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I'm not sure why, but so far the New Year has produced a lot of publishing-industry activity around the country. Publishers, it seems, are glad to have put the old year away and anxious to welcome a new one in to take its place.
There may also be some joy along Publisher's Row over recent industry studies showing that the halcyon days of print books are not yet history. More people still prefer buying and reading print books than their digital counterparts. And they're backing it up with sales.
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So, assuming it's true (and insiders say it's so), the question is, how can you cash in on the early days of this year's new boom? The answer: In any way you can.
For starters, get into the habit of writing regularly. I know if you have a full-time job, that's easier said than done. But it's certainly not impossible. Thirty minutes after work, or half an hour before turning in, will result in two-and-a-half hours of new weekly copy to go toward finishing up that book you've been working on for months.
An hour or two on the weekends will help immensely, as well. Now, suddenly, you're cranking out several hours of work a week.
What should you be writing? That's where your writer's Reality Check comes in. You want to write what the industry is currently leaning toward buying, which is virtually everything--fiction and nonfiction, children's and adult--except memoirs. Unless you have a name that rhymes with Phil Blinton or Coprah, your li'l ol' memoir is going to get dwarfed on the shelves. Furthermore, there's not an editor in the universe who doesn't already know it.
Beyond that, quit out-thinking yourself about industry trends and write the best, strongest, most memorable, most marketable book possible. Ask yourself a simple question: if you were an editor whose very job depended upon signing up and publishing books that SELL, would you be likely to buy your book? If not, it's probably not marketable enough to make it into print.
That doesn't mean that you need to scrap your pet project. Uh-uh. Just think about how you can turn a flat seller into a fat seller. Add a story-within-a-story, one that explodes with marketability. Introduce some new characters--some likeable, others who are real stinkers. Strengthen the story. Reduce your book's story line to a single sentence and see if it sounds appealing. If not, add some new elements to the book. Send your main character on a mind-expanding trip to meet the Dalai Lama in Tibet. Have another one fall in love only to have her new beau steal her fortune. Have yet another one in a near-fatal car accident only to survive through the love of a good man (or woman)--and the devotion of a faithful nurse!
See what I mean? You can do it. The industry is looking for a brand new start. This could well be a banner year for publishing, even for first-book authors. But you need to conduct that Reality Check first.
And if there's simply no way to salvage a book you already have underway, scrap it. Put it on the shelf until sometime in the future and start a new, more user-friendly, more marketable project. And finish it.
I was thinking just the other day about how enticing a story would be about a young boy who enrolls in wizard class and sets out to change the world. Now that's something a writer could really sink his teeth into!
Until then...
Smoke if you got 'em.
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