​The following blog post, written by Carole Duff, was originally published on Brevity Blog on 8/5/2024.

​“Memoir is hard to sell,” the webinar presenter said. “The market is glutted. Does anyone want to read another story about loss, trauma, mental illness, mother, father, son, daughter, spouse, friend, lover, rejection, or failure?”

I nodded at her image on my computer screen. Having heard this message many times before, I expected to come away feeling disheartened. But not this time.

“Being passed over by agents and the Big Five Publishers is an opportunity to leverage your skills,” she said, “to make your own decisions, and market to your audience.”

Turning rejection into opportunity, taking control of the process—that resonated with me. People do want to read stories when they reflect growth and insight, and it’s up to us debut authors of a certain age to learn how to get those stories published. Here’s what I did.

At first, I made a lot of rookie mistakes. I queried random agents before I found my real story and had no clue about book proposals, target audiences, or pitches. To solve the writing problem, I consulted with supportive editors and found my story: My memoir is about building a house with my later-in-life husband, uncovering mysteries and secrets from our pasts, facing hard truths, and finding a home at last. I also attended workshops and webinars, read books and articles, to get my head around the publishing process. Finally, I had a workable book proposal in hand, including a well-defined target audience: women of faith in the second half of life, women who are contemplating major life changes, retirement, or reinvention.

Along the way, I read memoirs similar to mine and noted the agents named in their acknowledgements. I also consulted the databases at Publishers Marketplace, Poets & Writers, and Manuscript Wishlist, searching for agents with specific interest in representing memoir and open to submissions. Then I sent queries to all of them at the same time instead of working in phases and giving myself time to refine my query—another rookie mistake. After months of silence, a few rejections, and a lot of discouragement, I became more realistic. I decided that an agent and Big Five Publisher were not for me. I didn’t need an advance and wasn’t going to have a decades-long career as a writer. Winter, the fourth and final stage of life, would come.

Since I was not comfortable with self-publishing, I researched other traditional presses, including university presses, which I found in the Association of University Presses database. I also explored small presses and assisted or hybrid presses that fellow memoirists, whose work I admired, had used. Then came the time-consuming work of visiting the individual publishers’ sites to see if the books they’d published were in line with my faith memoir. I selected two dozen “good-fits,” sent out five or six queries, waited two months, revised my query letter based on feedback from rejections, then sent out the next batch, and so forth. My online writing colleagues’ stories of silence even after partial or full manuscript asks, rejections, bad-fit experiences—and eventual successes—encouraged me to keep going. Patience and persistence paid off. Six months after my first round of un-agented queries, I received two offers.

The first company, which publishes about one thousand new titles per year, offered short-run publication (less than 2,000 copies), an option between on-demand and traditional, off-set printing, and a maximum of 10% royalties. Type-setting and copyediting fees were at my expense. They would list my book in their catalogue and handle distribution through the major channels for book publishers, a huge plus for authors. But as far as I could ascertain, there was no marketing support other than providing me with promotional flyers. I would have to do the promotion or hire consultants within my modest budget.

​The other publisher, a much smaller press that has both traditional and cooperative imprints, offered me, a debut author, the latter arrangement: a 50-50 shared-cost, assisted agreement which included collaborative manuscript editing, cover design, similar distribution to the first company and more robust marketing support. My cost would be a few thousand dollars—a bit more than the first and larger company’s deal—but the royalty split was far better. I would receive 40% to 60% of the royalties depending on the number of copies sold.

​Both companies were responsive on email, but the second included a 30-minute Google Meet with the owner and the head of marketing. The owner, who’d been in business for decades, walked me through the publication process. At my request, the head of marketing provided me with a list of their authors I could contact if I had questions—and I did. The authors said that although they’d wished to publish traditionally, the collaborative arrangement was a positive experience, resulting in higher quality books than they could have produced on their own. I signed with the latter, Brandylane Publishers based in Richmond, Virginia. The fact that they were accustomed to publishing debut authors and would support my book through the publishing and on-going marketing processes were deciding factors. The editing and design process took about a year; my faith memoir Wisdom Builds Her House releases on August 20, 2024.

Now that my book is soon to be launched, I’m focused on marketing. I’m collaborating with Brandylane’s team and making decisions on how to best reach my target audience. By taking control of the process, as a debut author of a certain age, I’ve learned how to get my story published and out there for them to read.
__________
Carole Duff is a veteran teacher, flutist, naturalist, and writer of creative nonfiction. She posts weekly on her long-standing blog Notes from Vanaprastha and has written for Huffington Post, Mockingbird, Please See Me, Streetlight Magazine, The Perennial Gen now The Sage Forum, for which she is a regular contributor, and other publications. Her book Wisdom Builds Her House is available for order. Carole lives in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband, another older debut author K.A. Kenny (The Starflower), and two large dogs. Contact Carole through her website.

When it comes to New Year's resolutions, "write a book" and "get published" are consistently some of the most popular. But what if you've already written a book and gotten it published? This month, we turn to our PR Manager, Ceci Hughes, to discuss New Year's resolutions for what comes next!

Q: What are some manageable, bite-sized first steps a new author can take to market and promote their work, if they don't know where to start?

A: Publicity and marketing can often seem daunting for first-time authors. If you’re feeling anxious, I recommend starting by asking yourself how much time you can realistically devote to promoting your book. Lots of authors have full-time jobs outside writing and promoting their books, so it’s important to be realistic about your goals. You might also consider asking family members and friends, or even hiring an intern to help you with book promotion if you're completely swamped.

Once you’ve decided what is manageable for you, I recommend focusing on four areas: your online presence, events, reviews, and media appearances. Out of those four, I believe building an online presence is one of the most important (and thankfully, the least time consuming). If you can devote ten or fifteen minutes every day to making a social media post, writing a newsletter to send via email, updating your website, or engaging with your followers, you’ll have better luck getting people to pay attention to your events, reviews, and media appearances. A devoted audience is one of the most helpful things for succeeding at book promotion.

Q: Can you give some examples of how authors can organically build their audience?

A: I know it’s all well and good to say an audience is important for book promotion, so of course, the next logical question is: How do you build your audience?

When it comes to social media, think about what your audience would like to see. Obviously, they’re interested in you and your books, but what other content do they engage with? For instance, if you've published a children’s book about dogs, consider sharing content about your pets. Or, if you’ve written a mystery novel, your followers might be interested in what other mystery books you enjoy reading. 

One of the best ways to build an audience is to engage with other authors. Other authors are in the same boat as you, and they can be great for brainstorming new publicity ideas. Other authors might also be interested in reviewing your book if you review theirs, making social media posts about your book if you post about theirs, and so on. You might also consider setting up events with other authors to draw a larger crowd. 

Q: How do you suggest authors set realistic goals for their promotional efforts?

A: This comes back to considering how much time you can put into promoting your book before making grand plans—after all, you don’t want to stress yourself out! I recommend setting aside some time each day (or each week, if you’re very busy) to focus on book promotion, even if it’s only half an hour. Then, set goals for that designated time: for instance, “This week, I will submit my book to five awards,” or “I will reach out to three influencers this week to see if they will share my book with their followers.” 

Once you’ve set a goal, try to stick to it. It’s easy to tell yourself that since you set the goal for yourself, it's okay to let it slide, but when it comes to book promotion, perhaps nothing is more important to achieving success than dedication and persistence!