The career novelist

The marketing game-, how I sell novels

Not always. Because some degree of pressure is present, the
multiple can still chase away publishers who have only a borderline
interest in a novel. For that reason, multiples are often not the best
choice for debut novels or novels that do not fit neatly into a pub-
lishing "slot." For them the traditional one-at-a-time submission is
often most successful.
Many authors think that single submissions are a fool's errand,
being wastefully slow. I disagree. Slow they can be, I admit, but they
can also be useful to foster a sense of discovery on an editor's part.
In fact, for that very reason I sometimes play down a book in my
pitch, saying things like, "This is an interesting one. I would value
your opinion."
The editor is now free to discover the book on his own. The hard-
sell raises expectations and makes disappointment more likely—
especially if my pitch has been less than entirely candid.
New authors and genre authors are generally safest submitting
singly. Are there times when their work can be auctioned? Yes.
When an author is ready for break-out, or when a first novel is
unusually commercial, a well-managed and well-timed auction can
bring a high price. In addition to Nicholas Evans's $3.15 million for
The Horse Whisperer, here are the prices paid for some other early-
career novels in recent years:

• $800,000 for Mallory's Oracle (a first novel) by Carol O'Connell


• $500,000 for The ]uror (a second novel) by George Dawes Green


• $2 million for The Day After Tomorrow (a first novel) by Allan R.
  Folsom

If these figures fill you with envy or shame, relax. Not only are

these novels one-in-a-thousand exceptions, supernova advances

are far from the only way to begin a successful career. In fact, if you

study the careers of big-name authors you will find that a great

many built slowly over time: John Jakes, Dean Koontz, John D.

MacDonald, Martin Cruz Smith ... the list is long.

Remember that the name of the game is not obtaining contracts,

but gathering a following among readers. That can be accomplished at

a walking pace far more easily than it can be done at the speed of light.