Survey, Then Sell

By Bill Stephens - May 19 , 2008

In last week’s article, I explained that I am undertaking a new approach to marketing a novel. An unpublished author normally provides a complete manuscript of their novel to an editor, and if that editor “just loves it,” they bring it forward into the labyrinth of the acquisition and publishing process. If there is something a little quirky in the book that the editor likes because of its originality, but it gives them doubts about the market for the book, they most often take a pass rather than assume the risk.

A way to head off this reluctance is to accompany your manuscript with a Competitive Analysis (see “Reasearch and Sell”) that details the ready acceptance in the marketplace of other, similar books that have already been published.

The second approach is attaching a Market Survey for your novel. To create the Market Survey requires that you get a sizeable demographically diverse population of readers to read your manuscript and to complete a Market Survey Form. Getting some of your friends to tackle your manuscript and then to report on it in glowing terms will not get the job done. You will need some bookstore owners, librarians, the educated and the less educated, old and young, professional and trades people, writers and editors, and most of them should not be your friends.

I currently am running such a survey for my novel Vamonos!, and I’ve gone through the process of building an email list of potential readers. I belong to several writing oriented blogs and sites, so I’ve posted a call for readers to help me by reading my manuscript. Sites like Book Marketing Network, Book Place, Publishers Marketplace all have readers that are interested enough in the concept to join in the fun. I want about one hundred readers, and I’m not there yet, so here I go:

¡VÁMONOS!
The hilarious adventures of two underachieving Texan C&W musicians who,
in the tradition of Don Quixote & Sancho Panza, strap on their guitars and ride
their Harleys into the Mexican Desert on a journey of redemption for sins of the flesh

Want More Information on Conducting a Market Survey?
Email billstephens@satx.rr.com with your name and email address.
You will receive complete information on the Vamonos! Market Survey.

FAQ: “Is it necessary to expend all this time and effort to sell a debut novel?” In today’s fiction market, the short answer is, “Yeah!”