Posts Tagged ‘fiction’

When you think the time has come for you to sell your book, you know you need to promote the qualities of your writing. However, making your sale requires more than this.

Remember that at this point you will be entering into a discussion with a businessperson. Publishers are, first and foremost, looking to make money from their businesses. If they don’t, they won’t be in business for very long.

This means you need to demonstrate that by taking on your project, a publisher is buying a low risk proposition. Low risk to a publisher will mean that your project stands a good chance of making money. Therefore, ask yourself now. In business terms, are you a good risk?

Assessing risk.

There are always more people looking to get published than there are opportunities to be published. As well as promoting the merits of your work, spend some time showing your prospective publisher that your book has a good chance of success in its marketplace. Show him or her that the risk involved in taking on your proposal is lower than that associated with other writers’ projects.

In the non-fiction arena a good way of doing this is to show that you are already an expert in your field. Perhaps you have written articles about aspects of your book. Maybe you write a blog about your subject, or speak at conferences, or work in the relevant industry.

In other words maybe you can demonstrate that there are already people out there who are interested in what you do. Maybe you already have a following. Maybe there is already a group of people who like your work enough to buy your book. If there is, it’s good news for you. Having a ready-made following means that there is less risk involved in working with you than in working with someone with no potential audience. Publishers – like all business people – like to minimise risk.

Business decisions.

Assume a publisher receives three proposals which are similar in terms of quality. However, one of the writers already has a following and is known well in his or her chosen field. Do you think this will affect the publisher’s decision about where to invest time and money? Do you think the publisher will assess the risk of working with the writer who has the following as lower than the risk of working with the other writers?

If you were investing your own money, which writer would you choose?

Writing fiction is a risky business.

If you’re trying to sell your novel you will have a harder task ahead of you than will the non-fiction writer. Less fiction than non-fiction is published. There are lots of people trying to get their novels published. Also, the selling process you will need to master is a more complex one.

When you sell fiction, you’re selling a concept. You’re trying to sell to someone the idea that you’re a good storyteller. Yet, there is no agreed definition of what makes a good story, let alone a clear statement about what makes a good storyteller.

Which novels will sell? It’s often difficult to be sure. This makes writing – and publishing – fiction a riskier business than working in the non-fiction world.

However, think again about presenting yourself as a low-risk proposition. Does anyone out there endorse your work? Have you written short stories that have been published? Have you won any writing competitions? Have you written in other contexts, including non-fiction? Can you demonstrate you have a writing style and an approach that at least some people already like?

If you can’t, you’re a high-risk proposition. You probably know that publishers have only limited resource to allocate to new projects and new writers. They have very limited resource to allocate to high-risk ventures.

Becoming a low risk proposition.

What should you do to make you and your work less risky?

The answer is easy.

On the same day that you decide you’re going to write your book start to build your following. Start to build your reputation in your chosen field. Start to create that low risk business opportunity for a publisher – today.

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B Margaret Adams is a businessperson who writes and a business mentor for writers.

She writes a blog for writers who are looking to make more money from their writing:
http://margaretadams.wordpress.com
Her website is: http://www.inbusinessasawriter.co.uk