Lots of us bloggers have aspirations to turn our blog into a book. At CyberMummy we had the fabuous Robin Harvie from Harper Collins talking about it (if you missed it, catch up with Young & Younger’s liveblog from the session).
One thing that Robin mentioned is that sometimes publishing your book for free online secures a book deal. This seems counterintuitive – if people can get it for free, why would a publisher go to the trouble of paying you for it and of paying to have it printed. But it’s true, Robin said. When you generate those most important of ingredients – buzz and interest – with a free version, a printed one can follow.
Of course I trust Robin implicitly, but this news item in America about a novelist just shored it up for me.
Marta Acosta published her vampire novel for free on Scribd and has just signed a 3-book deal.
A lesson for all of us: don’t wait for a publisher to come knocking. Get to writing your book now and show them how popular it could be.
I loved Robin’s session – I could quite happily have listened to him all afternoon. I still want to go the traditional route for my novels (!) – nothing to do with my blog – but he certainly gave a lot of food for thought.
@Liz, yes the traditional route for my novels. The hump I’m trying to get over is the traditional beginning of those projects: finding the time to write them!
Hi Jennifer
I know this is an old post but I wondered if you knew where I could find the Robin Harvie session these days – it’s no longer on that link.
Many thanks.
Unfortunately it looks like the blogger who did the live-blogging session has removed it from her blog. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.