5th December 2016 | for Creatives | reading, writing, reaching your audience, writer-reader relationship, publishing, agents, Jim McCarthy |
"People want to read varied perspectives and a lot of publishers and agents who wouldn't take a chance before are finally responding."
"I'm inspired when I literally can't put a book down. I'll leave the dishes in the sink. I'll bore friends and family talking about people they don't know and situations they've never read. In short, I'm pitching to everyone around me. If a book connects with me to that extent, it will connect with others. The biggest seller of books is still word of mouth, and the most successful books are those people can't stop talkinga about, agents included."
"Just write the stories you want to write. If you are writing about authentic characters, we (agents, then editors, then readers) will care."
"I like to believe that my readers are as smart as the writers I hang out with, and they will rise to the challenge. We teach our readers how to read our books in the first paragraph, in the first word. We set up a contract with them."
"Literature does not occur in a vacuum. It cannot be a monologue. It has to be a conversation, and new people, new readers, need to be brought into the conversation too."
"I do believe that making one's book free remains an effective way to reach new readers who might not otherwise take a chance on your book. I've had a number of positive reviews from readers who said they liked my book but would never have downloaded if it weren't free. I do not agree with the argument that an author who makes his book free is inviting bad reviews from those readers who are trying a novel that is not in their preferred genre and may be less inclined to like it. I believe a good book is a good book, and anything you can do to attract a new reader is worthwhile."
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