Author Debut Year Dos & Don'ts! 

Actually, she said "There's always that person - it's usually people - who is..." and I took it to mean there's more than one person in the group who does it, which makes sense considering basic human nature in a group of up to a hundred people.

i-want-fries yes! And where I'm from (Africa) we don't have agents. You just submit directly to local publishers. Context is different everywhere. But I guess you could connect online to people from other parts of the world?

That's what i'd like to know. I'm in a small town in Canada (As well as trying to self-publish) so a lot of the Do's don't work, but I've hired an editor for my novel... Her company is in some place in New York - the website doesn't have an address listed. How am I supposed to send her some sort of Thank you Gift?

@@DandisDen I'm not part of the industry but I would say sending a gift to a freelance editor you've hired is unnecessary. With traditional publishing the publisher is taking on all the risk. They pay you an advance and then take on all the cost of producing the book themselves, without a guarantee that they'll make it back. So a thank you gift sounds appropriate. With self publishing you hire an editor and pay them to do that job yourself, once it's done I would assume that's the end of your professional relationship. Just my two cents though.

honestly? you should pick your fave and focus on that...if you even need a break from that specific book you might do a little work on the others but focusing on one will really help your tone and really enrich your storytelling.

i would recommend focusing on one at a time, and if you need a break for one, break from writing or work on the others but primarily focus on one. Here's the thing- if you work on a piece, the second should be better than the first, and the third better than the second. If you work on all three, yes, your writing will improve, but it'll be more like a huge difference between the ending and beginning of the pieces, which will make editing difficult because your standards will be wonky, the pieces will probably be pretty even in caliber, which isn't great because there won't be notable improvement, and it'll take ages for you to finish them. If you go one at a time, you can edit that one and see what major thoughts you have and apply those to other pieces instead of essentially writing at the same level for all three and improving but not having gone far enough ahead that reviewing work will give you good insight. i'm not published tho so don't believe me if my advice seems bad

P.S- Its a childrens book :) I am a teacher as well.

In my case, my publisher sent me to trade shows. I was very fortunate. They sent me to 3, pre-publication. But they didn't send me to BEA or ALA and it didn't make sense for me to self-fund those trips--I deferred to my publisher, re: where it made sense to send me. (their strategy is trade shows pre-pub, consumer events post-pub)

My publisher handles all of that for me! Part of the benefit of traditional, and going with a major house, is their in-house sales team are pros at distribution. I've been really pleased/impressed/happy with my distribution--I'm carried nationally at B&N, at Books-A-Million, Half-Price Books, and a ton of indies. I'm in Baker & Taylor, the main catalog/distributor libraries use and my carriage is pretty robust (I've checked).

That's reassuring. Thanks for answering so quickly, Alexa. I'll be looking for an agent for my novel in the autumn so I'm fact gathering as much as I can.

A romantic fantasy thriller?

Uroboros Jose This comment is such a mood.

But if you write books, you do want others to read them. So there comes a point where you make the sacrifice and do the marketing to help get your books to readers.

Tarpita Chanpa You can totally do that. It'll be harder than if you lived in the US, but you can do things like that through correspondence.

You may not see this, but try the writers' group Pennwriters. Though it's based in Pennsylvania, it has an "Area 7" contingent that includes writers from everywhere else, in America and abroad. You can join at Pennwriters.org, and the Area 7 colleagues you'll meet online may well put you in touch with author groups closer to you. There is a membership fee, but it's worth it.

“Advanced Readers Copy”. I just learned more about them when I found authortube😉

@@TheStaceySquad Ah... Ok. Thanks!

Arc- Advanced Readers Copy

A cover letter is what you send with a resume, detailing why you are a good fit for a job. A query letter is a specific thing that you send to literary agents, pitching your book.

Alexa Donne Oh ok, Thank You!