Not long ago, Deidre, a writing friend, posted a photo showing the wonky way she cut her daughter’s sandwich. In their household, a sandwich is never simply cut symmetrically in half. The cuts are always off-center or otherwise varied. She couldn’t believe the enthusiastic response to her photo and how everyone played with various names for the innovative cuts. The response was so strong that you can know buy Deidre J. Owen’s The Sandwich Cuts Book online.
The week that she announced her plan to create the book, I was playing around with a graphic. I periodically add text to photos to make graphics for social media. If this is well received, I thought, I could make a book like Deidre’s.
How was the response? Crickets, people. Nothing but crickets.
My idea? I love languages, especially when phrases don’t translate exactly. What do I mean? In English, a book lover is a book worm. In Spanish, the person is a library rat. In Danish, the phrase is reading horse. A book swallower is the phrase in Welsh. No, I don’t think this is robust enough for a print book but perhaps an ebook of some kind. A freebie. At least that was my thought. Ah, well.
But this illustrates why it can be a good idea to test things out online. Some people blog their book before actually creating the manuscript. Others, who are doing something more graphic, create posts for other forms of social media like Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.
Previewing your book can be a good idea. It saves you the time of creating a full manuscript if there is no interest. But this assumes something. Are the people you normally interact with the audience for your idea? If not, you can’t expect much of a reception.
This is also a good way to get feedback. Not sure if readers would be more interested in a chapter set in Miami or Milan? Just ask. Of course, there’s a downside to this. You are definitely going to use one of these two locations. You’ve decided that. But everyone wants you to use where they live, where they were born, or the location they just saw on the Travel Channel.
There is also the matter of balance. Post something online and it is published. Are you going to be able to interest a publisher at this point? Maybe if your readership is large enough or if you can expand on what you’ve posted, making it bigger and better.
Posting about things you really want to do can be discouraging. Why is everyone commenting on another cat clip and you can’t garner any interest?
Maybe the best way is to do what Deidre did. Post about what is going on in your life and jump on what gets a strong response.
Fortunately, I have enough ideas that I can’t pursue them all. Besides, I’m a devoted library rat/reading horse/book swallower and I have another book to read.
--SueBE
- To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog, One Writer's Journey.
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Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 60 books for young readers.
She is also the instructor for 3 WOW classes which begin on the first Monday of every month. She teaches:
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