The recent Avengers film does not
only show that a great selection of Superheroes can pull audiences. It also
highlights the importance of working in a team to achieve your goal, even if
you are a superhero. When Kia Garriques first began her publishing journey, she
was alone, working on her manuscript day and night. The minute she realised
that she could do with a helping hand, her dreams started to materialise...
We all have great ambitions
whether it is to achieve international success as a recording artist, find the
first miracle cure for cancer or seeing the world in 80 days. But ambition can
often be blind and it presumes that you can achieve your dream alone. Our dream
is only important to us; we do not need anyone else to make it happen.
Kia loves reminiscing about back
in the day:
“I never thought that anyone
would be interested in helping me achieve success as an author. I just believed
in the normal route of submitting proposals to editors that I respected. My
story ideas have always been over the top – I suppose it comes with being young
and wanted to see the world in a different light.”
But, of course, why would any editor just accept any
proposal, no matter how good it is? If it was really as easy as that then the
publishing industry would not be as competitive. Editors are very subjective
creatures and their acceptance of a story idea can depend on their personality,
their mood and whether they personally feel that you idea would sell.
It is easy for prospective authors to criticise editors for
not accepting their proposals but have they ever tried building a personal
relationship with the editor? Editors in publishing are similar to editors in
the print industry. When you start freelancing for them, you do not expect them
to accept your first idea and it is all about tailoring your idea to what they
would like to see. Once they know you better, they are willing to take a chance
on other ideas you might have.
So who did Kia start building her relationship with to get
her ‘publishing team’ started? She began with getting an agent.
“I knew of his work previously and was impressed, “Kia says.
“ He had great contacts with editors, journalists and PR people as he had also
published books before. I thought he would be the perfect person to take me on.
He did not make it easy though... he wanted me to work further on parts of my
script before he felt it was really for editors”.
After much persuading and preparation, her agent found a
new, yet upcoming publishing company to take her on.
She says, “They understand me as a young author really well.
They learn things from me as I do from them.”
So, in addition to her agent, Kia now worked with an editor
to get her perfect her novel, a marketing and publicity team to sculpt her
image and to start profiling her work to the public and a design team to create
her new websites, blogs and products.
Over the new few weeks, you will be provided updates on how
Kia is working within her teams as she gets closer to her book launch in
October. Although writing comes easy to her, it helps to have people around you
who are also focused on taking your dream and making it their own.
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