Strategy session I. breaking inThat is the one with which to begin. The others? Should you let
them sit? Perhaps not, but realize that the buckshot approach—fire
everything and see what hits—is not a plan, it is gambling. It may
seem that the odds of selling will go up as the number of circulating
manuscripts rises, but in my experience that is not true. Three weak
or problematic novels do not add up to one irresistable manuscript.
Play from strength. Market those manuscripts that you feel will
make successful books: books with a real, live following.
IDENTIFYING YOUR AUDIENCE
Most authors do not think much about their readers when they
write. They write for themselves. There is nothing wrong with that,
but sooner or later comes the moment when those authors have to
face the marketplace and sell—but to whom? Here is a new choice.
Many authors duck this issue, saying, "That is what 1 have (or
want) an agent for. I do not want to be concerned with the market. I
want to write. After all, that is what I do best."
Adopt that attitude if you want to, but you will do so at your peril.
Businesspeople who do not understand who their customers are—
or, more importantly, what they want—are not going to be in busi-
ness for very long. It is the same in the fiction game.
Another often-heard remark from authors is "I cannot think about
readers. I write what I write. 1 compose stories that please me, and
I assume they will please others."
I cannot argue. That is as good a reason as any to write. But we
are no longer talking about writing. Now we are concerned with get-
ting printed and bound books into the hands of bookstore cus-
tomers with cash to spend and credit cards to run up. We are talk-
ing retail, and the many steps that precede a sale at a bookstore
cash register.
Among those steps are approaching a likely publisher, editing,
packaging, advertising and promotion, solicitation, ordering, print-
ing, shipping and distribution, and shelving in a bookstore. At every
step along the way the people involved need to know what sort of
reader is likely to buy a given book.
Of course, you can leave that decision to the publishing profes-
sionals, but in my experience no one understands readers better