3 Key Tips to Help You Sell Your First Novel

Even when it’s not our official “Now What?” Months, we’re here to help your novel through the publishing process. Today, publishing sales co-ordinator Ashton Quinn Parker  shares some insights she’s learned from managing book sales in a big publishing house:

When most people think about getting their first book published, the checklist of steps to go through often looks something like this:

1. Get a rock star agent.

2. Get an amazing cheerleader editor.

3. Watch all your publishing dreams come true.

However, anyone working in the publishing industry can tell you it’s not quite that straightforward. Sometimes aspiring writers become so focused on the steps that lead to getting their book published they forget one key thing that makes each of those steps happen: sales! 

No agent will look twice at a query letter that doesn’t have a good hook, and no editor will take on a book from any agent that can’t sell it well. Sales is one of the most vital things that takes a book from the hands of the author to the readers. And it’s not only the selling of the book to the agent and the editor but also what happens after they’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s that has a huge effect on how well your book does. 

The sales department in a publishing house is a vital aspect of the success of a book, and most authors never even think about it. When I told people I worked at a big publisher, nine times out of ten they’d say, “Oh awesome, so you’re an editor.” I know that it’s easy to think of a publishing house as just a place where books get edited, publicized, and marketed. But my years working in the sales department have taught me a few things that I think are valuable for all authors to think about:

1. Know your comparison titles.

Comp titles are one of the most important things booksellers use to determine wither or not they’ll buy your book and how many copies they’ll buy.  An agent has to know market trends and which editors are looking for what in order to sell your book. It’s also really important for authors to know where their book fits in the market.  If you’re an unpublished author, read around and try to find a debut title from a new author that has as much in common with your book as possible. Start with the same age category, genre, and sub genre.

2. Know who you’re selling to and what they’re buying.

Successful selling requires the seller to get to know a little bit about the person they are selling to. When an agent goes out to sell to editors they’ve already done extensive research about the editor’s titles. An agent won’t try to sell a YA fantasy to an editor with a list of summer romances. And you don’t want to query an agent who reps tons of YA fantasy if your book is up-market contemporary, unless the agent says they’re looking that. Lots of agents post very specific wants under the hash tag #MSWL (”Manuscript Wish List”).

3. Nobody really wants to read another “dead trend” title.

When presented with a book that is too similar to a recent bestseller, publishers can have two equal and opposite reactions. One, it’s good because they can sell it by saying, “If you loved that book, you’ll love this new book!” The second reaction is to feel super blah about the book, because they’re probably drowning in similar books. They wont be too excited about selling one more dystopian novel. Now, I’m not saying you should necessarily let the market dictate what you write. But if you’re a previously unpublished author trying to jump into the market, you may just need to tuck that novel away and try to launch your career with another book.

Ashton Quinn Parker had her first taste of the publishing world as an intern at the birthplace of Harry Potter, Bloomsbury publishing in London. After completing a masters degree in Publishing from Oxford Brookes University, Ashton hopped back across the pond for her first role as a Sales co-ordinator at Palgrave Macmillan in New York City. She went on to work at Harper Collins Children’s books also in the Sales department. Ashton has now begun to venture to the other side of the publishing desk and is working on her first Young Adult contemporary novel, a half comedy, half coming of age tale about a high school senior working at a local Super Mart in small town Texas.

Top photo by Flickr user Thomas Leuthard.