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How to Find an Audience for Your Novel

World

Chances are, you’ve heard it before: if you want to sell, know your market. For some, that’s a no-brainer. Those who write romances, for example, can usually name an audience. But what if you haven’t yet settled into a niche or write across genres? If finding your target audience is a sticking point for you, believe me, I understand.

My debut novel, DawnSinger, first in the Tales of Faeraven series (releasing in 2012 from Harbourlight Books) is considered epic fantasy. Although with strong elements of romance, suspense, history and adventure, it really combines genres. Some people will tell you to avoid breaking into publishing with an unusual project like mine. Listen carefully when they speak. Not that I’d have done things any differently. You see, this story breathed into my soul years ago and wouldn’t let me go, even when I quit writing. Ah, but that’s another tale. Unless you can cite a similar one, you’re better off writing something more conventional.

I confess: at first I wrote DawnSinger for its story without giving much thought to its readers. This showed in my inability to articulate who they might be. In my biased opinion, my novel’s target audience incorporated everyone. I soon discovered editors’ opinions of such a grandiose claim, especially from an emerging author. It’s not really true anyway. No book in existence appeals to all readers. I asked myself some hard questions and, in the editing process, adapted DawnSinger for a readership I identified. Most of my life I’ve done things backwards, and developing my story for its audience was no exception.

My experience begs a question. Should you write for others or yourself? Is it better to plan with an audience in mind or oppose this mindset? If you write “from the heart” won’t readers find you anyway? In other words, should you pursue readers or draw them?

Neither. And both. I’ll explain.

If you only focus on ensnaring an audience without regard for your calling as a literary artist you risk writing soulless drivel. Readers know instinctively whether you have a deep feeling for your subject or not. Don’t even try to pretend with them. For this reason, It’s best not to write to trends for which you have no passion. When you consider the opportunity cost, it’s not worth it. What is an opportunity cost? The price you pay in lost time because you’re not writing something that suits you better. If you’re anything like me, you can come up with more ideas than you’ll ever write in a lifetime. When deciding whether to chase a trend, bear that in mind.

That’s not to say you should let your inner artist run amok with total disregard for marketability (assuming you want a readership). Don’t let the proverbial pendulum swing too far the other direction. Why not? Because writing to publish isn’t just about art. It’s also about business. You want to identify your target audience for the same reason an acquisition editor searches for certain types of manuscripts. Each publishing house caters to the tastes of a specific readership, and so should you.

To avoid frustration as a communicator, you should have both a.) something to say and b.) someone willing to hear it. Identifying A will help you find B. Name the fire that burns within you and you’ll identify those whose lives will ignite from a spark you light. Reach deep to tap your passions. That’s where you’ll find your readers.

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Fit For The Master’s Use

One of my test readers recently sent me an email that both blessed me and reminded me of what we’re all about as writers. At the end of her email, she included a prayer: “God, I pray you give Henry wisdom, knowledge, creativity, patience and energy to finish Your book. Amen and Amen.”

It’s not my book. It’s His. I’m His instrument, His tool to get the message out that He wants shared.

At one level, I knew this. I’d like to think everything I do is for Him. But there are times when the ego gets in the way, and I lose sight of Him. It becomes my book, my project.

But that’s not true. He inspires us to write the words. In obedience to Him, we do and the writing flows. It’s not perfect the first time because I’m not perfect. But the refining, pruning process applies to our writing as much as it does to our spirits. My role is to have my heart in the place where my words can be grafted onto His vine and not lopped off as unfit for the Master’s use.

I’m His vessel, the clay in His hands. But it only works if I’m humble and obedient enough to put me aside and let Him shape and mold. And sometimes it hurts because I love my words, but He has better ones. And sometimes it hurts because the words He wants me to write in fiction reveal an area in me that needs work, work that must be done if I am to go forward with Him.

Has Father asked you to participate with Him in your writing in a way that is uncomfortable? How have His words and His plan for your writing grown and encouraged you? Your readers?

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Stewarding Your Career and Your Agent

Good agents take the privilege of shepherding authors and projects very seriously. We’re hugely selective and typically only make a “yes” decision on a client if we love (not just like) their project, and then see them as a good potential relational fit.  Life is too short to work with people if they’re demanding or mean…no matter what the potential payoff.

But make no mistake, agents work FOR their authors, not the other way around. Yet with the lightning-fast changes in publishing still happening, nearly every agent I know is telling me, “It feels like I’m working harder than I ever have before, and still closing fewer—and smaller—deals.”

Welcome to the new normal in publishing.

What this means for the client/author is potentially less time interacting with their agent because the agent is trying to stay in business. What’s an author to do in this new normal to make sure their own projects still receive a high level of attention?

  1. Take more control of your career.  The path to finding readers has never been clearer—or more time-consuming. “Get involved with Facebook Fan Pages, blogging, tweeting, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, and networking with other authors (such as this Water Cooler),” is the familiar mantra from publishers and agents alike.  In this new world where social media IS the most influential advertising resource,  if you’re not selling books and finding new readers, it’s no longer your publisher’s (or agent’s) fault.  If you don’t feel you can come to play in marketing your own creative blood, sweat and tears, don’t even ponder a career as a writer. Look in the mirror: You are your publisher’s best PR agent.
  2. Craft, craft, craft. I tell new novelists that I don’t want to see their manuscript until 5 to 10 “non friends and family” have read and critically appraised their work.  I’d rather authors take a full year to rewrite their manuscripts than almost anything else.  If you write nonfiction and you have a strong message and a good regional platform, then be relentless on making every paragraph zing. Don’ tell me “it picks up in chapter three.” It better engage me from paragraph one or you’ll be getting the dreaded “not for me” letter. If you’re a seasoned writer, be diligent in making your prose as professional and engaging as possible.   Constantly read books on writing craft; find a mentor or critique group. Be a lifelong learner on writing well and you’ll have a good chance at being a lifelong author.

Along with taking control of your own career and staying committed to the craft, here’s how to help your agent help you.

  1. Respect his or her time.  Since you want them to stay in business, bunch questions for a once-a-week email.  If possible, use clear bullet points with clear simple questions to make it easy for us to see and answer, rather than lots of loaded, dense text.  Mondays are good. If your questions are more complex, better to talk by phone than email.  But do set a phone appointment (by email) instead of calling with hope that we will answer.  The agent is there to serve you, very true, but time is the coin of the realm. Be judicious in how you spend their precious minutes and hours because ultimately you want us out there pitching your projects!
  2. Press the panic button. I spend a good portion of my week fighting fires for authors. Bad covers, wrong titles, heavy-handed editors, proposals that MUST be out the door this week, family or personal crisis…all of these and more are what I’m here for.  When you really need me to jump on something or lend an ear, this is absolutely what I want to do. Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone or send me a “call me ASAP” email.  You’re not “bothering me” (ever); I work for you and love (almost) every minute.
  3. Pray. It’s not trite, it’s essential. Really. If I’m distracted, off task, ill or in a personal crisis myself, what am I not doing? I’m not tending to the details of what I should be doing for you. The very thing I want to do most is often what the enemy doesn’t want me to accomplish. I need to stay spiritually sharp and steady for you to feel fully supported.  And I’m not bashful to say I need your help in doing it. I covet and appreciate your prayers for me, my work and family.  I also love to pray for you, so never hesitate to zip me a prayer request during a rough patch.
  4. Share the goodies!  I love hearing how your work has impacted others in the world, or a great opportunity that has come up for you to share your book.  Forward me one or two of your best notes from readers every month and any news that is exciting to you concerning the marketing of your project.  We love to hear how the end result, your book, is impacting the world.  It is why we do what we do.

What more can you do to serve your own career? How would you feel even more supported by your agent?

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You’ve Got “Connections”

It’s a great privilege to connect with the world through our words and a greater privilege to connect with the Word about our worlds.

Connect with God about our writing

“God gave you this dream,” my pastor told me.  “You need to give it back to Him in prayer because He’s the only one who can make it count for eternity.”

One of my friends posted this on Facebook:  “I struggled with my writing for three hours, but after praying, I couldn’t stop the flow.  Why did I wait so long?”

When we’re not intentional about prayer, it falls by the wayside like everything else we’re not intentional about.

God wants to be our writing partner.  He says, “Let me have it!”

  • Lord, give me wisdom and direction today.
  • Inspire me and keep me focused.
  • Help me to persevere for your glory. 

“Commit everything you do to the LORD.  Trust him, and he will help you. ” Psalm 37:5

Connect with “the connected”

“You need prayer partners,” a well-known Christian author told me.  “Trustworthy, faith-filled people who will intercede on your behalf before God.”

Because we’re missionaries of words, the enemy stops at nothing to hinder us.  We need to call on our allies.

I took my friend’s advice and prayed for a little army of intercessors I could add to my email prayer list.  They encourage me to keep going, and I encourage them that they’re a key part of my ministry’s eternal reward.

“The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” 1 Corinthians 3:8

Connect with God about our readers

If we’re missionaries, our readers are the mission field.

I wrote the poems in A Friend in the Storm, with only one reader in mind, my friend Chantale who was dying of cancer.  I didn’t know my audience would grow from one to hundreds when she asked me to read them at her funeral.  I didn’t know my audience would grow from hundreds to thousands when Zondervan published them in a gift book.  I simply wanted to be a faithful friend.

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.”  Luke 16:10

Here’s how I pray for my readers:

  • Father, draw the right people to my book today.
  • Anoint my words to jump off the page into their hearts.
  • Please bring Holy Spirit peace and transformation.

Connect with God about your agent

If we’re going to pray about our God-given gift, we’re going to pray for our agents because they’re a big part of the gift!  Just as they represent us before editors, we’re privileged to represent them before the Father.

  • Lord, may she stay close to you, in the Word and in prayer.
  • Please help her be balanced and manage her time wisely.
  • Give her favor, Father.  Please open all the right doors for her today.

Connect with God about other writers

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Luke 10:2

We need to pray for other writers the way we would want them to pray for us.

Here are three great groups to remember in prayer:

  • Writers that feed us
  • Writers in our immediate circles
  • Writers we DO NOT want to pray for

Who are we currently reading?  Karen Kingsbury?  Max Lucado?  Kathi Macias?  We need to ask the Lord to continually inspire and bless them.

If we’re a part of a writer’s group or literary agency like WordServe that shares prayer requests, we have a community opportunity to practice true, selfless love.

Are we envious or jealous?  We need to pray!  God even calls us to pray for those writers who wronged us.  It happens.  And prayer changes us ever as much as it changes them!

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16

I’m wondering, dear friends, what is your experience with the power of prayer?

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The Create Space Experience

Many people gaze at online publishing as settlers must have viewed the wild, wild, west – with fear and awe. However, life on this frontier is not as lawless as one might think. It can be a useful accelerator on your path of obtaining or supplementing traditional publishing efforts. Take Create Space, for instance. Well-organized and structured, this tool can provide the positioning and leverage you need to take your creative efforts to the next level. Where you go from there is entirely up to you, and there are a myriad of options for you to ornament your work with whatever bells and whistles you want.

Even before you receive what is called an advanced reader copy (ARC) or a gallery (similar to an ARC), you can print out books for your readers and reviewers. In turn, they can begin your marketing buzz by word of mouth. With Create Space’s step-by-step application, the author is guided through all the necessary steps to correctly setting up their book. Setting up the title, creating the interior, and selecting cover art are parts of the process. You can upload interior files as a PDF to ensure formatting will not change. You can either create a cover with the website’s cover creator wizard or upload your own. In this case, be sure to follow their directions to the letter to ensure you don’t frustrate yourself by having the wrong size spine or files with poor resolution that will look shabby.  If you aren’t the type that can sustain the trial and error it will take to get this right, then recruit a patient friend to help you with the details.

Even before your book is actually for sale, you can choose to have sample chapters viewable to your social media networks through Create Space / Amazon, even if you don’t have your own website. You will have a way for people all over the world to familiarize themselves with your book. Create Space also has very good deals and is a low cost vehicle for having copies on hand for your book signings and giveaways.

The flexibility for authors is also remarkable. There are no minimum print runs with Create Space. You can order as few as one at a time. For perfectionists who want to make sure everything is just right before committing to a large press run, this is an unprecedented luxury. I ask readers to write Amazon book reviews, which are better than gold, and send out those links via Twitter. Perhaps best of all, actual customer service people answer the phones and they do so 24 hours a day.

Thanks to Create Space and other emerging platforms, there are more options than ever for authors to distribute their work. Technology has opened up an ocean of opportunity, and the new world looks brighter than ever.

Have you ever utilized non-traditional publishing methods to support your traditional publishing dreams? If so, how? How might a tool like Create Space help your marketing platform?

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Embracing Sacred Moments

Lake Cortez at dawn

Have you ever wanted to hold on to a moment in time and savor the amazing experience a little longer?

The radiant fog bank settled just above Lake Cortez at dawn, a stark contrast to the winter landscape surrounding my home. I tried to focus on my writing deadline, but I halted my work to observe the breath-taking view.

The glowing mist at sunrise brought a familiar Bible verse to mind, encouraging me to embrace the moment. “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone” (James 4:14 NLT).

Such memorable experiences happen when I least expect them, and they vanish without warning. But I always want to hold on to those special moments longer than possible.

The first time I heard my child’s heartbeat, I tuned out everything else, as I wondered about the new life inside me. Etched on the tablet of my heart, I recall those firsts—feeling him move, seeing his face, and holding him in my arms.

Those rare occurrences happen in my writing life, too. When I received my first contract to write an article for a well-respected publication, I held the envelope close to my heart a long time before opening it. Then, I unfolded the letter with great care and examined every word to be sure I didn’t skip any details.

Another momentous occasion occurred in December, as I shopped for Christmas gifts with my grandson Miles. “Wait, wait,” I drew a deep breath and raised my right hand to stop our conversation, so I could read the e-mail on my iPhone.

Confused by the interruption, Miles offered me a wrinkled brow.

“Seriously—wait,” I exhaled. “I’ve got to hold on to this moment.”

I read the message again, basking in the power of the encouraging words. “They like my proposal! And she wants to discuss signing me as a client!” I couldn’t restrain myself from expressing my thanksgiving and praise. “What a great Christmas gift!”

Later that week, my heart raced again when the agent called to confirm her offer. I found it hard to suppress my enthusiasm and joy, so I could listen to her instructions and tell her about my writing goals and dreams.

When my husband, Dan, asked about the details of my phone call, I still couldn’t gather my thoughts because of my excitement. “Maybe I should have taken notes,” I admitted.

So how can we embrace our sacred moments? We know such blessings vanish as fast as they appear, just as morning fog dissipates when exposed to the first rays of sunlight.

We can capture the essence of our experiences with descriptive words and well-chosen phrases in our narratives. And through this writing process, others will also be encouraged to tell the stories that matter most to them.

Photo/KarenJordan

Did my story remind you of a sacred moment in your life? Write that story!

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#1 in Marketing: First Love

photo source: streetJesus.info

To the Chief Musician…
A Song of Love.
My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
~ Psalms 45:1 (NKJV)

Confession #1: Though people have long commended my writing, being published was never a dream.

Confession #2: Though I’ve written professionally since 1981, and for ministry and Sunday school since 1991, writing fiction wasn’t something that crossed my mind.

Confession #3: I know almost zero about marketing.

: : :

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
~ John 1:1-2 (NKJV)

Jesus, the Word of God, enjoys telling stories. I didn’t anticipate that He might infect me with the same pleasure. Not on that autumn day in 1985 when I met the Word of God, and it was love at first sight. Not when I read the Bible cover to cover, over and over. Not during the decades when I found myself studying anything Bible-related, reading little else.

By 2007, the people of the Bible had become so alive to me that I couldn’t stop pondering them. I compared passages of Scriptures to learn more about these saints. I factored in all I’d learned about history, archeology, and ancient culture. Then, imagination began to fill the remaining gaps.

How could I help but write the stories in my head and heart?

I went on to educate myself about publishing, which includes marketing and “platform.” Ack!

“Lord, I don’t want to tell people about me. I want to tell them about You, and Your Word, and Your amazing people. I’m a nobody!”

He gently molded such whining into a prayer:

Lord, please help me develop a platform that gives more prominence to You than to me.

: : :

My heart sank when I signed up to write a post this month. All the Wednesday slots had been taken.

And no WAY I’m gonna take a Tuesday and write about marketing!

Good grief, I have hardly a thousand Twitter followers! I could have more, but I only follow back people I know personally, or people who are still my followers a month after they start following me. I’m interested in real people, not mere numbers generated from auto-follow programs.

Then the Lord reminded me of the marketing strategy He gave me a long time ago:

“It matters less what people think of me than what they think of Jesus Christ because of me.”

And so I’m here, telling you that neither writing nor publishing nor platform is my first love. They’re simply the means to an end with me. My real passion is people, and the Word of God, and Jesus.

As I said, I know almost zero about marketing—almost.

But I do know what’s #1 in marketing: you’ve got to be passionate about whatever you market. Marketing is simply the means of making known our first love.

Q4U: What aspect of marketing to you actually LOVE?

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A Book Proposal Doesn’t Merely Sell Your Book—It Helps You Write It!

As a professor of creative writing and the author of several memoir-based books, I’m often approached by students and even the occasional stranger embarking on memoir projects of their own. They all have the same question: How do I go about getting published?

Something about memoir—probably the fact that one’s life experiences have already happened and thus seem, in some sense, already written—often blinds would-be memoirists to the obvious answer to their own question: You start by writing a book.

Never has my visitor arrived at my door book in hand, in which case our conversation might proceed slightly differently. Only occasionally has the person written a single chapter. Some have scribbled snippets of their story into a journal or mentioned it in a writing assignment for a class. Most, though, are in what I call the dreaming phase of writing: They have a zeal to write but haven’t yet rested their fingers on the computer keys and begun to type. In a sense, they have writer’s block before they have even started writing.

And so our conversation is about the bigger, scarier questions looming beneath the publishing question, questions so terrifying that no one ever really asks them directly. How do I get my story out from inside of me and onto the page? And then, once I do, how do I keep at it over the months and maybe years it may take to get it into something finished that someone might want to publish?

The answer, for me, is the book proposal. I wrote my first one, grudgingly, when I was looking for an agent. All the websites on getting published that I consulted when I was a would-be published writer myself said that I had to have an agent before a publisher would even look at my writing, and, to get an agent, I’d have to write a book proposal.

A typical book proposal, I learned, had several essential parts. A really interesting potential title. An encapsulation your book’s idea in a single sentence. A statement, also brief, of why specific readers out there need your book. A paragraph on who you are and why you’re the best person to write your book. The results of your research into how your book is different from similar books recently published. And an outline of how your book works.

I say I wrote that first book proposal “grudgingly,” because it seemed not only unpleasant but unnecessary work. Shouldn’t the publisher be the one to figure all this stuff out? I grumbled. Oh, right. I don’t have a publisher yet.

Worse, writing a book proposal entailed a task that the dreamer I was then wants to avoid: confronting the reality that bookstores and libraries are stuffed full of books just like mine and figuring out why a publisher or a bookstore or a reader would want to add mine to the list.

However, having now written a book proposal for each of the books my agent eventually presented to potential publishers, I have come to depend on them as my primary means of transportation as a writer. They provide the spark to get me started writing, the fuel to keep me going, the map to tell where I want to go.

Nowadays, I write my book proposal before typing a single word of the book itself. Without a book proposal, my book is just a dream and my day-to-day writing just doesn’t get done. The book proposal carries me through the writing process, from dream phase to bookstore.

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A Day in the Life of an Intern

Yesterday, Mandy Hubbard held #agentday on Twitter. All day long agents (and interns) tweeted the tasks that they were completing throughout the day. Many aspiring authors began to understand why queries were sometimes the last item to which an agent is able to attend.

I liked Mandy’s idea, and I thought that you might be interested in what a day in the life of an associate agent looks like. However, I would like to add the caveat that not every day looks the same. Some days I have off-site meetings, so on those days I make myself get up earlier or stay up a bit later (or both) so that I can accomplish the same amount.

Morning

From about 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., I’m an introvert. I focus on completing big editing projects, reading full or partial manuscripts, working on various projects that Greg and Barbara send my way–anything with which I can be quiet and not have to interact with people. I try not to answer email, tweets, or Facebook posts before 11 or 12. In the morning, I work here:

Normally, my lap top would be found here, but at this moment I am working from the couch. 🙂

Afternoon

In the afternoon, I am more social. I begin answering emails, including queries, posting comments on various blogs such as the WaterCooler, as well as continuing any projects that I started in the morning. In the afternoon, I work here (or sometimes I go to Starbucks):

Necessary items for afternoon work include: Pepsi, ice water, snacks, Kindle, paper, various pens, highlighter, cell phone, lap top, red blanket and comfy pillows.

Evening

My husband works one of those real jobs where he has to GO to work and then come home, so I usually stop working around 5:30 to get dinner ready and pick up my afternoon “nest”. I make it a point to spend at least an hour and a half with him before I go back to editing/project/email world which usually lasts until bed time (unless NCIS or Grey’s Anatomy are on). In the evening, Brewster the Query Bird helps me find new writers:

Query Bird helps me find new amazing writers.

Okay, writers, what do your writing days look like? Do you have a day job that you have to go to before you start writing? If you do not have an alternative job, do you find that you are more flexible with your schedule, or do you prefer to keep to a rigid 9-5 type of writing schedule?

Do you have a writing pet?

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Does the World Really Need Your Story?

This week snow fell–again, about a foot, on top of already knee-deep layers. I strapped on skis and went off into a spruce forest near my house, my tracks the first marks on the page of the world.

Starting a new writing project, a book or an article, even a blog post, feels much like this. I see something falling outside my window–an idea, a passion, a glimpse of something true and maybe beautiful. I eagerly strap on metaphorical skis and go out, wondrously lost in a world made strange again. I am confident that I belong here, that I will apprehend something of value and meaning. But the going gets hard. The surface of the snow changes. The skis get stuck. I fall. I discover dozens of tracks before me on the trail, most more graceful than my own. Why am I here?

Doubts track me down no matter where I am. I have learned not to dismiss them. They force me to consider and reconsider. Does the world really need one more story?

Today, I give three responses: two from others, one my own.

1. Your story can bring “healing and illumination” to others.

Katherine Paterson, prolific Newbery award-winning author, says with genuine humility, “I know my gift is limited. I know I cannot stand toe-to-toe with philosophers and theologians and solve for myself or anyone else the problem of evil . . .”  But here’s what we can do, she says, “we who are writers can tell a story or write a poem, and where rational argument will always fail, somehow, miraculously, in metaphor and simile and image, in simple narrative, there are, in the words of Barry Lopez, both ‘healing and illumination.’ Here I see a word of hope and possibility.”

2. Writing your story can preserve your life.

When Madeleine L’Engle’s husband says of her new work, “It’s been said better before,” she responds,  “Of course, it has. It’s all been said better before. If I thought I had to say it better than anybody else, I’d never start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said, by me, ontologically. We each have to say it, to say it our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes out through us. Good or bad, great or little: that isn’t what human creation is about. It is that we have to try, to put it down in pigment, or words, or musical notations, or we die.”

3.  Writing can move us toward the city of God.

If we pursue our stories, honestly and truly, they will send us on a pilgrimage that takes us, like Abraham, from one land to another, from a land of unknowing and darkness, through, of course, wastelands, where the promise of a promised land appears invisible and impossible . . . but the writing inexorably, day by day moves us closer to clarity, to wisdom, to the very city of God, if we allow it.

Don’t waste your doubts. Use them to move you forward into that forest, into the pages of that story that you must write—for yourself, for God and for others.