Rising Talent - Earning Your Space in the Publishing World
What I wish I had known before launching my debut novel, and lessons I've learned (and continue to learn!) along the way.
As a debut author…
There is so much you can’t know until you go through it. With a competitive market, and thousands of titles vying for our attention, how do we cut through the noise and get copies of our beloved books into more hands? I’m by no means an expert, but I’m learning as a I go and feel passionately about sharing those lessons with other authors about how to make the most out of their exciting debut. This newsletter will be a collaborative forum, where everyone is welcome to comment and participate to share their own meaningful lessons and experiences that will benefit and support others.
Nothing can prepare you for unleashing your creative soul into the world and the lack of control that accompanies it.
I hope this can be a space where we build a community of new authors and continue to share and learn from each other on this wild ride. My experience will be limited to my own genre category (Fiction, Thriller/Suspense) so my hope is over time we discuss how these learnings overlap, apply to others and be useful regardless of your chosen publication path. All authors are welcome here, both indie and traditionally published, given the new industry expectation is that an author promotes and markets their own work.
I hope this community of debut authors will learn something that can help them navigate the never ending channels to help grow word of mouth.
We all thought the hardest part of the novel writing process would be finishing the book. Then we thought the hardest part of the journey would be the publication process. Now, as I’m hustling to build my following and brand as an author, I had no idea how daunting this final stage would be. I hope to share and be transparent about sales numbers, and I hope to feature and highlight Podcasts, YouTube, Bookstagram and BookTok accounts that are supportive of new debut authors, regardless of whether you are traditionally published or self published. I hope that you will eventually find this space to be a treasure trove of wisdom and also share your own experiences along the way!
Simple and succinct is key.
We all have busy, demanding lives and limited attention. My goal is for this weekly newsletter to be very simple, and a quick digestible read with one or two key highlights that you can carry with you as you move into the week. As a mother to two young children, who is now balancing writing the sequel to my novel and also marketing my first book, expect to receive weekly updates on Friday as motivation for a fresh week to come.
My first Barnes & Noble book signing for The Rising Order.
This was great!