How Do I Sell A Novel?

Question

I wrote a novel.
(wheee!)

What should I do go go about marketing and selling my masterpiece?

Answer 1

Congratulations on finishing that first book. It's hard and something that only 10% of beginning writers do. You are on your way.

Now you join writing groups that have at least one published author in them so you can get feedback. You also need to revise your book and make sure it meets professional standards.

Buy Writers Market 2007 to see who is accepting the type of book you wrote and how to submit it. Be prepared for a long wait between submission and response.

It's a good idea to pick up the Writers Digest book titled REVISION and use it. They also have others in the Fiction Writing Series that are helpful.

Answer 2

If you wrote a 'masterpiece" on your first try, you are indeed unique. First books often end up in the bottom of a drawer or box, while the author learns all the things they did wrong, and applys this knowledge to the next book.

Go to the Writers Digest website and do some reading on marketing. Sign up for Writer Market and start looking for an agent or publisher. These are the end product, but something tells me that you have a lot of editing and revisions to think about before hitting this road. Suggest that you do lots of how to reading and maybe even run you work past a good (and unrelated) critiquer for an honest opinion.

Answer 3

Self-publish, but only if you're willing to work very hard to get any publicity

Find an agent. This is the best route, but it is very hard for a first-time author to snag an agent. If you have any publishing credits you do have a better chance.

Send directly to a publisher. This will have to be a smaller and less-known publisher, but most will put the book in bookstores, and in any case, it is a publishing credit that you can use to get an agent if you write a second book.

And, in most cases, self-publishing does NOT count as a publishing credit because there is not criteria involved...anyone can do it. The only case in which it would work for you is if you're willing to sacrifice a lot of time and money traveling and promoting it. If you sell thousands and thousands of copies of it, then agents/publishers may show some interest.

Answer 4

First of all, you need to publish your work so you have a copyright on it (and no one would steal it). Most of the time, the publishers will take care of marketing for you (such as Author House).