Will a foot in the door help sell old projects?

I'm pretty sure it's happened...how commonly, though, I have no idea.

Usually there's a reason that first MS or two didn't make it to publication. If the author fixed the old MS with the knowledge gained from writing the later works, then the agent probably wouldn't mind taking a look at that one, too.

I'm not sure how much of an advantage being previously published gives you these days.

I sold the second novel I ever wrote/finished (the one before it never got any bites and I never tried to sell it after selling the second one because that first one sucked big time) and sold two more after that. Then I lost my publisher, and two years later I lost my agent to retirement. I wrote 4 more novels in the subsequent years and after 8 years of trying and two more agents, sold one of them as part of a series with a 3-book deal. But the others have never sold despite some valiant efforts on the part of my agent and the "credit" of the recent sale.

I received way more rejections trying to sell this last one than I ever did for the first one I sold.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

It depends on the book. Your agent might be willing to read it and offer suggestions on how to make is publishable if they think it can be made publishable. And you might learn enough about the process from going through it to suddenly spot what you need to do to make it better on your own, which would allow you to show your agent the new and improved ms.

A lot probably depends on why it got rejected in the first place. If it was just a matter of you or the book not being ready yet, then odds are good you can fix it. If the story was the problem, then the odds aren't as good. But you never know until you try, so it doesn't hurt to have hope for it.

Ardent Kat said:

Have you ever heard of an author who sold the third or sixth book they wrote, then went on to publish a book that that was written (and rejected) earlier? Realistically, does that seldom happen?

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That happened with King, didn't it?

John Gardner (the author of Grendel, not the other John Gardner who wrote some James Bond novels) definitely had this happen for him.

caw

I think it definitely helps, although I'm not basing that on any personal experience (boo, hoo). It certainly makes sense - if your first book sold well, publishers are likely to pick up your second (as are agents). However, unless it was a bestseller, or got excellent reviews, I think the second book needs to be just as excellent. But with agents, yea, I think if you mention your previous real publications, that'll probably result in more requests for a read (if not offers of representation).

sleepsheep said:

But with agents, yea, I think if you mention your previous real publications, that'll probably result in more requests for a read (if not offers of representation).

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Unquestionably true. There is utterly no doubt that "name of author" is as big a selling-point as "quality of manuscript", probably more. Good track record is an immense advantage. And the more your manuscript gets read, the more likely it is to be taken on for representation by an agent.

caw

I can think of a few authors who only sold their earlier works after later books were published - Meg Rosoff comes to mind first, though her second published book wasn't as good or as good a seller as her first (and honestly felt more like a first novel than her debut).

What can also happen is that an editor may ask to see other manuscripts if she likes the one your agent shops first. If the earlier book isn't up to standard or is very different, it might not appeal to the editor. But people do sometimes get multi-book deals because the editor loved the first book, and asked to see any others the writer had.

~suki

I can also say that a foot in the door beats a foot in the behind. Which is what I invariably get.

caw

Ardent Kat said:

Have you ever heard of an author who sold the third or sixth book they wrote, then went on to publish a book that that was written (and rejected) earlier? Realistically, does that seldom happen?

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I'll let you know in a few months.

Even if we think a book is ready for an agent/publication, that doesn't mean it really is ready. And as the author, it can difficult for us to see if it's the book that's flawed, or if it's really just an issue of bad timing/can't find the right agent.

My seventh finished novel was the one that got me an agent and a book deal. Looking back over those other novels (and I have), I can see the flaws. I can see where they just didn't quite work. And for some, I can see how to fix them.

Early this year, I went back to book #5, which had gotten a good handful of full and partial manuscript requests from agents, as well as lots of rejections. I'd mentioned the project to my agent, and he said to send it along. So I took a hammer to it. I let my crit partner rip into it. Then I let my agent have his way with it. It's now back with him, after more rewrites, with a new first chapter, 5k words missing, and 2k new words. it'll go on submission in the next month or so (crosses fingers).

So yes, if your trunked novels are good enough, if they can be brought to par with the novel that you initially sell, having an agent will give you more opportunity to dust it off and sell it, too. I just don't know how or if that first sale will affect the editor's decision to buy something totally new. Many contracts have a "first look" clause, which means the current editor gets first look at your next work, and they can either offer or reject it before you can show it to anyone else. No matter how the editor feels about the books they already bought from you, they still have to love this new book in order to offer on it.

It worked that way for Brandon Sanderson. His first book was Elantris, which was I think about the sixth or so book he had written. Afterwards came Mistborn which was the fifth book he sold, which he managed to finish out that entire series for, and then got a chance to write Warbreaker - which was again another book he had written before getting signed. So I think it makes a lot of sense to expect your old books to see the light of day once you make it, though of course, make sure to revisit them, as I'm sure you will probably find many things to fix and make better. Who knows, you may even decide they are garbage and toss them yourself?

It can definitely work this way, although you may discover that your agent and/or editor -- and possibly you -- end up wanting revisions to those earlier works, to reflect the leaps forward you've made as a writer.

blacbird said:

I can also say that a foot in the door beats a foot in the behind. Which is what I invariably get.

caw

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But I'm sure you turn those feet in your behind into kicks in the pants to move you forward. You'll get there, Bird.

King did publish his earlier books, some under another name (Richard Bachman). But that's after King has become a best-seller. I think once you've achieved his status, you can certainly make deals (but the books still need to be polished to publication quality).

Now, if you simply has a contract for one book, or are mid-list, etc. I'm not sure how feasible it is to sell your earlier books, unless they're markable, too.

Some authors, however, were able to re-publish their earlier works. John Grisham, for example, was able to republish A Time to Kill (which was released by a small press, Wynwood) with Random House/Dell.

It seems that most people who answered are assuming that the earlier books are inferior to the latter ones. If this is so, then it is that inferiorty that will affect their ability to be published, not when you wrote them.

If you get a book published and it sells well, what is the difference when your next few books were written? If you write another novel after your first one sells and it sucks, it isn't likely to be published, and ditto for one you wrote ten years ago that sucks.

But if you write one after your first that's great, it probably will get published, and there would be 0 difference if you wrote it before, during, after or while stuck in a temporal anomaly in 1832. Just as long as you get it typed into a computer after you fix your flux capacitor, you'll be all set.

Heinlein talks about going back and selling all his 'old stinkers' - early books - after he became succesfull - so yeah, it happens.

So there you go, several examples now of authors that have sold older work once they were published. With the one caveat that you will probably need to improve your old work and make major fixes. Though by then you will probably see what was holding back your older work anyways.

Happens all the time. It isn't always advertised as such. This only really works if you're coming off a big hit, though; I suspect much of Irvine Welsh's post Trainspotting output consisted of stuff he'd had gathering dust in his desk drawers for some time. Mark Haddon has just published a book that's a reworking of something he wrote, oooh, 15 years ago, under a different title - he's now very famous for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time so that sort of thing becomes viable.

justAnotherWriter said:

It seems that most people who answered are assuming that the earlier books are inferior to the latter ones. If this is so, then it is that inferiorty that will affect their ability to be published, not when you wrote them.

If you get a book published and it sells well, what is the difference when your next few books were written? If you write another novel after your first one sells and it sucks, it isn't likely to be published, and ditto for one you wrote ten years ago that sucks.

But if you write one after your first that's great, it probably will get published, and there would be 0 difference if you wrote it before, during, after or while stuck in a temporal anomaly in 1832. Just as long as you get it typed into a computer after you fix your flux capacitor, you'll be all set.

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I agree. It seems to me all that matters is the quality and marketability of the manuscript, not when you wrote it. I'm not published yet, but my second novel (3rd I began querying) got me an agent, though by the time I'd gotten an agent I'd written five.