I’m curious about how the fact the author isn’t in the U.S. affects the marketing or sales of a book. For example, an author overseas cannot conduct a signing event, a literary journalist might not want to call an overseas author, or an overseas author could not participate in a physical interview.
In your experience has this ever affected sales or any stage of the publishing in some way?
Our world is so much smaller than it was 10 to 15 years ago. With avenues such as Twitter and email it’s so easy to connect with people all over the world. The only thing that might be tricky for an international author is a book signing. That being said, I think book signings are the least important of all promotional activities.
Most authors connect with readers through social networking, blogs, and articles, and I don’t know of any journalist who has difficulty connecting with a source, no matter where that source might be.
Jessica
I get a lot of questions about how anything outside of the U.S. is viewed in the publishing community. Do authors not located in the U.S. have a chance at publication, and what about books set outside of the U.S.? What are their chances?
Rather than do separate posts I’m going to try to answer both questions in one. I am absolutely sure there are some agents who don’t want anything to do with people outside of the U.S.; whether we like it or not that’s just the way the world works. There are people out there who just think that life is easier if you stick within your own world, so to speak. And that’s fine for them. It’s also their loss as far as I’m concerned.
BookEnds has a number of clients who are not in the U.S. or U.S. citizens. We have clients in the UK, Australia and Canada, and none of them are Americans. And yes, we consider proposals from all over the world. I know I’ve requested material from Spain, Japan, New Zealand, China, and France, to name a few. One of the reasons some agents might resist foreign clients is that it can be a tax nightmare. Trust me, we pay our accountant a lot of money to keep those things organized for us. However, in our mind a good client and a great book are more important than a few tax headaches. If you live outside of the U.S. and are seeking representation in the U.S. I would go at it as if you were in the U.S. Don’t let your locale injure your chances. If an agent rejects your work simply because of where you live the agent is too short-sighted for you to want to work with anyway.
As for books set outside of the U.S., these can be a little more tricky because, let’s face it, Americans tend to stereotypically be a little internationally challenged. That being said, I think we can all look at the bestseller lists and see a number of genre and literary authors who have written fabulous books set in locales outside of the U.S. and obviously found a market. I suspect that writing literary fiction allows you a little more leeway when it comes to international settings. Genre can be trickier, primarily because I think readers often come to them with certain expectations. However, if you really feel that you want to break the mold in your genre writing and set your thriller in a foreign land or your historical romance somewhere outside of Regency England, go for it, just make sure that there’s a real point to choosing the setting and that your point is not that you used to live there (a common answer when I ask writers why they chose a certain setting). To make an international setting work in genre fiction I think the locale itself almost needs to become a character. The reader needs to be transported into another world and not feel like the book could have just as easily taken place in Houston, Omaha, Reno or Scranton.
When it comes right down to it, most agents don’t care where you’re from or where you’re book is set, we want a really terrific book. But if you are going to set your cozy mystery in Ireland then Ireland really needs to shine through and not just be another Cute Town.
Jessica
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I live in the UK, and yet the main market for my books is the USA.
I travel across the Pond at least once a year, for Romantic Times, which is good value for me.
It's big, there are two big booksignings and I get to meet editors, booksellers and readers. And it's a lot of fun.
While I agree with you about booksignings, the convention signing has extra benefits, and I can honestly say that RT is a career-making convention.
That's funny. Just a few days ago I ordered a book through Barnes and Noble written by a UK author because I saw it reviewed on a blog. I read blog posts about books all the time but rarely attend book signings.
Speaking of promoting stuff online... :) ...the Literary Lab (literarylab.blogspot.com) has just released their Notes from Underground short story anthology. As a contributor, I got a sneak peek, and it is amazing. All proceeds go to the Writer's Emergency Assistance Fund. They're giving out a coupon code until March 8.
I met an agent from the U.K. at a conference a few months ago. I liked him very much, but I wasn't certain if querying in another country would be a good idea.
From an author's point of view, book signings can be a monumental waste of time unless you're a huge name and will draw big crowds. Like Lynne, I confine my signings to the large conferences where I'm guaranteed to meet a number of readers. Sitting in a book store, twiddling your thumbs for half a dozen people is time better spent doing something more productive, so I wouldn't worry about living in another country and trying to promote. As Jessica says, the Internet has definitely made the world smaller.
I did attend a reading/book signing by Salman Rushdie where they had to put black paper in front of the windows because he was in danger of being shot. That was a highly entertaining international author event. :)
"That being said, I think book signings are the least important of all promotional activities."
I agree. And a there's a big trend with e-book readers all over the world who request signed book plates from authors. The readers either scrapbook the signed book plates, or attach them right to their e-readers.
Good point (and very positive for someone from Scandinavia who mainly writes in English nowadays).
We also see it in the world of blogging - often you don´t know where the blogger lives unless you check the blog very thoroughly. And bloggers definitely sell books - no matter whether publishers have realized it or not.
Another thing I didn't mention is that our readers are as international as the authors--I open my contests through my newsletter to readers out of the US, and I'm amazed from the countries I hear from. With the Internet, we have readers all over the world. The Internet is more effective than a book signing any day.