Hi,

I'm new here. My novel, The Samplist was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement this week.

Sure, I'm hap, hap, happy but I'm wondering if anyone here can enlighten me on a few things.

Like many here I sent out my MS a long time ago to agents and a couple of people seemed interested at first but I later discovered it was just wind.

I then went ahead myself.

Since then I've had reviews by the TLS, The Guardian, The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, 4barsrest.com and appeared on a BBC radio show (The Arts Show; where the book was likened to "Catch-22 with music instead of war.").

I have upcoming reviews soon in The New Scientist (a real coup, I believe) and Classic fm magzine and a couple of other mags.

Stop bragging you say. But while this is great (eh, The Big Issue savaged it without the reviewer even reading it, by the way; he was too cool) I'm wondering what on earth it takes in real life to convince agents/big houses that a book deserves a wider audience?

It is selling well in a very few outlets and I'm planning a big sales push (me smelling up my car for three weeks) starting next week and I'm going to exhibit at the London Book Fair.

I'm finding that readers over thirty and especially (bloody) foreigners (Aussies, Kiwis, Americans, even Norwegians) are losing their minds over it while the U.K. market favours older readers (too much hair glue and you won't get it).

The Times Literary Review said it was "important" but was unkind on characters/plot. Regular people love the characters and plot, so I'm guessing that there is a wide and deep market for this.

But if a spread of reviews from the TLS to The New Scientist, to a couple of fantastic reader reviews at Amazon can't smoke out a publisher what can?

Also, the book comes with music performed by characters from within the novel: Bach, Chopin, (so the characters leap off the page and into your lugs as well).

This was fantastic on Radio and if I can reel in jockeys to add my characters to their actual playlists the possibility exists for mind-boggling free PR.

But how do I even get to a publisher who might 'get this'?

I've kind of asked around on a few other groups but get bogged down by people thinking my posts are just a brag. Sure, it's better than a slap in the puss, but the potential here is surely far-reaching and I don't know how to say this without sounding immodest.

I asked this on another group and got told I was "on an ego trip". I believe the guy was right. It's the same one taken by anyone who ever wrote a novel, but it didn't answer my question. How do I get publishers in the crosshairs? What more could they possibly want?

Getting reviewed as a work of literary fiction in one mag, and as a frat-house comedy in another surely suggests potential? I'm not even sure whether this may be the first time that The New Scientist has ever reviewed fiction that isn't science fiction, and I'm not sure whether a self-published novel has ever got a review in the TLS. If it has it must be rare. (I'm not imagining things; something is happening here.)

In fact (another brag) Scotland on Sunday called it "Part metaphysical fable, part frat-house comedy".

Doesn't that have 'money' written on it? But if my major market is indeed Aussies and Kiwis I'm kind of in a bind.

Anyone know how foreign rights work: in the real world, how do they even notice you?

This is very frustrating. I'm happy and I will succeed with this one way or the other, but I'd rather write than beg bookstores not to return books until my next review hits or plead with them to let me stick a 3 x 5 card up to tell customers my novel isn't crap.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any and all comments. I used to think that getting reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement meant one had finally 'made it'.

btw: I've made a living from writing for ten years. This is my first novel so I have paid lots of dues

I'm sorry, I've only read the begnning of your post, will go back and read the rest, but I have to congratulate you on not only getting published, but for getting reviewed in the TLS. I am deeply impressed.

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I've read the rest, and I'm impressed ten times over with the places where your novel has been reviewed. I can't even handle your bigger question yet. Yet on the basis of reader comments, I know I'd want to get a copy, and I'm about to check your profile in the hope hat you name this book! IU think I'll buy it - the mytho-fable whatever is enough to hook me, seeing that it has clearly been well received.

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Yes, call me an idiot, you named it in the first line of your post.

Francis, your reviews at Amazon are impressive. Is it possible to buy the book direct from you?

Dear Fellen - congratulations!! Sounds like you're doing marvellously. I'm not sure why, having done so well, you actually need an external publisher/agent. This way, you do get all the dosh after all!

But if you do feel you'd still like to try for traditional publishing, why not just send out copies of the book plus copies of reviews etc to a few publishers which best fit your book's profile?

Good luck!

A
xxx

Hi,

Yes, it is available on my site at www.ronak-publishing.com and it's available on Amazon and tons of other places (all of which claim it will be delivered by camel within five years: I won't pay Amazon 60% in case it sells well and I end up in the poor house, but I have to say that their service - mostly from a lady called Tara - has been spectacularly good).

Thanks for the kind words. I'm sure many people here understand when I say that this is a very lonely trail sometimes.

I only have a little of the music on my site right now (the book comes with five tunes; two by a 'fictional' character created by characters in the novel and three performed by actual 'live' fictional characters from the novel - a bit spooky.)

In future, I plan to move to 'all download' to make life a little easier. And I plan to produce a lot more music and even have tentative plans to release a commercial CD of the music of Yang Li (he doesn't exist outside of my warped imagination).

"I'm not sure why, having done so well, you actually need an external publisher/agent. This way, you do get all the dosh after all!"

Well, money isn't ev... (eh, maybe I'll take that back).

The truth is that I most probably will end up doing everything myself. I have a book almost finished by another writer that I'm going to publish later this year but I do not have the clout to realize the potential of that book or my own. Mainstream fiction is so hard to sell in a small way. It's easier to sell local stuff than general fiction.

I'm thinking that I can write myself, and perhaps find new writers and take them to market. Let's face it; my experience and the experience of many here is of a lot of talent going a' begging.

But I won't lie. I'm not looking just to 'get printed', I've invested a lot in this and to turn it over I need to know that I can survive until my next opus is written.

I want to write. That's all. I can do all the other stuff, but I want to write. I never expected riches (any publishers reading this turn your eyes away... now) but being able to write full time is a great gift. A gift that I'm pursuing. But publishers should disregard all of the above. I want seven figures and a fat marketing budget!

Francis,

I just bought the book through your website. I asked if you could sign it, although I am not sure if that is possible, so don't worry if you can't.

I really look forward to reading your book.

Ani

Fellen, congratulations, it sounds as if you're doing brilliantly. I've read somewhere that publishers won't take a book seriously until the self-published author has sold a few thousand copies - but I'd have thought that those reviews you mentioned would have made them sit up and take notice. Keep plugging away - you'll get there in the end, although a major book deal can bring its own problems, as you can lose control and have to reshape the novel to suit the publisher.

Re. Amazon and their 4 weeks delivery plus the extra £1.99 as this is a 'hard to find title'!! - you can get over that by selling the book on site yourself in the 'new and collectable' section. You'll find that shortly after you fill in the form and the details go up the book will miraculously be listed as 'dispatched within 2 days' or something like, and you should find too that Amazon will be advertising one themselves in the 'new and collectable' even though they don't have one in stock!

Good luck,

Nell.

Ani

Of course, I'd be honoured to sign it. Thanks. I hope you enjoy it. I won't make the mail today but it should get there by Monday morning.

Wow. This is wonderful.

Nell

Thanks for that. This is such a huge area, it's simply impossible to know enough.

This kind of advice is like gold. Many thanks.

Also, I wouldn't want to play down my sales. They're not in the thousands yet but considering the paltry number of stores I have now; it's really doing pretty well - thanks in large part to the kindness of store managers who were willing to take a little risk and stick their necks out, but I'm quite long a way from 'critical' mass.

My plan is to increase stores exponentially over the next three to four months. Marketing inside the store seems to be the hardest part, with big publishers pushing all those kiss-and-tells and footballers bios (and let's not forget that we have to compete with all of literature while we're at it - damn, it is hard).

Hey Fellen, stop bragging (joke!)

I've not looked at your website or at Amazon, but I will.

I know nothing about publishing other than what I have gleaned from this site, published friends and general noise. However I do know a bit about PR.

It strikes me that you are in a good position to leverage your achievements so far to generate more publicity and PR and spread the word of mouth. You have great reviews, unique(?) mixture of literature and music, a cracking against all odds 'I’ll publish it myself!' human-interest story.

Again, from what little I know of publishing, I think there tends to be a bit too much play-it-safe number crunching when it comes to publishing new works, as it is in other forms of entertainment such as music.

Because your work doesn't tick all the boxes you can't get a publisher despite all the coverage (good and bad - there's no such thing as bad PR!).

Sorry I can't think of a literary example, I'm too pop culture, but a couple of years ago David Gray couldn't get arrested as a singer song-writer and was about to lose his record contract. Word of mouth sparked interest in his music, got him airplay and propelled his album up the charts.

Now I'm sure that there was more than just 'word of mouth' behind him, but there certainly wasn't the PR and marketing support that a lot of artists usually get - including many that I am sure failed to reach the success he did.

Do you see my point? You have a chance here to try and build on the awareness that you already have and generate more interest - more sales - in your book and stuff the publishers.

Of course, it won't be easy and it might not happen, but you are certainly ahead of most people wanting to get their work seen by a wider audience.

Good luck mate, let us know how it goes.

Francis,

Thanks for that. I'll be watching the post! I suspect that some publishers may catch on, but if they do, make they're going to promote your book! That way they can't blame you if it doesn't take off.

Nell - tried to WWmail you just now but it won't work for me! Could you please just give us some more details on how you can access the "new and collectable" section of Amazon? - I couldn't find it for the life of me!

Doh!

Many thanks

LoL

A
xxx

Anne,

Go to your book page, then in the blue box that says More buying choices' you'll see 'Have one to sell' at the bottom. Click on the button that says 'sell yours here'. You may have to register as a seller, but you should eventually come to a page that allows you to fill in the book details. You can describe it as 'new' and add a comment eg 'author copy', or even offer signed copies if you like. Amazon sends you an email when you have a sale and you send the book off! That's about all there is to it. You can fill in your bank details later for Amazon to transfer the payment on any sales. Postage is included and you can offer more than one copy at a time if you like.

Nell.

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My email still doesn't work either.

Yes, I sel books that way, too. It's really easy. It's the better part of my income stream.