Your Ideal Reader

When a publishing house considers your novel, one of the first things they ask themselves is, "Who's going to buy this book?"

One answer they won't even consider is, "Everybody."

Every book has a natural audience. When a publisher tries to market your book, they're going to target that natural audience.




This is true, even when a story has extraordinarily broad appeal. The Harry Potter series was massively
popular, but even so, plenty of people didn't read it. I know lots of readers who heard about it and just
shrugged and said, "So what?" I know others who read the first chapter and didn't get it and stopped. I know others who read the first book and then quit.

I'm going to bet that very few of them were 11-year-old boys. The ideal reader for the first Harry Potter book was an 11-year-old boy.

True, lots of other people liked the book. Zillions of adults. Zillions of females. But we're talking here
about which group loved it best. That group was the set of boys Harry's age.

Why think about these "ideal readers" when they obviously aren't the only readers for a book?
Simple. Every publisher has a limited marketing budget. Their game plan is to market your book

Curiosity Quills Kindle Giveaway

For those of you who love free stuff, here's a great contest from Curiosity Quills.  Visit their site for more details, but here is their post with the details.

"In case you haven’t heard, Amazon has recently announced their new Amazon Kindle Fire - a 7″, color, Android-powered successor to the respected and ubiquitous Kindle family.
As someone who bought two third-generation Kindles for my family, two more as gifts, and use the Android Kindle application extensively, I can safely say that the electronic reading experience is getting better and better with every iteration.
Needless to say, the whole Curiosity Quills Press team is excited. And to celebrate, we’re throwing a GIVEAWAY! Yes, one lucky winner will be receiving their very own bundle of fiery book-loving joy. Drawing will take place on December 1, 2011, so hurry and get your entries in! We hope you’ll participate and win!"

Why not take a chance.  Enter and win!

Curiosity Quills Now Open For Submissions

Curiosity Quills is now accepting submissions.  The following announcement is taken from their website:

Curiosity Quills Press is the publishing arm of Curiosity Quills, a boutique publisher of hard-hitting dark sci-fi, speculative fiction, and paranormal works aimed at adults, young adults, and new adults. We are also a purveyor of anthologies thereof. We provide our authors with a flexible array of quality premium services, marketing support, and technical know-how, while ensuring that these literary marauders are truly the cream of the crop through a highly selective acquisition process.

Curiosity Quills is now taking submissions.  The following announcement is taken from their site:

We’re Looking For
Thought-provoking, mind-twisting rollercoasters – challenge our mind, turn our world upside down, and make us question. Those are the makings of a true literary marauder.
Serialization Potential - If your work was made with serialization in mind, we want to hear from you. If not – that’s okay! We still want to hear from you.
Agented submission are not required, but will receive precedence over unagented ones.
Length Guidelines: Keep in mind, these are just guidelines – we DO make exceptions.
Novellas: 15k-45k words
Young Adult: 45k to 75k words
New Adult / Upper YA Novels: 60k-100k words
Adult Novels: 70k-120k words

Instructions
To submit a manuscript for consideration, please send an email to editor@curiosityquills.com with the following:

A one-page query letter containing your genre, title, wordcount, and a brief blurb about the book.
The first five (5) double-spaced pages
For serialized works, please include information about update frequency, update length, and projected series duration.
Established authors are welcome to query with a standard proposal package of three chapters, a synopsis, and a query.
PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ANY PERSONAL WRITING CREDENTIALS, AWARDS, REVIEWS, OR PROMOTIONAL LINKS

Format Requirements
If your manuscript is requested, please make sure to format it according to the following:

RTF files only
12 pt Times New Roman font
double-spaced
.5″ indents
Note: Unless we request a revise and resubmit, full manuscript rejections are final.

Note: In addition to published works, we are also interested in blogger contributions to our literary portal.

Good Luck!
http://curiosityquills.com/submission-guidelines/author-submissions/