Countdown to a Book 11: Your best sales investment

When Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto started its rise to bestseller, an interesting thing happened in bookstores: you’d find not only Bel Canto prominently placed, but beside it, her previous four novels. This front-of-store placement, purchased by her publisher, worked like a dream for Patchett—her breakout novel significantly back-sold her previous titles.

Authors of series know this phenomenon: a reader hops on board in the middle and then goes back to begin the series from the beginning. But it also boosts sales for authors like Patchett, whose stand-alones feature different characters and premises.

Could this bona fide book sales technique work for you?

Only if you have a body of published work to stack on that table!

Very early in our pre-signing discussion, my agent-to-be asked that all-important question, “Do you have any more works in progress?”

Me: “Sure!” [Here’s where a hidden webcam would have found me scraping through a decade of files seeking any jotted idea, brief synopsis, opening chapters, or failed novel attempt and transforming them into pitches.] Luckily, she was enthused by the various ideas I submitted.

An agent does not want to sign you for one book. They want to represent your career. So with my editing completed, the book in ARC form, the marketing questionnaire filled out, and my preliminary meeting with my publicist behind me for Project #1, it was time to complete my transition to author. I needed to put together the proposal to sell Project #2.

Like many debut one-book contracts, mine stipulated that my publisher reserved the right to take a first look at my next project. I’d been working on an extended synopsis for it over the past few months in any free moment, practicing how to constantly flip the mental switch between Project #1 and Project #2, a skill a career author must develop. For inspiration, I kept referring back to a February Facebook post by veteran author Molly Cochran:

I’m working on six different books at the moment: One’s with my editor, who’s getting notes (i.e. things I’ve got to rewrite) to me on Monday; another with my agent, who’s trying to sell it; the third, a longstanding novel-in-progress that I keep trying to write between projects; a partial ms w/outline about a time-traveling boy in Hitler’s Germany that’s very hard to pin down, since time travel is impossibly tricky; a completed novel that must have something wrong with it, since none of my friends has been able to finish reading it; and Poison, which has just come out and needs publicity attention.

Such is the life of a published author. Over this past month, as I continue the all-important marketing push during these last six months to my debut's release, I’ve been back and forth with my agent polishing the synopsis and opening chapters and pitch for Project #2, because that’s all I’ll have to influence a sale this time around. Published authors sell on proposal, not the completed manuscript.

So in addition to continuing PR efforts for Project #1, earlier this week I sent my agent a revised proposal for Project #2 (plenty for me, but baby steps toward a career like Patchett's or Cochran's). No time for a sigh of relief, though. While discussing tweaks for #2, my agent asked what I had in mind for Project #3. I whipped off the vague idea I’d held in mind.

“Great," she said. "Can you get me a synopsis and the first couple of pages?”

Uh, working on it!

Be forewarned, first-time authors querying agents: you can use all that response waiting time to good advantage. Brainstorm like crazy, and write synopses of several novels to tuck in your pocket. After your first sale, you can pull them out, delighting the agent who signs you, and keeping your career on the move with one of the very best investments in publicity for your last book: your next one.

Next: Countdown to a Book 12: A Question of Book Trailers

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Any tips for handling the multi-project, social media shuffle? Please share!

Kathryn Craft is a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation and line editing service. Her women's fiction and memoir are represented by Katie Shea at the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Her monthly series, "Countdown to a Book," details the traditional publication of her debut novel, The Art of Falling, by Sourcebooks in January 2014. Connect with Kathryn at her Facebook Author Page and Twitter.