Help your book succeed

When it comes to the world of writing, my approach has been to focus on the things I can control. I can’t control whether my book is a best seller or wins literary awards. But I can turn up. Do the work. Finish the book.

(Illustration copyright Matt Clare at Mono Design)

After finishing my manuscript, I couldn’t control whether people were going to respond to my work the way I wanted. But I could take the pitch I wrote seriously and do the very best job I was capable of doing. Part of the way I did that was to build connections via twitter and facebook to demonstrate to publishers my willingness to engage with the wider world. 

Why? Because even with all our technological advances, most people still read books based on recommendations from trusted sources. I wanted to increase the network of people I spoke to, build relationships with them so that maybe, just maybe, some of these people might read my book. And maybe, just maybe, they would like it. And maybe, just maybe, they would tell their friends about it. So that some day people outside my family and friends might actually be willing to read something I had written.

Sure, some authors refuse to engage with twitter, facebook, pinterest, instagram etc. They stay in their writing cave and produce wonderful works. Some of these authors are very successful and they don’t need to do anything more than put words on a page. If you are one of these authors, I salute you. You rock.

If, like the rest of us, you are starting out on your career, you might want to consider getting over yourself. Like it or not, publishing is a business. The business of selling books. If you are lucky enough to get a contract with a publishing house, your book becomes a commodity. Your publishing house will work their butts off to make sure it sells, but your efforts as the author of the work, can make a real difference.

From where I stand (someone whose first book is about to come out) it seems like a very risky move to loiter on the sidelines and hope for the best, praying that you are somehow special; that you will be one of the chosen few who need to make no effort apart from writing a book, for it to be successful.

Before selling this manuscript, I didn’t really understand how the publishing industry worked. I thought when an author got an advance, it was a lump sum payment for the years of toil it took to create a book. I then imagined as soon as the book hit the shelves, an author started earning royalties. 

But that is not how it works. If you are lucky enough to sell your manuscript, the amount they pay for your book is an advance on sales they anticipate your book will achieve. Once book sales have paid back the advance, then you start pocketing extra. Of course this makes perfect sense, but it also means I now feel a genuine responsibility to pay back the money my publishers have invested.

I am lucky enough to be with a big publishing house, and they have put their large marketing team behind the book because they too want to earn their money back. But I need to do something with the anxiety I feel that my book will turn out to be a total failure and everyone will hate it and only ten people will buy it and the lovely people at Penguin will put a black mark next to my name that says, “this author sucks and she stole our money,” or something like that.

The way I am choosing to deal with this anxiety, is if there is something within my power to do – get on twitter, write a facebook post, write an article, think about what I am going to wear to my book launch – I am going to do it.

I am going to go all in on this, because at least then if I fail, I have done so giving it everything I’ve got. I will not walk away saying ‘what if.’ What if I had done more. What if I had tried harder. It seems a bigger risk to me to be half-arse because “real artists don’t promote themselves,” than it does to do the best you can at everything related to your book.

I am not talking about spruking your book on high rotation on your twitter stream. That is totally half-arsed. If you don’t know how to use facebook or twitter, read articles on how to do it. Arm yourself with knowledge to make sure your efforts count. Lots of people have written excellent blog posts on this stuff. Seriously. If you don’t know how to do it, figure it out. It doesn’t cost any money, and you might even come to enjoy it.

Some people think the marketing stuff is below their dignity. I say screw dignity. Help your book succeed. Go all in.