Silence is Golden?
Imagine for a moment that you’re an author of a new fantasy novel, or any other genre; hopefully this isn’t hard for you to visualize. You’ve had a good response from a literary agent with emails and even a couple of phone calls about your work. You think your ship has come in and you have a ticket to getting your work published. Then the bottom falls out when you get an email from your prospective agent telling you that she doesn’t think she will be able to help you. She doesn’t respond to any more of your emails and doesn’t return your calls. You’re left dazed and heartbroken.
What you don’t know is that your prospective literary agent just took the time to visit your blog and Twitter feeds. She discovered that you post content about politics and re-tweet political posts on your Twitter account. Your political views are directly opposite to her political views and she is offended by your political remarks and comments. As a result she decides that she is not interested in representing you for your novel.
If you think this is farfetched consider this, even if she is able to look past your political views to your work as a writer she is still likely to consider the impact of your posts and views on potential book sales. Remember, your prospective audience is almost certainly going to be comprised of people with differing political views. If you do manage to sign with her as your agent she will probably tell you that you should purge your posts of political remarks, especially before you sign a contract with a publisher.
Don’t Alienate Your Audience
Most good businesses avoid politics, especially in the politically charge environment of our world today. As a writer you are also in business to sell books. If you’ve read and learned anything about the publishing industry then you should already know that you, as an author will be doing a lot of promotion for your own work, the publisher doesn’t do all the marketing for your book. They expect you to have a following that are potential buyers. Selling your work becomes difficult when you alienate half your potential market. The exception to this rule might be if what you write is designed to be politically charged and controversial.
As a writer my goals are to build a following and a community, which in turn will increase my exposure to potential readers, which will result in more book sales. Being professional is part of business. And your literary agent will expect you to be professional as well as a writer. If you can’t suppress your urge to react about some controversial issue then you may not be considered professional. Authors need to have a loyal following and that can include people with opposite political views.
Does that mean that you can’t include political struggles in your writing? No, but if you’re a good writer you’ll learn how to write to engage your audience and stimulate thought without alienating anyone. It can be done.
For me I try to leave politics out of my writing because there is enough drama in my books and stories; I don’t need any more… thank you.
Does that mean that I don’t have a political opinion? Of course not but if there is one subject this writer will remain silent on its politics.
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