Cheryl Cowtan on Writing

Every author, every potential author, every wannabe author needs to have an internet presence that is appropriate and encouraging to publishers and agents. Blogging is good, but it isn't the end-all-be-all of your internet marketing. A blog is regularly updated, a Web site is static. The purpose of a blog is to share your writing, the purpose of your Web site is to share about yourself and your writing. You need a Web site: I know this because: agents will search your name before they consider taking you on as a client (read this article on agent feedback  The Write Life ) publishers want to know that you can implement and roll-out a marketing plan (which usually includes a web site, twitter, facebook, goodreads etc) ( Every Writer's Resource ) readers want to read more about you once they have read your work Other reasons? To market yourself To showcase writing that is not getting picked up by publishers To whet the public's appetite for your style ( exampl...

In a previous post, I submitted a link to a list of publishers at  http://myperfectpitch.com . It's a great resource that seems to be kept up to date. You can also narrow down the list by searching genre, which I did. The returned list of approx. 35 fantasy publishers included companies from the UK, Canada and the US. Almost all were active, and were accepting submissions. Awesome stuff. So, the next step was for me to match myself to the perfect publisher for my book. Clicking the links took me directly to the submissions page, which is very convenient. This page always provides all of the important details for authors on word count, formatting, submission requirements etc. However, I quickly learned that I needed to look at the publisher's entire site in detail for a number of reasons listed below: Book Covers cheap looking novel covers (cartoonish) out-dated looking novel covers (1950/60 style) novel covers with poor layout design (basics of design elements no evi...