I'm seeing more and more unpublished authors seeking agents and trade publishing deals (NOT self-published, that's a different ballgame), who seem to think that the time to start promoting their books is BEFORE they find a book deal or even an agent.
By this, I mean, sending out tweets like "Visit my website to read an excerpt from MY FIRST NOVEL, coming on UNKNOWN DATE from UNKNOWN PUBLISHER!" or creating websites specifically for the book, or posting excerpts from early drafts of the book. In some cases these books aren't even finished.
Their thinking is that this will help them get published. My thinking (and what I thought was the industry's thinking) is that this would actually do more harm than good. While I understand the value of building a platform, your platform should be for you as an author, not for any specific book, and that no decent publisher would want you promoting a book that may change drastically--up to and including the title--between the time it's picked up and the time it's released, and on which their editorial and marketing departments haven't had any input.
My thinking is also that the best way to get the attention of publishers is to write a good book and a good query letter, first and foremost.
Also, where is this coming from? Is there some guru out there promoting this? Are people just misinterpreting the whole "platform" approach? I encountered someone on a Facebook group for writers just today who insisted that she promoted her book for a year before it was published and that "four publishers all wanted my book."
So please, tell me would this be helpful? Harmful? Maybe just useless? Because it's frankly driving me crazy every time I see it, but if I'm wrong and there is value in it, maybe I need to pipe down.
By this, I mean, sending out tweets like "Visit my website to read an excerpt from MY FIRST NOVEL, coming on UNKNOWN DATE from UNKNOWN PUBLISHER!" or creating websites specifically for the book, or posting excerpts from early drafts of the book. In some cases these books aren't even finished.
Their thinking is that this will help them get published. My thinking (and what I thought was the industry's thinking) is that this would actually do more harm than good. While I understand the value of building a platform, your platform should be for you as an author, not for any specific book, and that no decent publisher would want you promoting a book that may change drastically--up to and including the title--between the time it's picked up and the time it's released, and on which their editorial and marketing departments haven't had any input.
My thinking is also that the best way to get the attention of publishers is to write a good book and a good query letter, first and foremost.
Also, where is this coming from? Is there some guru out there promoting this? Are people just misinterpreting the whole "platform" approach? I encountered someone on a Facebook group for writers just today who insisted that she promoted her book for a year before it was published and that "four publishers all wanted my book."
So please, tell me would this be helpful? Harmful? Maybe just useless? Because it's frankly driving me crazy every time I see it, but if I'm wrong and there is value in it, maybe I need to pipe down.
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