Top 10 Reasons Your Book Will Sell: An Agent’s Checklist • Career Authors (2024)

FAQs

Top 10 Reasons Your Book Will Sell: An Agent’s Checklist • Career Authors? ›

Every single novel should integrate an element of suspense or tension in it. The reason is that suspense does three critical things. First, it immediately provides a sense of momentum and urgency so your reader feels compelled to keep turning the pages. Second, it establishes the emotional stakes of the story.

Every single novel should integrate an element of suspense or tension in it. The reason is that suspense does three critical things. First, it immediately provides a sense of momentum and urgency so your reader feels compelled to keep turning the pages. Second, it establishes the emotional stakes of the story.

Requiring Representation is Vital

One of the biggest reasons that a new writer needs to have a literary agent is because most publishers and publishing companies will not accept any manuscripts that do not have literary agency representation. That means without an agent, you can't even get in the door.

A book becomes a bestseller primarily through high sales volume within a short period, driven by quality content, effective marketing, and broad distribution. Factors such as author reputation, genre popularity, and timing also play significant roles.

Fall in Love with Romance

Through the years, romance continues to be the most popular and profitable book genre. How well does it do? The romance world rakes in $1 billion a year, covering a third of the entire fiction market. From an outside perspective, this best-selling genre is also considered easier to write.

1 A bestseller 'knows' what it is and for whom it is written. It knows its audience. It is clear what the story is really about and conveys that clearly to the reader. It is written for an identifiable audience and genre, so making itself more easily discoverable.

The plot may be too complicated, or the characters not believable, or the descriptions too flowery. Steal yourself to look at your rejection note more closely. In particular, try to spot polite stock phrases, such as: 'I did not find myself compelled enough by the characters'.

One in 6,000. Those are the odds of an unpublished author convincing a literary agent to represent your novel, according to Mark Malatesta at Literary-Agents.com.

Though the odds of getting a literary agent are daunting, don't let that stop you. Book agents reject 95-99% of all submissions, but you can increase your chances of being part of the group of successful authors who get representation.

Should a first time author get an agent? ›

You Do Need A Literary Agent If:

You are writing a novel. You are writing commercial non-fiction (the sort of thing that might be sold at the front of a shop, or feature on a bestseller list). You are writing fiction for children. You are writing a 'how to' type book in a major category (such as health and well-being).

They work on commission, which means they don't cost any money until they actually earn their clients—the writers they represent—money. While there are a few exceptions, the most common commission for a literary agent is 15%.

Getting Your Numbers

As you're writing your book make the list of agents who represent books in your genre and who you want to query. Honestly, 100 should be the absolute cap, but in most cases, I think you're going to be somewhere around 50. And then you're done.

Agatha Christie is acknowledged as the all time best-selling fiction author. It is estimated that she has sold over 2 billion copies of her books. Her book sales are only exceeded by The Bible and the works of William Shakespeare.

What is the New York Times Bestseller list? In short, The New York Times Bestseller list requires an author to make a minimum of 5000 book sales (higher, depending on the list) in a single week across diverse retailers and from multiple geographic locations.

A "bestselling author" is someone who has sold a large number of books, enough to make a significant impact on the sales charts. It's important to note that the definition of "bestselling" can vary depending on who you ask. For some, a "bestselling" book is one that has sold at least 5,000 copies.

book which has an enhanced value because the demand for the book exceeds the supply, usually because of its importance, scarcity, age, condition, physical and aesthetic properties, association, or subject matter. If there is no demand for a book, it will probably not become a rare book even if the other factors exist.

An author's first book, the first edition of a famous novel, the first mention of a beloved character and other firsts in literature all make for more valuable books. First editions especially are often the most interesting for collectors.

Humor, pathos, plot, dramatic intensity, well drawn or strongly contrasted characters, literary style—some one or more of these a book must have in order to gain wide popularity; it must have more than one of them to attain an enduring place in literature.

When can a book be called a bestseller? Typically a book can only be labeled as a bestseller when it has appeared on a published bestseller list. Books can be labeled as a "National Bestseller" once they've appeared on a bestseller list published in a national publication, like The National Post.