The One Limiting Belief That Holds Authors Back From Success (And a 3-Step Process to Work Your Way Past It!)

how to market your book

But first, the stories worth reading this week:

  • TED-Ed Lessons for Writers to Kick Off 2016 (Maryann Yinn on GalleyCat): “Would you like to take in some writing wisdom? We’ve compiled a list of five TED-Ed videos on how to create captivating fiction, the definition of ‘orwellian,’ pronouns, misused modifiers, and the origins of the English language.”
  • Ten Things I Learned As A First-Time Published Author (Kristin Meekhof on HuffPo Books): “There were missteps on my part. I was green and it showed. Even a well-established person in the book industry told me so. She went to far as to say, ‘I knew you were on the learning curve, but I didn’t know you were at the bottom of it.'”
  • Details Help Writers Overcome Fear (Benjamin Vogt on JaneFriedman.com): “Writers are scaredy-cats. We go in fear of lots of stuff, like sharing our true thoughts or wondering how others will think of us.”
  • 7 Book Marketing Trends Authors Can’t Afford to Ignore (Kimberly Grabas on The Book Designer): “In today’s world of rapidly evolving digital media, an author’s book marketing strategy requires clear career objectives and goals, an understanding of what’s working right now (and what’s on track to pay dividends in the future), and some smart planning to tie it all together.”
  • At the Codex Hackathon, a Two-Day Marathon of Tech for Books (Jon Christian, The Boston Globe): “’There are a lot of really talented developers who love books, and who would love to participate if they knew the problems that needed to be solved.’”

 

The One Limiting Belief That Holds Authors Back From Success (And a 3-Step Process to Work Your Way Past It!)

When I was in college, I used to make fun of marketing majors. I didn’t think marketing was really a thing—it sounded more like a vague corporate job where you were paid good money to sit in meetings and say jargon-y things about customers and profits.

(This is especially hilarious, because I was an English major, of all things. Which is the epitome of a vague major, and one where you would most certainly not be paid good money. I guess I was just bitter.)

When I graduated and actually got a job in publishing (!!), I was still a little snot about marketing. Secretly (and I probably shouldn’t admit this because it is just so snotty)…but secretly, I thought the marketing assistants were just there because they hadn’t been able to get the editorial assistant jobs. (I know. I was new to publishing and too proud about working in editorial. Also, just dumb.)

Over the years, as I started acquiring books, building my own list, and working at different publishers with different systems, I got curious about why some books weren’t selling and others were. I really, really wanted to crack the code. I still do.

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Cacio e Pepe Recipe from Rose’s Luxury & HarperCollins on Why Emails Sell Books

Cacio e Pepe Rose's Luxury Recipe 1

Are you ready for the simplest fancy recipe you’ve ever made?

Meet the Cacio e Pepe Pasta from Rose’s Luxury in DC.

In case you haven’t heard of Rose’s Luxury, it was named the best new restaurant in the country in 2014 by Bon Appétit. So I’d say it’s pretty darn good.

We went to Rose’s for the first time last December for my birthday and stood in line in the freezing cold for an hour, waiting for them to open. They don’t take reservations and had just made the best new restaurant list, so we were not the only fools twiddling our gloved thumbs on the sidewalk.

When we finally made it in in, we ordered just about everything, but as usual, my favorite thing was the simplest thing. It was this Cacio e Pepe Pasta.

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What to Read and Eat This Week: 25 Podcasts for Readers, Plus What to Do With Those Thanksgiving Leftovers

best book news and publishing news

Read:

Engaging Audiences Through Twitter in Just 15 Minutes a Day (Kirsten Oliphant at JaneFriedman.com): Kirsten writes about platform-building and the creative journey at Create If Writing, but here she is on one of my favorite sites, Jane Friedman’s blog, sharing tips for how writers and bloggers can get more out of Twitter in just 15 minutes a day. Kirsten and I will be chatting on her podcast in the next few weeks about publishing and platform-building, so keep an eye out for that interview!

Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch on the Future of Publishing: How an Invention From the 1400s Will Fare in the Years Ahead (Michael Pietsch, The Wall Street Journal): “Ever-larger retailers and wholesalers bring significant margin pressure, which will lead to continued conglomeration. Social media will continue to expand the writer’s ability to connect with readers; publishers will deepen their relationships with writers, but they’ll also create content of their own. As runaway books sell ever-larger numbers, publishers will earn more on their biggest sellers—which will keep driving up the advances they pay for potential hits. At the same time, publishers will need to innovate and challenge assumptions about every aspect of the business.”

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How to get a literary agent–4 things that impress an agent

How to get a literary agent–a literary agent shares the 4 things that most impress agents and publishers. Learn how to get a literary agent directly from a literary agent!


I started out in publishing as an editor at a book publisher. And about once a week, I would get rejected. Our acquisitions meetings were on Thursday afternoon, and I’d spend much of that morning preparing a pitch for why everyone should get excited about the book I was excited about.

The meetings would go something like this:

Me: !!!!

Everyone Else: …..

Me: !!!!!!!

Everyone Else: ????

Me: !!!!?

Everyone Else: No.

how to get a literary agent

Doesn’t it suck to have your excitement be met with apathy? I know it’s something writers struggle with every day, and it’s a thing agents and editors have to battle through, too.

But after some comically sad flops, I finally figured out what I needed to say so that the publishing executives would pay attention to the books I wanted to acquire. And now that I’m a literary agent, I’ve realized that the same key elements make me excited about representing an author. So when aspiring authors ask about how to get a literary agent, here’s what I tell them:

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