My debut novel sold very poorly, largely because the publisher is an indie press who puts 100% of the marketing on the authors' shoulders. I'm proud of the book and feel it deserved much better.
Two questions: 1: When querying for my follow-up, do I mention the book? 2. If I do mention the book, will agents look up the numbers and be dismayed at the poor sales, and will that affect my chances?
Is there another strategy here?
(1) Yes you need to make mention of it if only so the agent knows your situation.
(2) yup, you've got yourself a problem.
So, what to do?
If your follow up is a continuation of the story in Book #1, stop right now.
Almost no agent will consider a book that is the second on a series if they didn't sell the first one, and the first one sold badly. The reason is they can't get editors to buy those books and they're not
going to invest time trying. EVEN if they love the books.
If your follow up book is not a continuation, you're in a better position.
But you need to query with something more than your new book and high hopes for better results.
It will help if you have a robust mailing list.
It will help if you have more than a few tepid reviews on Amazon.
In other words, if you're driving to the prom in your jalopy make sure it's in good running order and you filled the tank.
I've taken on authors who had self-published books that didn't do all that well. I read them before I signed the author, talked to him about why he'd self-pubbed, and knew I could get him a deal at a trade publisher. (And I did.)
So, all is not lost.
You need a really good book, and a strong marketing position, but it can be done.
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7 comments:
This is a worry for many writers starting out: what if my first book doesn't do well?
For some writers I know, this worry is crippling. They don't query because this book might not do well. Nor the next. Nor the next. Then they write their masterpiece. This one will do well!
But so much is out of our hands when it comes to the publishing industry. In OP's case, the publisher didn't market their book. For many, the book that nets them an agent won't be the first one a publisher buys. For others, the timing is wrong, or publishers are looking for something else, or a world crisis makes your freshly published novel unsellable (say, a war starts up or even ends, making your political thriller no longer believable.)
It's nice to know that this doesn't have to be the end of one's career.
Keep trying, OP. You can do this!
Market the new one under a pen name, or a different pen name if used. Then try and get in with a major publisher to give you more marketability.
You might be able to re-market your first book after the rights revert to you and use it as back stock.
When you were in high school, the world almost ended every Friday night. Now the world almost ended after your first novel published.
Get on your horse and ride. There are stories of success like yours every day somewhere in the world. Make one happen in your world, OP.
(I never follow my own advice, btw, this is only for reasonable people.)
Uuuuii!
I would love to know what "sold very poorly" means in numbers but I guess I won't find out.
Well my debut (self-published) sold 235 times and I guess that means very poorly. 🤔
I do hope to finish my follow-up, which isn't continuing my debut (though it has two of the same characters of book debut).
I still don't believe I'll be getting an agent.
I live in beautiful Switzerland now and I have a feeling there isn't a good chance anyway. Do they even do agents here...?
I really get scared reading this. My debut will be coming through an indie publisher that may or may not survive. I did have a lot of help from my cousin and her crew who have done this many times. My editor is London based but comes from a big publisher and knows his way around fantasy. My publicist is very young and Colorado based. She loves marketing. She is amazing. My team is killing it so far. However, everyone in the process, tells me it is a bit of a crapshoot as to which books sell and which linger on the shelf.Or even make it on the shelf. Even with big publishers, there are no guarantees. And many writers find themselves where you are, OP. Starting over.
Maybe try the pen-name avenue as some have suggested. Although, I think you would have to tell a perspective agent about your book that did not sell so well.
Bad sales don't mean bad book I do not think. Just a lot of noise out there to compete against. I always am grateful for Janet's advice which amounts to do not give up. Most failed writers are the ones who simply stopped writing. And it's easy to see why. This business of publishing is nothing if not brutal.
Life gets crazy just when the blog goes active. I've now caught up, learnt a lot, and as always enjoyed the Reefers comments. *waving*
So someone who has self-published a number of books with only fair-to-middling sales should forget trying to switch to trad publishing? Those books will drag behind the author like Marley's chains?
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