I wasn’t planning to write this post, but after a handful of conversations this week with young authors, I feel like I have to. One of the hardest parts about writing a book is the actual writing, but an arguably harder part is putting yourself out there when trying to find an agent and/or publisher.
If you followed the DOJ trial of Penguin Random House trying to buy Simon & Schuster, you saw the testimony from publishing execs basically saying that they have no idea what will make a bestseller and what won’t. Publishing is a mix of art and science, they said. They try to follow trends and invest in the type of books that have been successful before.
If you read news about the publishing industry, you’ll mostly find dismal reports of zero or negative profits, massive layoffs and restructurings, and closing of divisions or entire imprints.
But if you’re an author and you’re trying to break into the industry, there will be a lot of people who give you any number of reasons why you won’t be successful. Your Instagram following isn’t big enough, you’re not enough of an expert on a topic. Your proposal isn’t unique enough, it’s too smart, it’s not smart enough. This category isn’t doing well, so it’s not a good time to try to sell this type of book. Others in the category before you have failed, so you won’t be able to push through as a debut writer.
F*ck that. As I’ve said before, publishers have no contact with their readers. They don’t actually know what a reader does or doesn’t want from a book. If they did they wouldn’t be closing imprints and cutting staff. I won’t claim to have it all figured out, but I’ve held enough focus groups and interacted with enough book-obsessed people to know that readers want to hear from people they relate to, people whose writing is accessible and a reflection of real life. They’re wary of influencers and celebrities because they know that being influential on social media doesn’t always translate into writing an engaging book and they also know that celebrities aren’t actually writing the book themselves, so there’s a lack of authenticity.
If you’re working on a book and you’ve had meetings with industry people that haven’t gone well, ignore them. When I was starting Parea, I spoke to so many people from traditional publishing backgrounds. Most were supportive but one guy said verbatim, “What you’re doing won’t work. It’s not possible to market books successfully. Jeff Bezos gave me blank checks to spend as much money as I wanted on book marketing and even I couldn’t make it work. There’s no way you can.”
I’m glad I didn’t listen to him, and please don’t listen to people who try to dissuade you. You don’t need a million followers and you don’t need to be an already “successful” person to write a book. You need a perspective, a strong grasp of the language, an engaging story, and a unique voice.
Don’t make changes to your book proposal that you don’t want to make just because an agent told you that you should. Don’t accept a contract that isn’t advantageous because you feel like you have to as a debut writer. Don’t stop pitching or querying your book because you haven’t gotten a yes yet.
Your future readers do exist, you just have to find them. That’s what we’re working on together.
Onwards!
❤️