Every writer needs an editor when it comes time to publish a book. Many in pursuit of traditionally publishing have agents, too. But these professional relationships are complex and come with their own systems of etiquette that can be tricky to navigate at times. If you’ve spent lots of time working with editors/agents, come share your tips. If you haven’t worked with one yet, come with your questions.
Join us Sunday 4pm PST/7pm EST on #rwchat
Love it or hate it, marketing isn’t something you can wing—not if you want it to be successful. Before diving into the specifics of any individual platform, the first thing you need is a plan. When done right, your overall marketing goal weaves together frequency and different types of platform content to create a comprehensive blanket that is thoughtful and timely. Join us Sunday, January 28th 4pm PT / 7pm ET and dive into making a marketing plan that helps take the mystery (and maybe the misery!) out of marketing your books and your brand.
This week’s chat topic is writing series proposals! #RWchat co-host Robin Lovett talks here about the skills needed for writing proposals, and why they’re necessary for authors to learn.
Before writing the book, starting with the blurb and synopsis is my new favorite way to do things.
Now that I know how, that is.
Most of us, when we write our first book (or two) haven’t yet learned how to write a blurb or synopsis. But once you’ve learned how, once you’ve figured out how to concisely communicate your book’s contents in condensed format, it makes writing the book inevitably easier.
If you weren’t able to catch last Sunday’s chat on the fear of missing out, RWchat co-host C.L. Polk created a Storify highlight reel. We talked about the networking, social media, and publishing options authors might worry they’re missing out on, along with the big money things that might keep us up at night, and the genres we wish we had time to expand into. If you missed it, check out the link! And remember, you don’t have to do everything.
Our final publishing origin story is Kimberly Bell’s. For stories with less profanity and hubris, check out Alexis Daria, Robin Lovett, and C.L. Polk.
Everyone’s journey to getting published is unique, but I’ve been told mine is particularly atypical. I don’t like to tell it because I think it is unrealistic, and thus unhelpful. It also kind of makes me sound like I’m bragging. (…sometimes, I kind of am, but I don’t like to sound that way.)
The very first book I ever tried to write was the first book I published. I had dabbled in single scenes of fiction, but I’d primarily written personal journal entries before I decided to sit down and write a romance novel. It took a year, almost to the day. I edited the first couple chapters, but then I became impatient and started querying.
Next in our publishing origin stories is C.L. Polk’s journey. Be sure to check out Robin Lovett’s story from earlier!
Did twitter get me a book deal? Well, not exactly. But it helped…
Step one: I wrote a book.
Seriously, this is step one. You cannot use twitter to help you until you’ve done this part. I wrote a book. I revised the book. I edited the book. It took a little over a year to do this step, because I interrupted my process by writing a book length fanfic for the fun of it. And then I was ready for… Continue reading
Next in our publishing origin stories is ROBIN LOVETT’s whirl wind journey to her first big five book deal. (Don’t forget to check out Alexis Daria’s story.)
I was lucky. Getting an agent came pretty easy for me. Well, easy if you count writing three books before sending out my fourth to query. I made decisions based on market research, what I’d heard at writing conferences from editor and agent panels. I gave up on my dystopian romance book and wrote an erotic contemporary–because that’s what they said was selling. And it worked, for getting an agent at least.
Rachel Brooks of the L. Perkins asked for a Revise & Resubmit (R&R) then signed my dark erotic romance. There’s some stuff I can’t tell you about here — see Kim Bell’s The First Rule of Pubclub. This was winter 2015.
But my luck ran out there. Unfortunately, for that book, the ending is not happy. It was on submission for a year and did not sell.
That’s right–a year.
In honor of Sunday’s topic, this week the hosts of #RWchat are telling our own publishing origin stories. Here’s Alexis Daria’s journey.
Where to begin? It would be easy to start last month, when everything happened at once. Or in January, when I sent out the first queries and fulls, and entered the Golden Heart®. November, when I finished the first draft. July, when I developed the proposal. Or even the last days of May 2016, when I got the first inkling for the idea and jotted down notes.
But really, this has been a long road, and I have to go back even further. Not all the way back, to when I was a pre-teen just starting to experiment with long-form stories, although even then I knew I wanted to be a published writer. But a few years, at least, to when I decided to take writing seriously and give it the same fair shot I’d given art.
::cue flashback screen wipe::
Graphic by Alexis Daria
Getting a book written and revised is just the beginning. The path from there to publication is tumultuous. Whether it’s traditional or self-publishing, there are multiple rounds of edits to go through with an editor. Knowing and learning how to work with an editor is an intricate relationship to navigate. Since the days of writing one book per year are pretty much gone, there’s the problem of juggling a publishing schedule and managing more than one project at once. How do you do it?
Come share your expertise, learn from the experts, and ask us your questions, Sunday 4pm PST / 7pm EST.
~Robin Lovett
To publish our writing we have two main avenues, traditional publishing or self-publishing. But there’s that third choice, the holy grail, best of both worlds: hybrid publishing. Is it right for us? What are the benefits? What are the drawbacks? Have you considered being a hybrid author, already are one? Or are you on the “never in a million years” list?
Come chat with us about it Sunday 4pm PST / 7pm EST !
~Robin Lovett
Graphic by Alexis Daria
Romance Writers Chat 