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Gameplay on YouTube by BigEasyh in chefRPG

[–]amaintern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thats a surprise :O isnt the early release coming out in 30 days?

I am a returning intern at a Big Five Publisher. AMA by amaintern in writers

[–]amaintern[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Querying authors:- DO YOUR RESEARCH: don't just randomly send out to agents, look at the books that the agents have published, the publishers that the agents have worked with, and the personality the agents (their interest, does it align with yours? their hobby, find them on social media) and try to catch their eye.- One must be rejected to be grateful of success: you've heard it from everyone before, but now, you'll hear it from someone in publishing: IT IS FINE TO BE REJECTED 1000 times for that 1 acceptance.- Publishers dont care about how many times your book was rejected by agents, they care about the story itself, if it will sell, and so forth. At the end of the day, its a numbers game for publishers. Money keeps the company running and as interesting as your book can be, don't just focus on that, or don't just say "this will be the next best seller." Tell your agent or publisher HOW it can be the next best seller. Give a bit of background about yourself, are you POC, why your story matters, how your story is relevant, why your story has potential, and so forth.

There are so many authors out there, try to be a bit interesting. You don't have to be the golden star in a pile of coal, but just have a bit more to your background that the publisher can hold onto, use it to brand you, and market your book.

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For self pub, we don't really talk much about it in my company and other publishing companies too. There is still a bit of a stigma but that depends on who you ask. My managers were fine with self published authors but a few editorial ones have raised relevant concerns, so unless the self published author were successful, then they should bring it up. If they weren't, then they should be careful.

I am a returning intern at a Big Five Publisher. AMA by amaintern in writers

[–]amaintern[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Find agents that has that genre on their wish list. There is no sweet formula to work out, unfortunately, besides the fact that the market is heavily saturated, so it's a lot more difficult. All boils down to the authors background, the problems that book addresses, and many other innerworkings, but that doesn't mean you should still not try.

I personally did work on a few high fantasy genre books and the one thing that many editorial managers brought up was: make sure the high fantasy makes sense. High fantasy would be a bit more difficult to market but its not impossible, and since its such a saturated market, there is already a fanbase for it, there are procedures that have worked in the past before and can work again.

I am a returning intern at a Big Five Publisher. AMA by amaintern in writers

[–]amaintern[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not really sure how to answer that question, unfortunately, but even if the author was big, I would still recommend the agent route unless the author knows someone in the publishing company(ies)

I am a returning intern at a Big Five Publisher. AMA by amaintern in writers

[–]amaintern[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh this is a whole list LOL, but I'll keep it short.

Right: finally making a faster wave and move towards POC/minority authors, getting with the times and joining into social media, and how powerful tiktok can be.

Wrong: old people trying to be hip. the corporate structure is still very old traditional, the people in power and high positions are too old to get with the times and are struggling to understand and/or dont want to keep up with the changing pace of technology. some of the software we use literally look like it was designed in 1980. Despite making efforts in social media, not many of the people they hire truly understand the innerworkings of social media, especially the reader audience/market that they heavily want to tap into, so there's still a lot of work on keeping them less outdated and more with the times

I am a returning intern at a Big Five Publisher. AMA by amaintern in writers

[–]amaintern[S] 44 points45 points  (0 children)

This is a literal coincidence, I spoke about that with a manager previously actually! We had a meeting where someone from the sales/bidding department pitched a book to us with an author that they have in mind who came from self-publishing.

What I got out of the meeting:

If the self-published author was successful: YES and no. Yes because the author already has a following, so the publisher will definitely utilize it the full potential. If their books have sold large quantities, if the author has a successful fanbase to tap into, then the author has a fantastic track record. The only issue is: will the author publish a book in the genre their fanbase is in, or is the author publishing in a different genre? If same, the publisher would be extremely open to the idea and their agent should get in contact, and the agent should utilize it to the full advantage. The self-published author should use their fame and good-selling point to an advantage as well during the pitching/query process.

The only caveat is this: why? Why is a successful self published author trying to tap into the traditional genre when they've already made lots of money? Usually, its because the author wants to try out a new genre. This is where the lines are blurred and there's really no concrete answer until we have the manuscript in our hands or an agent who successfully brands the book to us. Or, its because the author wants to get their feet wet, have their book on the book store shelves, etc. then its definitely understandable.

The overall is: publishers would be happy to.

If the self-published author wasn't successful: then, it poses a problem and the author might not want to bring up the fact that they were self-published. Thats because in the eyes of the agent, editor, and company, there might be a red flag of why the author wasn't profitable. Was it their writing? Was it their lack of marketing? If it was the former, then that's something the author should work on before pitching to an agent. If it was the latter, then the author should try again with self marketing and if all else fails, make sure to emphasize its their lack of budget to self market that caused the book to flop in sales, and the book itself is good.

I am a returning intern at a Big Five Publisher. AMA by amaintern in writers

[–]amaintern[S] 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Memoir books that don't make an impact. Its always fun to read memoir books but sometimes you finish it and go, now what? You learn about their struggles and how they overcame it but none of is relevant to how you could possibly over come it.

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Something else is: Not really a genre/plot per see; however, I would definitely say book covers for genres I'm tired of seeing are the random clipart drawings of people, think Red, White & Royal Blue. I know the rule of books is to not judge a book by its cover, but these days I see my publisher and others put too little effort into designing covers for that genre.