How Did You Sell Your First Book?

How Did You Sell Your First Book?






This is a question a lot of authors ask. It never seems to be one that non-authors ask. And that’s because if you’re not a person who writes books, you don’t understand what it means to make that first book sale.




I have to admit that I didn’t really understand that either. 




Here’s why. 




I did almost everything backwards. My first sale was easy. I only queried two times before an editor asked for a full, and then offered me a contract. 




“So how hard can this publishing business be?” I asked myself. 




Even my second book went quickly from the writing to the sale. And then my publisher and the editor who “got” me vanished. That was something I hadn’t expected.




Now I’m going through what most writers go through when they start out. I’m querying, I’m trying to find another person in the business who thinks I write books worth publishing. I’m learning just how hard promoting my published books is while trying to work on another W.I.P. In other words, I’m answering my question. 




“This publishing business is very hard.”








Wish me luck because I know a lot of what happens in book publishing is having your manuscript land on the right desk at the right time. Luck is a huge factor, but persistence and writing well are equally important, and that’s what I’m working on every day.




So how did you sell your first book? Or did you go Indie right away? If you had a multiple choice test about your experience with the publishing business what would your answer be?




A. Frustrating 

B. Challenging

C. Discouraging

D. Exciting 

E. All of the above



This post is shared with UncommonYA. It's a new group of authors who write YA with an edge. Hope you'll stop by and say hello.














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I'm going to be posting on Thursday this week as well as Friday. There's a new book out that looks very interesting and B. B. Shepherd put together a great piece about it. Hope you'll be here on Thursday and read what she has to say. Then be sure to enter to win a copy of BRONZE part of the GLISTER JOURNALS. 

Sliding on the Edge, C. Lee McKenzie, WestSide Books, Spring '09
The Princess of Las Pulgas, WestSide Books, Fall '10
The First Time, Fall '11 (Anthology story: Premeditated Cat)
Alligators Overhead, Outskirts Press, Fall '12
Two and Twenty Dark Tales (Anthology story: Into the Sea of Dew