Ready for Writing Success?
"I'm shy," he whispered with a slight blush. I was taken aback. How could someone not be aware that public speaking and appearances are part of being a successful author? Selling a manuscript to a publisher is not the same as selling books to buyers. In this era of dwindling marketing and advertising budgets and personnel at publishers, more and more of the burden lies heavily on authors' shoulders.
That's not the only pressure successful writers encounter. Publishers are increasingly demanding that their stables produce books at a faster pace. The old paradigm of taking years to write a sequel or the next in a series is out the window, what with ebooks and electronic gizmos to read them. The public suffers from an ever-shortening attention span, too. This is especially true for readers of the suspense genres.
At least a novel a year has become the norm, the demand, according to an article in the Boston Globe, where local writer, Robert B. Parker, cranks out four books a year. He and Elmore Leonard must be blessed with great staminas. Parker quotes Leonard as saying, "If it takes you more than six months to write a book, you're not working."
In addition to producing reliably on time, authors still must cope with the public appearances that attract book buyers. No pressure, really, for success.












Wouldn't it be lovely if there were a Genre Court of Last Resort that issues clear definitions of genres? Of course, then there would have to be a Genre Court of Appeals for all those indignant litigants to follow. Alas, no such authority exists, not even the venerable
Anyone who hopes to have a book published, and everyone who considers self-publishing, will benefit by reading Rachael Donadio's essay on the NY Times website,
Writers often need to contact celebrity and authority figures. Sometimes it's for an interview, quotes, or other content-related reasons. Other times, they're looking for a way to obtain a testimonial, blurb, or maybe a preface for a book. One method of research is to subscribe to WhoRepresents.com. Here are some tips from John Kremer's
A new-to-me company, Adaptive Blue, is offering "smart links" and SmartLink Widgets to enhance blogs and websites. They come in a variety of flavors (stocks, music, wine, movies), but we'll focus on the one for books.
The next time you stroll through a book store--and please, do support the brick-and-mortar variations of Amazon--you may come across a free book. It might not be labeled as such, but if you try to check it out, the clerk won't be able to ring it up and could ask, "Did you get this here?"