Ideas for Before and After the Agent Search

Every writer dreams of an agent who will help turn them into a best selling author.

The first step is to write a good book and be able to write a query that'll interest an agent into learning more about your book. Sounds easy, doesn't it? The first step is to learn what turns agents off, like the person who mentioned her "fiction novel" at Janet Reid's Query Shark.

Seems most agents think novels are fiction. If you want to avoid such mistakes, Stacey O'Neale's blog at the YA Fantasy Guide has a listing of Agent Interviews.  If any of the interviews are in your genre, they might be worth studying.

Of course, you can exhaust the list of reputable agents interested
in Your Genre.
 Submitting to publishers or Self-publishing then becomes an alternative.

When self-publishing, what is the most important thing you can do?

After editing your book/story, that is.

I'd say its getting the best cover you can afford ... which doesn't mean you must go to a professional cover artist. Granted I'm biased because I'm a browser. I like to go to the book stores to poke and putter among the volumes.

Your covers are still important if you're e-publishing. Have you looked at the promotion sites? Long lines of book covers which are usually organized by genre. The same is true at the e-publishers. A long line of book titles and blurbs, only they aren't organized by genre ... unless you limit your search.

Guess which of my covers on the left I like best and comment.

Vanna Smythe blogged about her decision on whether to create her own cover from stock photos or hire it done.  Interesting reading, and useful, I think, even if you have a publisher doing your cover.  

"Taking Vengeance": Questioning Book Trailers and Genres

Slowly goes the e-book promotion efforts ... and

everything else.

No wonder old people think time flies by.

The book trailer for Taking Vengeance is progressing slowly.  The maker, Big Burrito Media will be giving me some places to market  So where do you place your trailer ... if you have the bucks to buy one ... or have the time to create your own?

So far I've found the following:  YouTube [the obvious, but you gotta be there] -- Vimeo [no separate listing for books in the drop down, but they have a tag for book trailers] --  Channels [way beyond my level of sophistication, but take a look to see what the publishers and others are doing].

In case you think trailers are only for e-books, take a look at this short trailer on buying used books [produced by Big Burrito Media].   I thought it was sort of cute.

More time is being consumed by thinking about my author's page.  I've been reading the pages at Amazon and Barnes & Noble where I guess I can put my trailer up ... provided I can upload it or whatever I should be doing.  I'll keep you posted on what I manage to do.

Actually, my big question is how do people find you when they don't know you exist?  I can Google/search my name [M. K. Theodoratus], and Smashwords has my stuff all over the place.  I can see two problems here:  1) spelling my last name ...  and 2) the different first names.  Guess this is a case of learning after the fact.

Then, there's the question of what sub-genre I'm writing in...
[Yeah, I know I should know what I'm doing at this late stage,
but my evaluation of things doesn't always agree with
mainstream thinking.]
   

So, now that I'm trying to promote Taking Vengeance, I'm trying to figure out what type of fantasy I'm writing.  Stacey O'Neale at YA Fantasy Guide has a nice list of fantasy genres: Identifying Your Fantasy Novel's Sub- Genre.   Unfortunately, I still feel in the dark because "dark fantasy" comes the closest, but I don't think I'm a particularly dark writer.  

Can anyone who read Taking Vengeance, give me some insight? At the moment, I'm wondering how that plays to middle grade.  --  I hate questions.

Wish I had some answers to all my questions.

How do you feel about your own writing?