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July 16, 2014

Comments

Canadian Apprentice

"... your book has no marketing handles, no easily-told marketing story that will let me describe it in a sentence or two."

I didn't really understand this and couldn't produce one when I wrote my first thriller (still, and probably forever, unpublished). But the penny had dropped by the time I wrote number two. I could sum it up in three words: "Trouble in paradise." It got published by a major e-publisher in the UK.

Now I'm two-thirds of the way into number three and I've already summarised it in a couple of short sentences to lots of potential readers ("Coming next . . .").

I read advice somewhere that the writer should write the query letter before he writes the novel. I didn't do that but I reckon there's a lot of wisdom to the suggestion.


Jack Getze

The heck with your guidelines and marketing handles. I'm an artist. I write what I write.

Question Mark Plus

Jack, all ignoring these guidelines means is that you'll have a manuscript that's full of spelling errors, rambles on too long, and that you can't summarize.

Is that what art is?

Jack Getze

Yup. If there are no misspellings, it's not art.

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