For the first post of the new year, I give you: How to create a NY Times Bestseller, according to The Atlantic Wire.
Start with a literary agent with an idea. Throw in an Internet search. Find what you’re looking for. And voila.
Laurie Abkemeier, a literary agent with DeFiore and Company, decided a couple years ago that the world needed a book about ugly Christmas sweaters. She went onto the Internet until she found Brian Miller, Adam Paulson and (the appropriately named) Kevin Wool, three guys in Indiana who sold ugly Christmas sweaters from their website…From that you get a bestseller.
Emily Witt, with the New York Advisor, offers this advice:
Start a Tumblr or Twitter feed with some combination of puppies, fear of protracted adolescence, horrific Americana, text messages from your friends or photos of your parents; add a dose of nostalgia, regret or chagrin, promote it all over the Internet and wait for the literary agents to find you.What ideas do you have?
...I'm hoping this is foolproof, 'cause I'm giving it a whirl!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Helen ;)
El
That's how it's done? Amazing.. the things you learn on the internet...
ReplyDeleteI've been doing it all wrong...
ReplyDeleteA bestseller about ugly sweaters, huh? Who knew?
ReplyDeleteGo for it Elliot!
ReplyDeleteWe may have been doing it wrong, folks, but it's not too late. I'm thinking of a book about ugly chickens. The problem is, there is no such thing as an ugly chicken.
Really? Any chicken past adolescence is ugly in my book.
ReplyDeleteThe code has been cracked! Ha!
ReplyDeleteWanna create a best seller? Gotta be like Ray Kroc: early to bed, early to rise, advertise, advertise, advertise.
ReplyDeleteBlack-eyed peas and luck? Must be a Texas thing.
Well, shoot! I'm obviously been wasting my time writing all the wrong stuff.
ReplyDeleteI once wrote a post about flip-flops, I guess I should have made that the whole focus of my blog. Silly me.
Christopher, it is a TX thing, or as we would have said down here, a Texas Thang.
ReplyDeleteThat's brilliant Linda. You could blog about it constantly for the next few months, then get chosen by an agent, put it into book form and have it out by Summer 2013!
What about kittens? Can we use kittens?
ReplyDeleteOh, Diane, you could do this. Make your whole blog funny cat pics you take. Maybe make up little stories to go with them.
ReplyDeleteYes, some ideas look weird at first but they can become best sellers. The mind of the readers is very difficult to predict.
ReplyDeleteThe Spinster’s Vow
You've given us some food for thought. My husband had to have black eyed peas this year . . . along with our cabbage. New Years Day cabbage has been a thing around here ever since I can remember. We threw a little silver (Dime) in it when I was a kid, the one who scooped up the silver got extra chance at riches in the new year.
ReplyDeleteHi Helen .. Enid says the mind of the reader is difficult to predict - by the sound of it the mind of an aspiring author is a little cracked too ..
ReplyDeleteFascinating ... cheers Hilary
You realise you're exposing some of the best-kept secrets in publishing, right? (I so have to try these...)
ReplyDelete:D