This past weekend I attended two different writers conferences, so in the next couple of weeks I'll be posting about some excellent information that I gathered.
Friday at AuthorWise I heard Brandon Mull speak--fabled writer of the Fablehaven series and Candy Shop. I found it interesting that Deseret Book/Shadow Mountain turned down his first novel, but they liked his writing and encouraged him to submit again.
So he wrote Fablehaven (now a NY Times Bestseller).
Pretty cool. Just a plug from my kids--My 12 year old son is reading #2, and my 10 year old daughter is waiting for her turn. (My son's all time favorite series is by James Dashner.)
Brandon said that he wished he'd asked himself the following 3 questions before writing his first book (hence the reason it's not published):
1. What audience am I trying to reach?
2. How do I let the audience know about my book?
3. Will my book fulfill their expectations?
You need one sentence that describes your book so that you can talk about it. Then you also need a paragraph description that describes your book.
He also said:
1. Pay attention to your life--get ideas from those around you (ie quirky characteristics)
2. Be an observer all the time
3. Be persistent
4. Get your book in front of the DECISION MAKER
5. Network if you know people who know people
6. Think about places that you have any claim or tie
7. Don't make the jump into full-time writing until you are making more than your day job.
8. Internet groups--make friends with the moderators and you'll get featured on their shout outs.
9. Capture emails
5 comments:
Very cool info--does capture e-mail mean put them in your address book?
This is great information! Very common sense when you think about it. Thanks so much for sharing.
Capturing e-mails means to have a way for people to leave their e-mails for you--like signing up for a newsletter or entering contests--so that you can send out announcements later. I wouldn't put them in my personal address book, but keep a database (Excel, etc.) of them.
Great list! I even printed it out.
Capturing emails was a big topic at the Authorwise and Eden Writer's Conference. Think of it as building a client-base. I have a place on my website where readers can sign up for newsletters. But some authors have the sign-up on their home page in order for the reader to access more information. This may be a better way. When you have a system like this, make sure you don't share the email with anyone else (you can state that the email will not be shared with a third party).
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