons for Indie Publishers

Pro: The author has full control over the finished product.

Con: The finished product has glaring errors and a second rate cover.

Pro: The author keeps a larger percent of the profits.

Con: Less profits to keep.

Pro: Author Amanda Hocking was turned down by every publisher and agent she contacted. She self-published and now is a millionaire, selling millions of books.

Con: She carefully researched what was selling and fine tuned her books to appeal to that customer base.

Are you aware that of all the people bringing a book to market the author usually receives the least amount of the profits? For example: my first published novel, Frostie the Deadman sold for $12.95. Of that, guess what my royalty was

One dollar. 

Why so little?

Expenses. It costs a considerable amount of money to launch a physical paperback book and a lot of people are involved. Copy editors, cover designers, book printers and of course, lawyers. Then there is distribution. Convincing a book store or chain to carry copies of your book takes a lot of convincing. What’s more, the brick and mortar booksellers are dying so few publishers are taking chances on someone who doesn’t know proper submission procedure.

Look.

When you set out to have your book published, you’re essentially looking to break into the publishing business. To get a leg up on the competition (and there’s a lot of it!) you’ll need to know what type of manuscript agents and publishers read. And they’re certainly not the ones containing those glaring grammatical or formatting errors you’re not even aware you’re making. Plus, if you haven’t taken the time to research to see if there is a market for what you’ve written, the odds of your novel being a success greatly diminish.

However, if you follow these instructions, you’ll soon have all the skills necessary to be taken seriously as an author.

Let’s get started.

In today’s publishing word, authors are expected to have a social media platform, a popular blog, a professional editor to review their submissions and most importantly…

THEY MUST KNOW HOW TO MARKET!

And most writers don’t want any part of that. It reminds them of some guy in a cheap suit, strong arming someone into buying something they don’t want. You’re not some pushy pitchman; you’re a member of the arts, a novelist, a creator of literature.

But if you’re not making a living from your book royalties, then that’s not true, is it?

So let’s have a look at the base realities. Why are you writing a book? Just to see if you can do it? Have a story the world needs to hear? Are you considering writing as a career?

Because if you are, you don’t have to be very good to make money. In fact, you would be surprised at the number of ‘Hacks’ making a very good living with their books while real authors, (people like you who have spent years developing their craft) can’t sell their books beyond their circle of relatives and friends. 

What’s the difference? The ‘Hacks’ know how to write, publish and market a book that has a built-in audience just waiting to hand over their money.

So if they’re no good why are their ‘books’ making so much money while you, a talented and skilled author are going the starving artist route?

Take a breath, this is going to hurt.

They don’t love their books. Not like real authors do. To them their books are merely a product that generates income. No different than selling used cars or pizzas. They know that writing on specific topic that caters to an eager customer base will sell a lot of books fast and make money doing it.

So what’s their secret?

I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, what I’m about to tell you is going against EVERYTHING you believe about the nobility of being a novelist. What I will reveal are the secrets of crass commercialism, not the art of writing, not the crafting of literature; just the plain nuts and bolts on making a buck as a writer.

So how far will you go to become a famous novelist? Ready to knock off a couple of ‘penny-dreadfuls” to generate enough sales and notoriety to jumpstart your career?

Ready to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

If so, then pay close attention because even if you already write well and are on your way to a book contract, what I will teach you about marketing will save you months, if not YEARS of chasing rainbows and writing books that will not sell.

Okay. Here’s Part One of the secret.

The reason ‘Hacks’ are so successful is because they study the market and find out what people are buying and want to read before they spent a year or two writing a novel that may not have an audience.

As authors we are led to believe that an engaging story, well written and well presented will always find an audience.

That’s a lovely fairy tale.

Not true, but as you’re about to learn, the world sells what the consumers buy and unfortunately writers want to believe their first novel will be a ground breaking best seller. They tout the J.K. Rowling story, the Stephanie Meyers story, the Amanda Hocking story because people want to believe new authors regularly become wealthy and famous following the release of their first novel.

Unfortunately the facts prove otherwise.

 Approximately 300,000 individual books are published in the United States alone each year and that means only a very small number of authors did well.

The overwhelming number did not.

And the ones that did well were probably already well known in some manner—an actress with a children’s book— a tell all book on a famous person or a well established authors’ latest release etc.

That’s one of the problems with today’s publishing. If you’re unknown, your book probably won’t receive a large enough advertising budget to generate reader interest.

In the old days if the book was good but odd, the publishing company would pour money into a lavish advertising campaign and heavily promote it in bookstores, magazines and newspapers.

Not so much anymore.

Here another fact. Many famous authors’ success was due to a lucky break. For example: J.K Rowling had her first Harry Potter book turned down BY EVERY PUBLISHER IN BRITAIN, except one. And they were preparing to turn it down but didn’t because a senior executive’s young daughter read it and begged her father to publish it.

Your success as an author often has nothing to do with talent and ability. Your ‘lucky break’ may solely depend on your own craftiness and determination to get your work into the hands of a waiting public and how quickly you can build a loyal fan base.

Want to read more?

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