Megan Davidhizar

S1 Ep29: Readerships, Sales, and Discoverability Text sample

Does Twitter sell books? Do book tours improve sales? How do readers actually find authors? Across a 15-year-career, NYT best-selling author Gail Carriger talks hitting list, collecting data on her readers, and walking away from bad deals.

Please do check out the show notes for Gail's resources!

Hear me out. Instead of flowers…get me a bouquet of books.

Querying was torturous. I was terrible with queries. My 2nd MS got 0 requests.

My 3rd MS got one request in Pitch Wars.

My mentor helped me revise it to hook a star agent, and she used it to grab a stellar editor.

I’ll share the progression on my blog Thurs if it’s helpful

There’s a reviewer on goodreads who is generous with her fives, so when I see a four, even if the review is positive, I know it wasn’t QUITE as good.

Today, I saw her first three, and it was RUTHLESS.

I have scrolled here for ten minutes and not seen that adorable sister hair cutting video, and this is why I haven’t been able to leave Twitter yet.

How exciting! Congrats!

Newsletter header that says "Snailed It! A Newsletter from Casey Lyall" Two snails bookend the header. They are purple with yellow shells and both are saying hello.

As I work on my September newsletter, I realized I should let folks here know that I HAVE a newsletter! It's an actual paper newsletter that I mail out four times a year and it's called Snailed It! If you're interested, you can sign up for it here: forms.gle/UsQzgGEMe4c6...

I’m pretty convinced it will be true

I had a really easy time drafting the notoriously dread sophomore book…so that pretty much guarantees my editor will hate it and require a rewrite, right?

I have copy edits to do but also a football game to attend, and it’s really hard to decide which one I want to do less….

Me on social media: Yay! I can’t wait for everyone to read my book!

People I know irl: Yay I can’t wait to read your book!

Me: Oh. Not you. Strangers. People I never have to face. Them.

This week my newsletter will share my book’s cover process including:

-Timeline
-Input
-Managing expectations

If you’re interested, subscribe! www.megandavidhizar.com/newsletter

This is so true!

I’m a high school ELA teacher

I’m a high school ELA teacher. I also have a YA thriller coming out in 2024

Intriguing!!

I found this post about sharing online love for books super practical to share with people outside the publishing world:

dianaurban.com/get-favorite...

Non writer friend: idk thrillers just never have satisfying endings. They’re always good, BUT…there’s always a but.

Other non writer friend: Yeah! I don’t really like thrillers

Me, a thriller writer: …

Last night I read a book review of a book with a hurricane, and the reader didn’t like how “unbelievable” it was to have small earthquakes after it.

All the stores have Halloween decorations out, and it has me thinking about my costume this year.

I can’t decide if I should dress up like my first draft or my deadline.

Both are terrifying on their own. Maybe I can convince my husband to make it a couple’s costume.

I think (maybe, possibly, don’t wanna jinx it) my cover is getting close.

Turning to Story is a new one that just started!

Pub order is a good guide. Even though the Percy Jackson series seemingly ends with The Last Olympian, there’s a continuation series THAT IS EVEN BETTER! That first book is The Lost Hero.

Definitely.

This is exactly what she is picturing 😭😭😭

Preteen: We had indoor recess today. I tried the hula hoop.

Me: Oh yeah! We should get one. I used to have one growing up.

Preteen: that’s because it was the nineteen hundreds.

🫠🫠🫠

If fighting to bring dystopian books back into publishing burns some bridges, I HAVE MATCHES AND WE RIDE AT DAWN

My daughter transformed into a Swiftie on the same day.

It was a 24 he transformation. But today, not a single song has played in this house by another artist.

This is the perfect dream.

Me: Yes! These revisions are making the book so much better.

Me reaching the first ripple plot hole: Oh no. What have I done?