I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book. ~Groucho Marx
Yesterday on Romancing the Blog, they wrote this quote:
A recent chat with Borders Group Lead Romance Buyer Sue Grimshaw revealed that a new author needs to be releasing a book at least every six months if they hope to get a toehold in the market.
WOWZA!
After I picked myself off the floor, I realized that this may be pretty close to correct -- after all, if you're a new author and don't have a substantial backlist to entertain the reader who loves your voice, you need to keep feeding the frenzy. Readers are fickle, and forget quickly. I've read dozens of authors who I thought were pretty good, looked and read their one other book and then promptly forgot about them because I hadn't been able to reinforce how much I liked them.
One exception was Raeanne Thayne because, even though I wasn't able to get a ton of her backlist after I enjoyed one book I stumbled upon, I blogged about how much I enjoyed the book and she commented on my blog. So she's in my brain forever, and I look for her new releases.
As a reader, how do you remember authors names that you love? I'm not talking the biggies like La Nora or Jenny Crusie, but the newer ones like Paula Graves or Diana Peterfreund ? Do you write them down? Do you look for a website or blog and bookmark it?
And how do you find new authors? Recommendations from friends? Book reviews? Those funky recommendations on Amazon or Barnes and Noble?
As a writer, how will you keep your name out there after your first book is published? What do you plan on doing to promote yourself? Do you think you can write a decent book quickly enough to provide one for publication every six months? Do you think you need to?
Talk to me folks!
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3 comments:
Sadly none come to mind. I have so little time to read that I stick to what I know. Currently I have a Nora book in progress and Stephen King's novel Cell.
But its kind of overwhelming to think that I'd have to publish at least 2 books a year to get my name out there. I'd better get going.... work on the ones I have going already unless I get a scathingly brilliant idea.
Still waiting, btw, to hear from Samhain concerning my Nano manuscript that I sent out. Maybe I should make sure she got it....
fybsqpk-falling yogurt bounces soundlessly quickly plastering Katie
a new author needs to be releasing a book at least every six months if they hope to get a toehold in the market.
Holy smokes!
I keep track of all my books in an Excel spreadsheet and have a list of books/authors I like or want to try in Word. :)
I think it depends on the genre. It probably applies to commercial fiction and I think in particular, category romance. No one is beating Marilynne Robinson about the head and shoulders for taking ten years between Housekeeping and Gilead.
It’s true that in a crowded market, good books are passed over and good books don’t find the sales they (or their authors) need. But don’t sacrifice good story and good writing in the rush to publish and please.
As for remembering authors, you can set up notices via Amazon, use LibraryThing to keep track of books/authors you like (tag it with something and check once in a while), Excel spreadsheet. My local library system also has an online “list” function where you can add books without reserving them. I use that when I stumbled across a book that looks interesting, but isn’t in the library system yet or due to my schedule, I don’t want to request quite yet.
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