C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

How Did You Sell Your First Book?

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How Did You Sell Your First Book?

This is a question a lot of authors ask. It never seems to be one that non-authors ask. And that’s because if you’re not a person who writes books, you don’t understand what it means to make that first book sale.
I have to admit that I didn’t really understand that either. 
Here’s why. 
I did almost everything backwards. My first sale was easy. I only queried two times before an editor asked for a full, and then offered me a contract. 
“So how hard can this publishing business be?” I asked myself. 
Even my second book went quickly from the writing to the sale. And then my publisher and the editor who “got” me vanished. That was something I hadn’t expected.
Now I’m going through what most writers go through when they start out. I’m querying, I’m trying to find another person in the business who thinks I write books worth publishing. I’m learning just how hard promoting my published books is while trying to work on another W.I.P. In other words, I’m answering my question. 
“This publishing business is very hard.”

Wish me luck because I know a lot of what happens in book publishing is having your manuscript land on the right desk at the right time. Luck is a huge factor, but persistence and writing well are equally important, and that’s what I’m working on every day.
So how did you sell your first book? Or did you go Indie right away? If you had a multiple choice test about your experience with the publishing business what would your answer be?
A. Frustrating 
B. Challenging
C. Discouraging
D. Exciting 
E. All of the above

This post is shared with UncommonYA. It’s a new group of authors who write YA with an edge. Hope you’ll stop by and say hello.

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I’m going to be posting on Thursday this week as well as Friday. There’s a new book out that looks very interesting and B. B. Shepherd put together a great piece about it. Hope you’ll be here on Thursday and read what she has to say. Then be sure to enter to win a copy of BRONZE part of the GLISTER JOURNALS. 

Last Official Day of the Swamp Hop & Taking On The Whole Enchilada

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This is the official last day for that SWAMP HOP. Do I hear huge sighs of relief? Try to muffle your joy, okay? The good thing about being last is these posts are not the least. There’s a saying about that, right?

JESSICA HAIGHT of FAIRDAY-MORROW fame is interviewing me and the beauteous SHERI LARSON is doing a guest post-giveaway for Alligators Overhead. SAMANTHA MAY, bless her college-bound heart is also hosting me on this final Friday.

They’re all great blogger, so I hope you’ll pay them a visit, say hi, and join their blogs if you’re not already a follower.

Now about this business of self-publishing. I promised I’d do some posts about three main decisions a writer has to make when embarking on this journey. I have to amend that after reading the wonderful comment by KAREN G. She pointed out, and rightfully so, the distinction between Small Presses and Presses that provide services for money. So I’m adding another major decision category and calling it the SMALL PRESS decision.

Now THE WHOLE ENCHILADA

As to taking everything on your own shoulders, let’s start by identifying just what “everything” means and looking at these tasks from my recent experience. I’m assuming you already have a website or a major blog and that’s it’s spectacular.

Editing (I’ll only refer to proofreaders in this post and leave Development Editors and Copy Editors for another series): I will never again try to do final edits of my own work. I thought I could because I seem to be darned good at spotting errors in other people’s writing. I have an excellent proofreader, and I usually rely on her, but she had to leave town on business and couldn’t handle my job. I should have hired someone else, but I didn’t. Do not make this mistake.

Cover Design: I’m a writer, not a designer, so while I selected the image of the alligators in their swamp, I wisely paid an artist to tailor the cover for my book. It’s the font and the clever way he inserted the boys and the alligator inside those fonts that tweaked the image to make it fun and unique.

Book Trailer: (if you want one of these) I wanted one because I love these things and I often buy a book if the trailer pulls me into the story. Definitely, find someone to do this for you. I tinkered with one, but it only turned me off watching it. I wouldn’t  have bought my own book if I’d published that.

Distribution: I’m still fuzzy on all of this, but my book is listed in Ingram’s & Baker & Taylor. it’s available in every eBook format that I know of, and I have what Mark Coker refers to as “quaint” print version.

Buzz: I’ve done this blog hop and I’m looking closely to see if that affects the sales of my book. I’m doing a goodreads giveaway and checking that for results as well. I’ll probably be doing a FREE book promo over one weekend. I did a RADIO INTERVIEW, but I think that was more fun than buzz creating.

Reviews: I requested reviews from online bloggers. 15 have accepted either an eBook or a paperback for review. When I give a book away during a guest blog appearance, I ask those winners for a review, and if I win a book I’m sure to review it because of that Karma thing I happen to believe in. I also decided to sub the book to Kirkus Indie Reviews.

What did I miss? What would you do differently when tackling these parts of book publishing? Is the whole enchilada approach something you’d take on?

Swamp Hop Has Been Fun

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During this launch I’ve confirmed what I knew. 

  • Bloggers are wonderful. If you can stop in and see Susan Oloier and PK Hrezo today to say hello.
  • People who write and read books are special.
  • The business of publishing is shifting more and more rapidly. 
  • I have just so much tolerance for cats and their issues.

What I learned that is new to me is that this business seems to be coming full circle. At one time it was common place for authors to publish their own work, then as Joel Friedlander points out, “It wasn’t until book publishing consolidated in response to industrialization and grew into a national industry that publishing your own work fell into disrepute.” (Writers Digest, May/June 2012)

With the amazing advancement in technology that puts all of the publishing options into authors’ hands the old model (agent, editor, publisher) is no longer the only model. Authors can offer their work as POD. They can make eBooks available in formats for any eReader, and they can still have hardcopies for those who prefer to hold a “real” book for sale on internet marketing sites.

All of this means authors have so many options that it can boggle the mind. Here are some of the main choices:

Take on the responsibility for the whole enchilada yourself.
OR
Beat the bushes and find people who know what they’re doing: web designers, illustrators, editors.
OR
Turn your book over to a small press that will offer you packages to help you through the publishing process.

While I’m winding up my launch I’m going to do some research about these choices and share what I find out about them on my blog. I’ll do it in small chunks because 1) that’s about as much as I’ll find out at any one time 2) I like small chunks.

As to the cats: Here’s what I did. It was so simple once a visitor to a blog I was posting on told me. I offered them YODELING LESSONS. Those cats took that offer up in a shot. There will be no more Howl Ins. I’m free at last, AND you will no longer have to hear about my plight.