Gollanczfesf - publishing industry day

As promised, this week I'm talking about the Gollanczfest publishing industry day.  The first session, on Writing, Publishing and Getting an Agent, had writers saying that we agonise too much over our 'killer first lines'. But we were urged to get our big idea up front - in the first page if possible.  Joanne Harris admitted that "I wrote badly for a very long time."  She also said that "once you've found your voice nobody else will creep into your voice". Alastair Reynolds cautioned us not to get emotionally attached to our work after we've submitted it.

The 'Perfecting Your Book Pitch' session asked us to consider 'What will excite people about my book?'  But we were cautioned never to let that question constraine our writing.  When pitching, meaningful comparisons of your book are helpful, but Marcus Gipps (Commissioning Editor, Gollancz) reminded us that "a good pitch won't make me buy a book I don't love."  All a pitch does is entice an agent to read the book.  Ultimately, it is the book itself, the manuscript, which matters.

Marcus was suspicious about people claiming to have found a hole in the market.  And Ed Wilson (agent) reminded us that editors and agents can't predict what will be successful.  When pitching, an author needs to know where their book sits on a bookshop's shelves.

To help with visibility and saleability get yourself a Twitter account and tweet, have a blog, and attend genre events.  You have to show that you're commercially minded,  On the topic of author branding, we were advised to decide what we were comfortable with revealing to the world.  Be honest and direct on social media.  Don't offend your fans, but do have opinions.  Make yourself useful on-line, talk about your writing process and give helpful tips.

The Life After Publication session urged us to stay positive.  As authors, we need to project the reasons why we love the genre, and our book, to the world.  Keep to deadlines, and hand in the second book on time.  Always have your next project on the go. 

We were advised to sketch out our second book before we pitched the first one.  And also draw up rough synopses for the second and third books.  

This event was well worth attending, and I'll certainly be returning next year.