3 things to do straight after getting a book deal
There are so many articles on the internet telling you how to get a book deal – some helpful, some bizarre, some basic. But what I found when I got my first book deal was that there wasn’t much information on what to do after you got your book deal…
The year after you get your book deal is a pretty busy one. You’ll be immediately immersed in edits, and don’t be surprised to find this process quite lengthy. It’s not uncommon to have five rounds of edits with your publisher, if you include line and copy edits. Thought you were already sick of your book? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Prepare to get really, really sick of your book.
You might also be having meetings with the publicity and marketing teams at your publisher, and you be asked for your opinions on things like the cover, as well as suggestions for articles you might write to support your book’s publication.
It’s all tremendously exciting, overwhelming and terrifying.
But while all that’s going on, there are three other things I think are so important to do once you’ve signed your contract and you have a shiny book deal clenched in your fist (and once you’ve celebrated harder than you’ve ever celebrated in your entire life, of course!).
1) Find your author tribe
This is easily the most important thing you will ever do in the course of your author career: FIND YOUR PEOPLE!
Of course, you have your editor and possibly an agent too, who will be the first ports of call with any professional queries that you might have once you’ve signed your contract.
But what about all the other stuff? The complicated, slightly personal stuff, like professional jealousy, imposter syndrome, author etiquette and more?
For the answers to these queries you need to have an author tribe around you. Trust me. They will be the singularly most important thing in your author career, the people who keep you going when you want to throw the towel in, the people who lift you up when you’re feeling down, the people who understand EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL and hopefully, the people who turn up and drink warm white wine with you at your book launch!
The good news is that authors are almost universally lovely people.
There are a few dicks, of course, and you learn pretty quickly who they are and how to avoid them. (Worried you might become one of them? You can read my post on how to avoid becoming a dick when you get a book deal → 😉)
But most authors are more than happy to meet up with other authors, and welcome you into their tribe. I’ve found the easiest way to meet other authors is on Twitter. Sorry if you hate it. But it’s where all the authors hang out. Really, it is, and you’re going to have to swallow your principles and get yourself on there.
“make sure you regularly engage with the writing community and follow authors you admire or who write in the same genre as you”
You can also ask your agent or editor if they can put you in touch with anyone. My agent has informally ‘paired’ me up with other authors she represents in the past and it’s been great – we’ve become good friends.
There are also tons of author events happening ALL THE TIME, both online and in real life, so make sure you try to get to a few of them during your debut year. I know it can be really nerve-wracking, but again you’ll find most authors are super welcoming and friendly.
I’d also really recommend going to any events hosted by your publisher, or any other author’s book launches that you’re invited to.
I remember being invited to a book launch before my debut novel had been released – I’m not sure how I wangled an invite as I didn’t know the author or anyone else who was going, but I think perhaps she had heard about me on Twitter and decided (very kindly!) to reach out.
I was absolutely TERRIFIED walking into her book launch – not only was it in a really swanky bar in London, I didn’t know a single soul and I’m a massive introvert who finds things like this really scary.
But it was such a lovely evening – a few people recognised me from Twitter and we got talking and it was all absolutely fine. I was so glad I plucked up the courage to go.
Top tip: make sure your Twitter profile picture is your face, not your book cover. Twitter isn’t really the place to sell your book, and it’s more important that people can easily recognise you in real life from your profile pic.
You can also try to reach out to people who live near you. It’s quite common to hear of regular author lunch meet ups with people who live close by one another.
Another great idea is to team up with other debut authors who are publishing in the same year as you. This started out during the pandemic – the D20 Authors was a group of authors all releasing their debuts during 2020, who came together to help promote each other’s work online. As someone who debuted in 2018, I have to say I was quite envious of them all and wished I’d had something similar!
The idea was so successful it has become a new ‘thing’ each year for debut novelists, and a great way for authors at the same stage of the publishing journey to come together and support one another.
And if you haven’t already, do join the Savvy Writers’ Snug on Facebook→, which is a really welcoming private group for published authors only.
Phew! I hope that’s given you some great ideas. Trust me when I say the author friends you have will make or break your publishing experience.
Of all the advice I ever give to authors, this is undoubtedly the most important!
2) Get a good accountant
OK, now it’s time for something slightly less fun, but equally necessary.
Lots of authors are already freelance professionals in another industry, and therefore will have this stuff nailed, but I’d say an equal number have never been self-employed before and won’t know the joys of doing your tax return every year and having to pay your tax in advance (yes really!).
I haven’t had a ‘proper’ job for more than 12 years, and so I’ve had the same accountant for a long time, but if you’re used to paying all your tax at source (ie, having it taken off your payslip for you and processed by your employer) then you will need some help and advice in dealing with your author income.
You should register as self-employed once you sign your contract – this is relatively quick and easy to do, and HMRC has lots of advice here→
Depending on the level of your advance, you might prefer to set up a limited company rather than just registering as a sole-trader. And if you earn over a certain threshold, you will also have to pay VAT.
I’m not going to go into loads of detail here as I have many readers in the US where things may differ, but I highly recommend you use an accountant if you don’t have any experience in dealing with your own tax affairs.
When it comes to choosing an accountant, the most important thing is to find someone who is used to dealing with author incomes. The joy and agony of author income is that it’s completely unpredictable – one year you might be earning tons, the next year next-to-nothing. So make sure the accountant you choose is able to guide you through the best strategies for managing your tax affairs.
I highly recommending asking around your new author tribe (see, I told you they would be useful!) for recommendations of good accountants who understand author income. Don’t just google and pick someone based on the info on their website – always go for a personal recommendation.
Oh and last but not least, make sure you save a huge chunk of your advances for tax. Saving 30% is a good rule of thumb, but again speak to your accountant for specific advice, as this obviously all depends on the level of your income.
3) Build your author platform
Right, boring stuff out of the way, let’s get on to the fun part.
As soon as you get your book deal, you need to be thinking about building your author ‘brand’.
I know, I know, it’s super icky. But if you want to make a success out of your writing career, you will need to treat it like a business, and not just a little hobby.
And that means taking yourself seriously.
Jericho Writers has a great article all about building your author brand that you can read here→
One of the tips I like the best when it comes to thinking about your author brand is to think what makes you different from other authors in your genre. What’s your USP? What sets you apart from everyone?
A good exercise is to spend some time working on a tagline for yourself as an author – in the same way you might have done when you were pitching your book. Just a line or two that neatly sums up who you are.
Here’s mine, in case it’s helpful:
Charlotte Duckworth is the bestselling author of twisty suspense novels about parenting, motherhood and the challenges faced by modern families.
Once you’ve got an idea of who you are as an author and how you are going to position yourself, it’s time to start thinking about your online presence.
I know you probably feel overwhelmed with all the new things you have to do, but I really recommend getting your author platform established as early on as possible.
The obvious things are registering all the social media accounts you’ll need in your author name (even if you don’t want to use them, it’s good to ‘own’ them so that no one else can claim them).
But I’d also really recommend setting up your author website as early as possible.
Of course I would, I’m an author website designer, but really, the sooner you get your author website up and running, the sooner the media and other exciting people like film and TV companies can find you and learn more about your book.
It also means you can start building your author mailing list as early as possible, which really helps because it can take an awfully long time to get subscribers. So the sooner you start the better!
Your author website doesn’t have to be fancy and it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Even a one-page website (like the one I built for novelist Sophie Haydock→) will be fine.
You can 100% build your author website yourself. There are tons of easy-to-use platforms available to use, such as Wix and Squarespace, which most people can get to grips with with a little time and effort. The one platform I don’t recommend using if you’re new to websites is Wordpress – you can find out why here →
You want to think of your author website as your online author CV – a place to store everything about you and your books, so that readers and press can easily and quickly find out more about you!
Establishing your author platform may feel like a lot of work initially, but it really is an important tool in building trust and loyalty from your readers, and will come in very useful when your book is released and all the truly exciting stuff begins to happen!
Pssst, want to get your author website sorted?! I can help! Find out more about my exclusive Squarespace services for authors…
