
Whenever I Call Your Name | Book Big Name Authors
"Is that putting the cart before the horse? Maybe. But if the horse keeps taking grass-munching breaks, I’m not waiting. I’m grabbin’ that cart and gettin’ to where I wanna go!"
What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Either way, over-easy please. With hashbrowns. And ham. Even over bacon, and I am a bacon fan.
Oops, I’m writing my blog hungry again.
So, let’s get back to it…
What came first: the Big Name Author or the fame?
I ask that as I am wondering the online book aisles of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, standing in line at grocery stores boredly devouring register end-cap headlines, when I actually stop into a physical bookstore with glee and contentment and scan their tables of titles with giddy abandon.
What came first?
These books have author names I recognize that are literally enormous on the cover.
Some of these authors don’t even need a cover. Just their name in legible font on a blank canvas.
Sold!
But, were they ever not Big Name Authors?
With indie publishing, authors have the ability to turn themselves into Big Name Authors on their covers right out of the gate.
And why not?
Is that size earned? When you have a thousand sales, a million sales.
One sale.
How about when you finished writing the book and had the bravery enough to publish it?
Did Stephen King start out as STEPHEN KING?
And Nora, who is NORA now. And also JD ROBB. (Though NORA is a little bigger than JD if I could change the font size in a blog. Visual representation.)
She is a double Big Name. All by her lonesome.
Did she start that way?
So, the answer is no.
No author leapt like Athena, with a fully-formed cult following straight from the womb of publishing.
They all had to build.
Traditional publishers had traditional publishing marketing behind them. Sales. Fast-tracks to visibility and (if done right) fame.
(And now, unless you are already a Big Name Author, they don’t spend money on you either.)
Indie Publishers are publishing author’s first books just like Stephen and Nora’s first books, with no fan base. But most don’t have the fast-tracked, money enhanced marketing system in place. So, fandom explosion is in slow-mo.
So in either situation, a first novel—put a Big Author Name on the cover? Or wait until they are a big author name?
I was told long ago in corporate when I applied for a cashier position that I should dress for the job I want.
I was a store manager a couple years later.
Because I had that in mind. Be that what you will be now.
And why not?
Is that putting the cart before the horse?
Maybe.
But if the horse keeps taking grass-munching breaks, I’m not waiting. I’m grabbin’ that cart and gettin’ to where I wanna go!
So I say authors that want to be Big Name Authors, Big Name yourself. Big Name yourself all day long.
Cause if you have the confidence to do that, then I may trust you enough to take me into your book’s world, and play with you there.
Leave a comment