Audience is everything

You've written a novel. You want to get it published. So, you think, "I'm gonna send this off to some publishers."

That's probably not the wisest thing to do (unless this is your fifth manuscript and you have a contract lined up already). Instead, I would suggest the following course of action:

1. Think about your audience. This means deciding who's going to enjoy your book, or figuring out who it was you were writing to (there's always someone, or some group).

Photo by El Chupacabrito

 2. Define your audience. You should be able to answer the following questions on the demographics of your audience: Are they women? Men? Both? What age range do they fall in? What are they getting out of my novel?

3. Evaluate your manuscript against your audience demographics. Is my language level, voice, and tone suitable for this audience? Will this audience enjoy my content? Am I presenting the content in a way they'll understand and appreciate?

4. If necessary, re-write or edit your manuscript to address any audience-related problems. If you've hired an editor, they can help you with this step.

You can bet that any publisher who considers your manuscript for publication will be asking these same questions. To a publisher, your manuscript is a product they're trying to sell. If they don't see a market for it, or if they need to make large-scale changes to make it marketable, it's unlikely they'll offer you a contract.

The only thing that "self-publishing" and "stigma" have in common these days is the letter S

You can't really call self-publishers "vanity publishers" anymore. Once, writers who weren't good enough or marketable enough were forced to turn to self-publishing as a way of disseminating their work. What would follow was months or years of attending book fairs and bargaining with independent book stores. If you were web-savvy, you could publish on your blog.

Now, the world is changing. There's Lulu for ebooks and a bazillion print-on-demand websites to choose from. And, if you choose to go that route, you're Adventurous, Modern, and Sharp.

I came across an article discussing the new trend towards self-publishing. M. J. Rose talks about how and why a published author opted for self-publishing an ebook over taking a traditional contract.

So, the next time you get the dreaded rejection letter from So-and-So's big publishing house, consider being your own publisher and marketing department. All the tools you need are waiting for you. But keep in mind, many of these outfits don't offer editorial input on your manuscript. They expect that you have done the work in advance, and that the manuscript is ready to be published as-is.