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How to Get an Agent or Publisher For Your (Self-Published) Book by Penny Sansevieri
I get this question a lot: "Now
that I've self-published I need to find an agent, how do I do that?"
Well, it might seem to be a simple and easy transition. I mean you're
already published so it shouldn't be that hard, right? Not so fast.
There are a number of things you need to know before you run headlong
into an effort to get a publishing contract.
First off, publishers like what other people like. Well, generally they
do. If you're building success for your book, getting great reviews,
building your audience and online presence this is a good thing and
will often be viewed favorably by publishers. While there are agents
and publishers that won't even consider a self-published book, there
are a number of them who will. The key is to find those agents and
publishers and get to know what they specialize in. Since there are a
million articles and books on how to craft a query letter and
submission packet I'll skip that. For the purposes of this article,
though, we're going to focus on personal branding and industry
positioning.
The first question authors will ask me is how do they know they're
"ready" to submit? Ok, so you've got a dozen or so great reviews,
you've been blogging regularly and you are a regular at author events.
Sales, however, are still slumping. You've sold 1,000 copies at best
and struggled to even make that meager number. Is that a bad thing? Not
always, but it depends on how your book was published. If, let's say,
your book was published through a print-on-demand company, a thousand
copies is a fairly high number (the average print-on-demand book sells
75 copies).
Also print-on-demand is limited in its distribution, meaning that even
if you've gotten great media interviews, reviews, and buzz for your
book, the reason you're not selling a ton of copies is the broken
distribution systems these books often wrestle with. Bookstores won't
stock them because of the non-returnable factor. (Note to the savvy
author, avoid, at all costs, the "returns program" POD publishers
offer, bookstores don't care if you've paid to have your book
returnable. Don't believe me? Sign up for it, pay your $500 and then do
some calling around to find out).
Here's the deal: print-on-demand has for years been the red-headed
stepchild of publishing. Are there good books published through POD
publishers? You bet. But for most of these authors it's like pushing a
boulder uphill. Now don't get me wrong, all of my first books were
published via POD and still they've been successful despite the biases
and all the other things New York publishing likes to heap on this form
of publishing. But the point being: knowing your market and
understanding how the market works will go a long way to giving you the
insight you need to be successful. Distribution is not defined as a
place on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, because anyone with an ISBN can
get this type of placement.
Distribution is defined as a distribution company actively marketing
your book to bookstores and other sales channels. This doesn't happen
in POD and the New York publishers know this. So, if your book is still
selling well despite these obstacles then you've got a winner on your
hands, and it might be time to seek a bigger publisher for your work.
On the flip side, if you have self-published and you do have a
distributor in place, then consider trying to pitch your work after
you've sold over 3,000 copies of your book. But there's a small catch:
you don't want to sell out of your market. Generally speaking this
won't happen, but in certain cases it could.
Let's consider, for example, that you wrote a regionally-focused book
about the history of a town or state and you've focused all of your
marketing efforts in that region. It's likely that if you've sold 5,000
copies a publisher or agent could view this as sold out of the majority
of the market. You might counter that you could sell this in other
markets but unless there's some tourism angle, it's not likely and even
then, the appeal needs to be really strong. Most books based on towns
or cities are sold in the city and generally not outside of that area
unless they are big tourism draws, in which case the market becomes
much more competitive. Also note that if you're thinking of trying to
cheat the system you should know there's a little thing called Nielsen
BookScan that logs all sales by book and author, so no fair counting
your author purchases as sales - BookScan notes sales through
commercial sales channels only (major market retailers and bookstores).
All right, so you're ready to pitch your book. You meet the sales
criteria and you know you haven't sold out of your market. What's next?
Next, ask yourself what your platform is. Platform is one of those
words that agents and publishers love to toss out to unsuspecting
authors. So what does platform mean? Well, it's a bit tricky because it
varies depending on what you're writing. Platform isn't who you know
but who knows you. It's your area of influence. For fiction writers it
could be your e-mail list, the subscribers to your blog, conventions
you speak at, conferences you attend (as a participant, not just an
attendee). For non-fiction authors, defining your platform is a bit
easier. Often non-fiction books are tied to speaking, coaching, or some
other business model. These are all part of your platform.
When I sold Red Hot Internet Publicity to Sourcebooks, one of the first
things I listed on my marketing/book outline was my platform:
subscribers to the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter, business revenue,
speaking events I am booked on, average client base - everything. All
of this is your platform and all of it lends itself to having a
built-in audience. This is what publishers look for. Regardless of how
you publish you still have to market your own book, and publishers know
it'll be easier to market a book that has a following than one that
doesn't.
After you define your platform the next thing is to define your hook.
Especially with self-published books, agents and publishers expect you
to have a hook. Since the book is published, if you don't have a hook
this is a tell-tale sign that you haven't been marketing this book
correctly, if at all. (There are additional platform-building tips that
appear later on in this issue).
How can you find the right agent or publisher for your book? The
traditional ways certainly work: getting books and guides designed to
give you agent and publisher contact info, but there might be a better
way. Try going to some writers' conferences that allow you to schedule
editor and agent appointments. This is a great way to get some
immediate feedback on your book, pitch, and the possibility of selling
your work. There are a number of conferences around the country, just
be sure to look for ones that offer one-on-ones with publishing
professionals.
And finally, it's sometimes tempting to switch genres to get published.
But unless there's some compelling reason for you to genre-hop, like a
changing focus in your business, I recommend sticking with what's been
successful for you. Don't one day write on true crime and the next day
start offering dieting advice unless that's where you want your
ultimate focus to be. Also remember that if you've been writing true
crime for years, and have built an audience and following, you've now
lost that base by jumping ship.
The truth is that the odds aren't always in our favor. With eight
hundred books published each day in the US the market is narrow, to say
the least, but if you know your market, have a platform and are selling
books, you're already 90% of the way there - the rest is just finding
the right match for your book and maybe a little bit of literary luck.
About the Author
Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a book marketing and media relations expert whose company has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Visit AME.
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