Will Your First Novel Get Published?

Here are some interesting statistics about first novels. From them, I'd say it's fairly common that the first novel a person writes is either never published or is published after a later novel (and usually after some revision using what the author has since learned about writing).

First, The Rejecter blogged about Twenty-Something Writers and said:

Generally people are not published on the first novel they write. The industry lore is that it's the third book you submit for publication that is the one that gets published. For me it was true, though I would say that was the ... I don't know, 10th manuscript I'd written. Something like that. And this is not including any writing I did in junior high or high school. Except for the occasional literary genius, writing a novel is a bit like driving: it takes some hours behind the wheel before you're good enough for a license.

Tobias Buckell did a survey on how many novels did you write before selling one? A summary of the results:

Out of a group of 10 writers who will go on to be published (we can’t guess at how many are turned away unpublished, right, this is a self selecting group), 3 will sell the first novel they write. 1 will write some, or a lot, of short fiction before selling their first novel. 1-2 will sell their second. The other half will write 3 or more novels before breaking in.

So it seems that the key to getting published is to keep on writing new material rather than obsessively reworking your query letter or revising your first novel.

The Process of Getting Published

So you now have an agent or an offer for your book from a publisher...what happens next? Here are some articles about what occurs between the offer for the book and the published book.

Michael Hyatt on his Thomas Nelson blog wrote about Getting Published Process.

Rachel at Novel & Short Story Writer's Market blog wrote about The Editorial Process.

Miss Snark wrote about You've Got An Agent..now what.

The Rejecter wrote about copyediting.

Terry McGarry wrote an article about A Writer's Guide to Understanding the Copyeditor.

Jenny Bent wrote about What to Expect When You Get Published.

Why Does It Take So Long?

The New York Times published an interesting essay by Rachel Donadio about Waiting for It. The essay explains why traditional publishing takes so much longer to produce a book than a vanity press does. The answer is not just the editing that's put into the book but the amount of work that goes into publicity for the book.

As soon as a literary agent has sold a publisher a book, and even before it’s edited, copy-edited, proofread and indexed, the publicity wheels start turning. While writers bite their nails, the book editor tries to persuade the in-house sales representatives to get excited about the book, the sales representatives try to persuade retail buyers to get excited, and the retail buyers decide how many copies to buy and whether to feature the book in a prominent front-of-the-store display, for which publishers pay dearly. In the meantime, the publisher’s publicity department tries to persuade magazine editors and television producers to feature the book or its author around the publication date, often giving elaborate lunches and parties months in advance to drum up interest.

Chain stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders generally buy books at least six months before the publication date and know about particular titles even farther in advance.

I got a heads-up about this article from the Writer's Beware blog where Victoria Strauss goes on to say:

One of the most basic misapprehensions of would-be self-publishers, and also of the amateur publishers..., is that it's what you do after a book goes on the market that generates volume sales. But in the increasingly competitive world of publishing, books must be sold long before the public can actually buy them. For most books, post-publication publicity is effective only if it can build on a platform already established by careful pre-publication marketing.

She also meantions news about self-promotion by authors networking on MySpace and similar sites:

According to this article in The Register, people are getting bored with social networking. Apparently, "Bebo, MySpace and Facebook all took double-digit percentage hits in the last months of 2007. December could perhaps be forgiven as a seasonal blip when people see their real friends and family, but the trend was already south."

Hope this was helpful information.

Marketing Your Book

If you want to better understand how your publisher will go about marketing your book to get it into bookstore, libraries, etc., and to get readers to buy your book, then here are some informative links.

Rachel at Novel & Short Story Writer's Market blog wrote about:
The publishers have to sell, too
Marketing books

Michael Hyatt at the Thomas Nelson blog wrote about what works in marketing.

The Rejecter wrote about Publishing Houses and Publicity.

On somewhat related topics, Miss Snark wrote about:
First Serial Rights and Marketing
Book Reviews that Count
Why You Should Use Libraries
Book Clubs

Clichés in Query Letters and Stories

Magazine submission pages and agent blogs often mention certain things they see so often in submissions that they highly recommend writers to avoid using them. Here are a few lists.

Kristin Nelson at Pub Rants talks about fantasy clichés to avoid in your story in A Walk in the Woods and Top 10 Things I’d Rather Not See in Opening Chapters, phrases to avoid in query letters in Kristin’s Top 10 List and Clichés Unleashed, clichés in stories of various genre in Glitch! Take Two and in young adult books in YA Top 25.

Other sites that list speculative fiction clichés are:

http://www.findcliches.com/sciencefiction.htm

http://www.cthreepo.com/cliche/

http://amethyst-angel.com/cliche.html

http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml

http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common-horror.shtml

Character Names

Fiction writers, do you ever need help coming up with character names? Here are a list of sites that might help.

Behind the Name, Random Name Generator allows you to choose the number of given names as well as which gender and nationality the name should have.

If you want a name with a certain meaning, Parenthood.com will generate a list and indicate which culture the name is from.

If you're trying to come up with a Hindu name, then the Hindu Name Generator might help.

Here's another random generator of Unusual, Unique, and Creative Names.

And random names based on the 1990 USA census.

Chinaroad has lists of all sorts of names, including names from different cultures or names inspired by nature, etc.

Phillip Riley has a number of random name generators for different cultures, though they generator is mainly set up for RPG players.

If you write fantasy, then Seventh Sanctum probably has the name generator for you (including boat, tavern, realm, planet, corporation, and heroic names).

Babynames has a name generator that allows you to choose the gender, nationality, and number of syllables in the name.

Babyzone has a random name generator that allows you to choose the gender, origin, and starting letter of the name.

Book Title Rating

Ever wonder how likely your book is to become a best seller? This Title Scorer attempts to answer that question by rating your title against the titles of previous bestsellers.

Pitch Critiques Continue

Jessica Faust is still steadily critiquing pitches on the Bookends blog. I decided to start a new post because the old ones have fallen so far down on my blog list now. For those interested in one agent's opinion on what works in a pitch and what doesn't, Jessica has now completed the twenty-first round of pitch critiques. And the twenty-second round of pitch critiques. And the twenty-third round of pitch critiques. And the twenty-fourth round of pitch critiques. And the final, twenty-fifth round of pitch critiques.

Buying Books Online

According to a survey by Nielsen Online, more books are sold on the internet than any other product. Also, 41% of worldwide internet users have bought books online, which is up 7% from a survey done two years ago. In the USA, 38% of internet users have bought books online.

This is encouraging news for self-published authors intending to sell their books online.

Jessica on Agent Submissions

Jessica Faust at Bookends has done an interesting series on the letters that agents send to publishers. These posts are The Agent Submission Process, The Agent Submission Process: Part Deux, and The Agent Submission Process: Nonfiction.