Hey, all~
Wandering around the Internet and sites similar to this one, I often find writers promoting their novels, talking about them, posting excerpts and building fan bases before their novels are even finished. Now, I understand this can come in handy for the folks who want to self-publish, but let's put them aside from now, as there's also quite a few writers who do this even though they're new to writing, don't have an agent/publisher yet, and want to publish their book traditionally.
So, my question is, how much of this, if at all, is good to do? Would you advise for or against, for example, creating a website for your novel and slowly building a fan base for it before finishing the manuscript and sending it to the agents and publishers out there?
Now, I understand that the story itself can't be found online before it's officially published, for so many obvious reasons, but how about sidestories or world history, or fun facts and behind-the-scenes details which never appear in the actual story, or short quotes or art related to it? Would the agents look negatively on that as well, or would it possibly actually help you to get an agent, if they see that there's potential in you and you already maybe have a fanbase of some size without even a famous name/publishing house to stay behind you?
I'm sorry, that was long, and more than one question, but I'm really curious. Thank you in advance c:
Publishers invest little in would-be authors. They do expect the author to have a agent, website, friends on social media and a large gathering of followers on sites like Twitter.
Self-promotion is a must.
From what I've read the consensus seems to be that self-promotion is welcomed and often expected. Having an 'audience' or 'fan-base' helps sell, as can be seen by the multitude of celebrity dross books publishers lavish their money on.
Whether you ought to begin before a novel's published I don't know: I'm rubbish at promoting myself, anyway. I think the website and blog helped the second book along, both in getting a publisher and in terms of initial sales,but I've no figures to prove it.
Hi Aria, I'm afraid I'm not answering your question, just adding my voice to yours as I too have wondered if pushing yourself is seen as good or desperate by agents and/or publishers. There is no offence meant there to anyone who is doing just that it's part of the question. If it is seen as positive then I also will be pushing myself, somehow! Paul.