From the course: Sell Your Novel to a Major Publisher

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Selling in vs. selling out

Selling in vs. selling out

- [Instructor] Before we continue on in the agent submission process, I want to take a moment to talk about a very real concern that I hear from many authors trying to sell their first novel. It goes something like this. I don't want to revise my manuscript just to make it more commercial or more appealing to an agent. This is my art, and I don't want to change it just to fit the mainstream marketplace. I don't want to be a sell-out. There it is, one of the biggest fears among writers and artists: selling out. A sell-out is a title used to describe someone who is believed to have compromised the integrity of their art or their craft just to make money. Even I've been called a sell-out from time to time, usually by authors who haven't been published. But I'll tell you quite honestly, I don't consider that an insult. I write novels first and foremost because I love to write. I can't imagine doing anything else. But you know what else I love? Eating and having a roof over my head, and…

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