{"id":1920,"date":"2012-01-06T09:12:36","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T17:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=1920"},"modified":"2012-05-20T13:22:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T13:22:57","slug":"its-all-about-the-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/its-all-about-the-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s All About the Reader"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

The nov\u00adel, avail\u00adable on Ama\u00adzon.<\/p><\/div>\n

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel, a mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel that only one agent and zero edi\u00adtors believed in. This mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel was read by edi\u00adtors at top pub\u00adlish\u00ading hous\u00ades includ\u00ading Dut\u00adton, Harp\u00ader, St. Mar\u00adt\u00adin\u2019s Press, Har\u00adcourt, Tor and Poi\u00adsoned Pen. It was even read by a major movie stu\u00addio. Yet none of them were will\u00ading to take a risk on the nov\u00adel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mys\u00adtery mar\u00adket is too crowd\u00aded,\u201d they said. \u201cWe don\u2019t see how it can stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nev\u00ader, though, did they say it was\u00adn\u2019t good enough, that it was\u00adn\u2019t well-writ\u00adten.<\/p>\n

So, for many rea\u00adsons, A Real Piece of Work<\/em> nev\u00ader found a home among main\u00adstream pub\u00adlish\u00aders. Which is why, about a month ago, I final\u00adly self-pub\u00adlished it as a Kin\u00addle ebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since then, between Ama\u00adzon US and Ama\u00adzon UK the nov\u00adel has net\u00adted 21 reviews\u201419 of them 5\u2011star raves<\/strong>. Read\u00aders write how they lost sleep over A Real Piece of Work<\/em>. The most recent review\u00ader writes, \u201cRead this book when you have a day to spare. You won\u2019t be able to put it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>

A for\u00adlorn slush pile.<\/p><\/div>\n

Had I not pub\u00adlished it on Kin\u00addle myself, the nov\u00adel would have lain dor\u00admant on my hard dri\u00adve or a slush pile some\u00adwhere, and I would have always won\u00addered what read\u00aders<\/em> thought of the book. It turns out they think a lot of it. They love it\u2014some so much as to beg me to release the sec\u00adond one in the series tomor\u00adrow.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tremen\u00addous\u00adly grate\u00adful to read\u00aders who have post\u00aded reviews or told their friends about the book, but the most impor\u00adtant thing they\u2019ve done for me is to remind me that it\u2019s all about them<\/em>. It\u2019s all about the read\u00aders, not the agents and edi\u00adtors.<\/p>\n

All read\u00aders care about is whether a book is a good read, a well-writ\u00adten sto\u00adry. But because my pur\u00adsuit was agent- and edi\u00adtor-cen\u00adtric for so long, I for\u00adgot whose opin\u00adion I real\u00adly cared about\u2014the read\u00ader\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I read this somewhere\u2014I can\u2019t remem\u00adber where\u2014and I real\u00adize it\u2019s more true now than ever: \u201cThe read\u00ader\u2019s opin\u00adion is the only one that counts.\u201d I\u2019ve always writ\u00adten with the read\u00ader in mind, but now I\u2019m going to write that tru\u00adism on a 3\u201cx5\u201d note\u00adcard and post it above my writ\u00ading desk.<\/p>\n

The read\u00aders have spo\u00adken, and I have lis\u00adtened. It\u2019s all about the read\u00ader.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel, a mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel that only one agent and zero edi\u00adtors believed in. This mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel was\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30,21,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-kindlestuff","category-publishingandthemarket","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2935,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions\/2935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}