Networking for authors? You can do this!

Networking for authors? Is this a contradiction in terms? How can an introverted author, who would sooner retire to the world of the imagination, network successfully? 

Well, it is possible and here are some useful tips:

1) Work out who will want to buy your novel and choose networking events where you - and your book - might be welcome. For instance, there's no point in representing your historical romance at a conference for tyre salesmen. But there are lots of other venues - ranging from schools to tv fan clubs - which could be worth your while. Novels - digital or print - are very popular and show no sign of falling out of favour.

2) When people ask you what your book's about, have a three-sentence summary ready. One sentence could be punchy but the sub-clauses needed to explain the plot twists may get in the way! Remember this is going to be an interesting conversation, not a lecture, and make your summary conversational. For instance, ''The Wolf of Dalriada''s set in remote Scotland in 1793 - the year of Marie Antoinette's execution. A young laird - the 'Wolf' - has to save his people while rescuing a beautiful French seamstress from evil forces. The question is: can he?'

3) Be ready with details of where to buy and when. For example, 'My novel, The Wolf of Dalriada, is out in November but do you want a £2 pre-publication discount? Go to the Matador Fiction shop list at  www.troubador.co.uk and type SCOTLAND in the Discount Box!' And have a card ready with these publication details - one which can double as a bookmark.

4) Remember more people want to buy books than counselling!

Simple! Now are you ready to develop your own networking script?

The name of the pen!

This morning, I’m juggling with the idea of names. Character names deserve their own post – so I’ll leave them for now. But what about author’s names – noms des plumes?

I used my name, Elizabeth Gates, in full (never Liz) when I was a journalist because it lent a sort of gravitas to my persona. And dealing with huge issues as I did – life, death, injury, cynical greed, fatal incompetence etc – gravitas was precisely what I needed.

But now, as a writing and communication coach and story-teller, I introduce myself as Lizzie Gates. A family name and – although I’m a professional still – this hints at a more approachable persona than the more formal Elizabeth Gates.

However, now I’m writing fiction, I have had a blinding insight into the whole ‘name’ thing. I can chose my name to fit the genre.

I was always drawn to writing comedy and I saw myself doing this under the name of Poppy Winthrop. But, for my historical novels, I’ve chosen to write under the name of my great-great-grandmother, Abigail Newsham – because she lived at about the time when the action in my current magnum opus is taking place.

What fun we can all have with names.

Book Proposals - what can they do for you?

Writing a successful book proposal is the real trick. Publishers have no reason to publish your book. But this is how you persuade them that they have. You’re also providing him or her with a crib sheet for when he has to talk to the accountants and the sales department that run his firm and the booksellers whose shelves he’s competing for. A publisher’s life is not an easy one and your task when you send in your proposal is to smooth his way. It is after all on your behalf.

But you – in your role as writer – will also benefit hugely from sitting down and seriously working out what to include. Let’s face it. From the mountains of material you have inside your head for this book, your readers – and therefore by definition, your publisher - will only want to take away what relates to them.

So firstly the book proposal will help you to clarify your own goals and objectives. You’ll have to reduce the whole concept to a few sentences – but oh, how carefully chosen. These sentences will encapsulate the ‘book’’s most important ideas and elements and persuade the publisher that these are new and interesting enough for him to spend time on.

Another advantage of writing a proposal is that you’ll become aware of the weak spots in your material. These may be the areas where you need to do more research. Or it may be the areas you need to beef up which relate to marketing - because the proposal is a marketing document and you are both author and marketing manager.

If you are – at this point – throwing up your hands in horror that you, an artistic soul, must stoop to involving yourself in commerce, remember the electricity bill. Oft-quoted even by accountants, American poet Louis Untermeyer said: “Write out of love, write out of instinct, write out of reason. But always write for money.”

According to the Society of Authors, authors must now be prepared to sell their books. If this means book signings, public readings, appearances on radio and television, you have to be prepared to do it. And the publisher will expect to be told of your willingness to embrace marketing methods of this sort in your proposal.

You will also have to provide him with a clear idea of where your book will sit in the market and when the manuscript will be sitting on his desk.

To answer these questions, some authors rely on Amazon placings. But, I recommend my clients take themselves to a bookshop and browse among similar books getting a feel for the kind of book they may produce – its length, its style, the questions its audience will want to know the answers to. Two major advantages will follow from this research method. Firstly, you will find an anchor for your motivation (and this will sustain you throughout the writing period). And, secondly, you will find a publisher on the same wave-length as yourself. Which helps!