halp!

[erastes]

ETA: Sorted and submitted - thank you!

I'm doing a submission for an agency and they've got a form to fill in, I approve of this. However - what the blinkity blink does this mean?

Identify and define the self-selecting, core audience who will definitely review, publicize, and buy your book

I know that I have to say who I think will buy it, but what does self-selecting mean?

*confuzzled*

Comments

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

I think they are trying to be overly fancy and are saying people who would pick the book themselves as oppose to the book being bought or sent to them?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Ahhh - now I get it, thank you! Fancy Schmancy agents! :)

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Translation: Who do you think's gonna buy it?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That would have been clearer... :)

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Me and thousands of other mes!

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

I would parse that as self-selecting meaning your essential target audience: people who would proudly identify as fans of m/m, or historical fiction, or so on. The qualitative aspects of your established target audience; in particular, those groups or sub-groups of individuals who publishers like to define as 'influencers' -- people who have enough reach/pull/visibility to influence others to check you out.

IE For Gadarene, I'd include you in this category: while you may not be an established fan of Tina nor myself, your opinion is thought highly of by enough people that it is well worth seeking out -- because if you do like it, and say so, that's a positive boost to the title, and allows me access to readers we might never have otherwise connected with.

Wow. Rambly girl is rambly this morning.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

It means the people you won't have to make a marketing effort to reach; the ones who would look at it and go 'that's my thing' as opposed to the people who might have to be persuaded?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thanks hun! I've burbled to the best of my ability, so it's in the lap of the gods now!

:)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thank you! - that makes a lot of sense, and I've incorporated some of what you've said into what I submitted. *fingers crossed that they don't just see "doomed gay" and press auto-reject.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You are so sweet!

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Haha, it's all the fruity bread!

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

They really make you jump through hoops, don't they?

LOL! Btw, you just posted your review of False Colors on the day I was supposed to be posting mine of Transgressions :D (On the glbt recs list.) Thank you! Do you think I should hold on a day or so before posting mine? I don't want to give the impression it's a tit for tat thing.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I'm so sorry! I'll take it down? I was supposed to do mine on the 5th and woke up in the middle of the night and went ARGH!!

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

No no! It's fine! I'll just 'forget' and do it in a couple of days. The comm doesn't seem particularly hot on time keeping anyway, from what I've seen, so no-one's going to notice if I slip a bit.

[rwday.livejournal.com]

Oh, good grief. I would expect literary agents to communicate in clear English, but apparently not.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Do you think 'm/m pervies' is a decent description?

Hey--the Kitchener-Waterloo Chapters has both Transgressions AND False Colors in the ROMANCE section. The gentlemen look a bit uneasy amidst all the ruffly pink covers, but they're outstanding--literally--in with the mass-market paperbacks.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*giggles * no pictures!

I can really see them in my head, shifting from foot to foot, in fact