Unpublished and hungry for a book deal? Introduce yourself to book agents and book publishers so that you stick in their minds. To be told: “Send me your manuscript. I want to read it.”
1: Create and refine a 3-minute speech delivered aloud for your unpublished book project.
Fictional Tone Sampler (thanks to New York Times Book Review and author’s website): “An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to find out how his friend has fared under the Taliban” is the story of my first novel. I was a skinny, skinny 11-year-old seventh grader when I left Afghanistan with my family. I recently returned to Kabul after completing my manuscript, traveling as a 38-year-old Northern California-based physician, writer, husband, and father of two. My name is Khaled Hosseini. Can I send you a synopsis and 50 opening pages for my manuscript titled The kite flyer? Here is my business card.”
Nonfiction Speech Sample: “I am 80 years old, an accomplished painter working with studios in Paris and New York, as well as a published writer and poet, and feminist. Since the age of 22 in the 1940s, I have lived for a decade .with Picasso, I left him and later raised two of his children. Since then I have been married to the painter Luc Simon and to Dr. Jonas Salk who developed the polio vaccine. My name is Françoise Gilot. Can I send you a book proposal? with sample chapters for my memoirs? Here’s my calling card.”
To practice, visit online New York Times Book Review‘s and other bestseller lists, study the one-sentence pitches, come up with one that features your own work. Practice your presentation at home in front of a mirror, with other writers, with friends and family, with strangers you meet at bookstores. Practice your speech until your speech is confident, short, sweet, and perfect.
2: Create a do-it-yourself website and start writing a blog. Launch an ezine, build a following, and capture visitor data. Keep writing your book.
3. Design author business cards and an email signature that includes your 3-minute introduction and all your contact information, your blog, your website, your ezine. Keep these cards taped and tacked on your person, at work, in your car at all times. Give your card to everyone everywhere. Post your cards in coffee shops, library bulletin boards, online in writing communities.
4. Build an author platform database using the information and cards you collect from people you know who visit your website. Reach out in person and meet the managers and buyers of your local chain and independent bookstores.
5. Reach out to book review publishers across the country, from very local to very national, and start reviewing books for them online and offline by using a line with your “next” book title, your URL, ezine and blog. Add these names to your platform’s database. Keep writing your book.
6. Write personal essays, short stories, and 250-500 word articles on the topic of your book using one line with the title of your “upcoming” book, your URL, ezine, and blog. Send copies to the agents and publishers you’ve targeted, other bloggers, eziners, webmavens, your local booksellers.
7. Join groups of writers and editors and volunteer. Write for newsletters and insert your signature. Agree to help out at events and escort speakers to and from conferences. Exchange business cards with everyone you meet. Add everything to your platform’s database.
8. Find and attend author readings and writers’ conferences within walking distance of your home. Become a regular. Go have a coffee with the people you meet there; exchange business cards; Write print and online reviews of the published books of authors you know to spread the word about your signature. Add more entries to your database. Attend conferences and post trade events and shows further and further from home. The net. The net. Collect business cards. Add to your database. Keep writing your book.
9. Find your way online for bloggers and writers interested in book publishing. Link websites and expand your database with addresses and links to people who read, write, sell and publish books. Keep writing your book.
10. Give a talk on your topic at local libraries, in elementary and middle school language arts or other classes. Teach adult education workshops on writing, blogging, ezine publishing, and book reviews. Make sure your full signature appears on course catalogs and websites. Give your business cards to the students. Collect the addresses of each attendee and add them to your database. Keep writing your book.
11. Expand your website with new pages to download your signed pieces online or in print, activities, and your writer’s schedule (volunteer events count!). Offer free teleseminars and workshops online. Keep writing your book.
12. Cheer up, so we can buy your book when it’s published and find you on Oprah. Good luck!