Seriously, guys, there are days that I look at myself in the mirror and consider publication after death to be a win. At least my novel will be published someday. It's partially my own fault. I'm just getting back in the saddle again. I've fallen off the bucking stallion of writing twice, riding along in the cart of revisions--once to care for my mother and then to care for my dad before they passed away. My mom passed around the time that I took the advice of a non-writer friend who told me, "You have to stop revising at some point, call it done, and send it out." Worst advice ever! I sent out a 158,000-word tome to publishers. ***Break inserted for readers to catch their breath after laughing hysterically*** The manuscript is a few words lighter (98,000-words) and a comparable first draft of its sequel is done. I wanted to start querying agents but am feeling a bit like a fish out of water. Researching agents, I read that a writer should have an "online presence." Eeks! I don't even have a smart phone! (I'm not inserting another break, so you'll need to get a grip.) Another agent said that a writer should belong to a writing community. Others seem to imply that a writer needs to attend conferences to be published. I have none of these. So, here I am, testing the waters of this online writing community.
Yeah, an online platform is pretty much a prerequisite for new writers now. You have to actively recruit readers, make contacts, and be able to demonstrate that you have some prowess in self-promotion. Even when published you're expected to market yourself to some extent these days. That can be a tiebreaker when agents/publishers are choosing between books of equal potential. Your name is your brand... so start branding!
It's been three or four years now since I got my agent, so things may have changed somewhat, but I can definitely say that I've never been to any writing conferences and she never asked me if I'd been to any. She also never asked if I was a member of any online writing communities. The web presence? Yeah, it wouldn't hurt, but it's really hard to promote yourself as a writer when you've got nothing to actually promote. I think you should have a website and maybe a Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads presence, but mostly just to show you're willing to do all that stuff. I don't think you need to have a lot of followers or anything.
Greetings, welcome, and salutations to the Forum, sirette. Well it sounds like you are fighting for a trad pub. For the little unknown author it can be quite tricky. So maybe an agent is the way to go in the long run on that route. Good luck with your works, and I will C-ya around.
I was told that if you keep your nose to the grindstone the agents will come to you. Then again, they also told me that about girlfriends, and here I am, exceedingly single.
How would the agents know where your nose is? Like, how do they know you've been working hard? You have to publish, I assume, and with no agent that likely means self-publish or publish with a small press... and while there have been exceptions, as a general rule neither of those approaches is likely to get you agent-level attention... not really sure how this would work.
You do NOT need an online presence for fiction. Non-fiction, yes - a platform is pretty much mandatory. But fiction? Nope. It's a bonus, but not necessary by any means. Like Bay, my agent never even asked me about my "online presence" before we signed, and she only asked then so she could add me to the agency's social media groups. Some of her clients have no social media platforms at all. She's never asked me about communities or conferences. Going to conferences is HER job!
I appreciate everyone sharing their experience and am relieved to read that some of you believe that an online presence isn't absolutely necessary. I have a facebook account that isn't public. I can increase my public posts, though BayView is right, it's hard to promote something that you don't yet have.
Facebook is probably the least useful medium for promotion because of how unlikely it is that strangers will see your posts, even if you make it public. The point of promotion is to reach people that don't know about you/your books yet, not the ones who've sought you out (which is what Facebook is good for - keeping in touch with 'fans'). Twitter is probably the best. I think there's also good author stuff on Pinterest, though I'm not a member so I don't know for sure. If you want to build an online presence (I'll repeat that it's not necessary, and you're better off spending that time writing if you don't WANT to be on social media) I would start with Twitter. If you enjoy it, you can branch out to other mediums.
I have a Twitter account that I opened a couple of years ago to share a post for a writing contest or something like that. It's not that I don't want to be on social media, it's just that it means balancing something else. Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid of hard work, but I am a bit compulsive, especially when writing. It's hard enough to tear myself my away from working on my manuscript to get to the job that pays me, let alone ensure time to follow and post tweets. But, I'll get there. Thanks for the input!
