Publishing is a beast and as soon as you start trying to tackle it and wrestle it to the ground, you realize how much there is to still learn. This is the time to bring together the artist/creative and the business/sales person and learn how to make them coexist. It wasn’t enough to know what I hoped to get out of writing. It wasn’t enough to know my characters deserved to be read. To publish, I must know my character’s full histories, the majority of which never makes it in the story. To publish, I must know my genre, where my work fits within that category, and how my voice offers something new. To publish, I must be able to explain my work’s synopsis in 10 words, in 100 words, and in 500. Like a sculptor who must look at her work of stone and find the essence, the writer must not only understand the story she’s trying to tell, but also the reader she’s telling the story to.
Take the piece you’re working on and try to imagine your ideal reader. Get as specific as you can. When your work gets published, who is the reader that will find it utterly delightful? Who will read it again and again because you describe exactly what they’re feeling? Who will answer shyly your name when people ask about their favorite author because they want people to know about your work but also it hits so close to home they feel that in sharing you they are also sharing a piece of themselves?
My ideal reader for Dance With Me is a teenager, or someone who remembers being a teenager, who thinks before they speak, feels strongly, is sensitive to other people’s needs, lacks confidence in themselves, is more introverted than extroverted, yearns for a best friend but doesn’t have one, loves to read
Check out more awesome advice from Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt in their book, Write. Publish. Repeat.
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