This latest in our series of articles from literary agent Simon Trewin looks at what happens post-contract signing but before publication.
Writing.ie are always dealing, happily, with a flow of inquiries from new writers who have finished their books and want to know what they should do next. While they have masses of content about getting published and self publishing at Writing.ie, we felt there was a need for a guide that takes the mystery out of starting that process. So, as part of the collaboration between Writing.ie and the Simon Trewin Agency, we have put together a series of articles full of Simon’s excellent advice.
See the previous articles in this series here, here, here, here and here.
What happens for an author post contract signing but before publication? What can you be doing to assist your publisher, what do you need to be thinking about to prepare yourself for publication? Do you need social media? We had some great questions arising from the video below so do watch back to get all our tips.
Here are Simon’s tips
Most of all: THINK OF YOURSELF AS A BRAND.
1. Tidy up your social media feeds ahead of submitting to an agent and before they submit to a publisher. Don’t post anything that you aren’t happy to be judged on! Try and ensure your name and avatar are consistent across all your accounts so readers can recognise you and find you easily.
2. Sign up for the free daily news update from www.thebookseller.com, publishers lunch and Bookbrunch. These will be invaluable about getting savvy about how the industry works.
3. Register your name as a domain name in .co.uk and .com not just for your own use but also to stop anyone else registering it! Use your name rather than your book title for your author page on Facebook and your domain – if you want a career as an author you’ll have many books!
4. Use social media as a real-time resource. Follow your favourite authors and follow some debut authors to see how and how not to make the most of the platform.
5. Maintain a list of all people you know or who have a connection to (or who you have met at an event etc) who could be useful down the line in terms of you and your publisher sending them an early copy of your book for an endorsement or a preview or a review.
6. Go to as many literary events as possible and meet some authors and ask them their story about how they got their first book deal. Other people’s stories are always inspiring and useful – find out what they’d do differently!
Most importantly enjoy the process!
This article is the sixth in a comprehensive series of video conversations with Simon Trewin, originally published on Writing.ie here.
