This week we featured three Irish authors and explained the different ways they got published. Here, the Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither author explains her unique publishing journey and the coincidences along the way.
Get advice from someone in the know
“I finished the book at the end of 2013. I did have a friend who knew what he was talking about, he works for the Stinging Fly magazine so he was kind of advising me. I didn't send it out to lots of publishers, because I knew that it was a strange little book and it probably didn't stand a chance with Penguin and all that, so I sent it to three or four publishers and one agent. i was lucky they got back to me very quickly.”
Read the signs (and post-it notes)
“Sarah Davis Goff, one of the ladies of Tramp Press, had done a piece on the radio, I can't remember what show it was because I didn't actually hear it my boyfriend heard it, and bless him he had written down the word 'Tramp' or something else really obscure on a post it and just left it on the table. It was something that meant nothing to me when I saw it on the table. This was a couple of months before I had finished the book but he just got a great vibe from her and thought that they would be really suited to the book I was trying to write. Then it was only months later when they had given me a call and I had a meeting set up with them that he was like 'I told you about them months ago, it was my idea!'”
Get yourself noticed
“Most authors would be taken on by a literary agent first, I guess most people would send their books or manuscripts or first few chapters out to agents first. Then it's up to the agents to pitch to the publishing houses. So I sent it into one agent and never got a response and got a publisher instead. A few months later I won a short story prize, the David Burnes award, and quite a few agents got in touch with me then expressing interest because I had a track record at that stage.”
Believe in yourself
“The book took two years to finish, and if no one had agreed to publish it I wouldn't have done it myself. I wouldn't have put that confidence in it. I desperately wanted someone to think it was good enough. There was a time where one would sniff at self-publishing, but it's really become acceptable now, because of the internet in many ways because you can market it yourself. In many cases what may be a great book may not be a popular book. If you self-publish at least you can bring something into the world that may not otherwise have had someone to take a chance on it.”
www.tramppress.com
Read our premium interview with three Irish authors here.
This week we featured three Irish authors and explained the different ways they got published. Here, the Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither author explains her unique publishing journey and the coincidences along the way.
Get advice from someone in the know
“I finished the book at the end of 2013. I did have a friend who knew what he was talking about, he works for the Stinging Fly magazine so he was kind of advising me. I didn't send it out to lots of publishers, because I knew that it was a strange little book and it probably didn't stand a chance with Penguin and all that, so I sent it to three or four publishers and one agent. i was lucky they got back to me very quickly.”
Read the signs (and post-it notes)
“Sarah Davis Goff, one of the ladies of Tramp Press, had done a piece on the radio, I can't remember what show it was because I didn't actually hear it my boyfriend heard it, and bless him he had written down the word 'Tramp' or something else really obscure on a post it and just left it on the table. It was something that meant nothing to me when I saw it on the table. This was a couple of months before I had finished the book but he just got a great vibe from her and thought that they would be really suited to the book I was trying to write. Then it was only months later when they had given me a call and I had a meeting set up with them that he was like 'I told you about them months ago, it was my idea!'”
Get yourself noticed
“Most authors would be taken on by a literary agent first, I guess most people would send their books or manuscripts or first few chapters out to agents first. Then it's up to the agents to pitch to the publishing houses. So I sent it into one agent and never got a response and got a publisher instead. A few months later I won a short story prize, the David Burnes award, and quite a few agents got in touch with me then expressing interest because I had a track record at that stage.”
Believe in yourself
“The book took two years to finish, and if no one had agreed to publish it I wouldn't have done it myself. I wouldn't have put that confidence in it. I desperately wanted someone to think it was good enough. There was a time where one would sniff at self-publishing, but it's really become acceptable now, because of the internet in many ways because you can market it yourself. In many cases what may be a great book may not be a popular book. If you self-publish at least you can bring something into the world that may not otherwise have had someone to take a chance on it.”
www.tramppress.com
Read our premium interview with three Irish authors here.
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