Luvvie Ajayi Quotes

An author needs to be in the market. He or she needs to come out with a new book every year. That keeps you alive in the public mind and gives a push to your older books.

My first two books did nada. I ended up paying the publishers.

I do send out information about my books. Very few people buy the books that way, but I always feel that if they want to know more about the process, they can get the information from my books.

Sometimes writers say true things about the overall nature of publicity, promotion, and the publishing industry; but alas, not always.

Novelists want to be published and need a publisher to decide to print 20,000 copies. So you need to entertain on some level. I want to reach out and connect.

To move up to hardcover is a way of getting more attention for my books. It means a lot to me: It means my books are legitimate.

There is nothing quite like having your book read and truly understood. It's all the better when it's someone who knows how to go out there and sell it.

A book tour is, first and foremost, an exercise in humility.

I don't think about being famous, really. Being an author, I don't generally get stopped as I walk down the street. It's not like being a movie star.

Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it.

I would very much like to become a best-selling author.

Overall, one of the things that excites me most about self-publishing is that the highest-value use of my time in promoting the books will be found in writing more of them.

While some of the big publishers might give out 200,000 advances, if your book does not hit some of the lists in the second week, they stop paying attention to you.

I am an author, and like many in my profession, I am also a traveling salesman, going all over in an attempt to persuade people to spend twenty-five dollars on a hardcover book by me.

My books have occasionally been of mixed success. It's not like I have gone from triumph to triumph. I have had a couple of books do very, very well and a couple do very, very badly.

I completed my first novel when I was 19 years old.

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

I didn't make 'The New York Times' bestseller list until 'Charmed Thirds,' and then again for 'Fourth Comings.' It gave me a certain validation, and it certainly helps position me for future books, but it's not something I think about on a daily basis.

I'm so grateful to everyone who has bought a copy of 'Girl Online.' I love that so many of my viewers are enjoying the book!

In 1980, I published my first novel, in the usual swirl of unjustified hope and justified anxiety.

Recognize that the great majority of us aren't trained actors and entertainers. Usually, it's not our faces, our bodies, our personas or our stage presence that sells our books. It's our stories, our visions and our voices.

I have been rejected 120 times, probably because I didn't write the right book.

I know publishing now more as an author than with occasional peaks inside those elite offices than as an industry insider. It was difficult publishing a novel the first time around, while working behind the scenes, knowing all that has to happen to make a book a success and to still make the leap as an author.

Being on a book tour is a lot easier than reporting.

Jerry and I hoped that it would be a popular bestseller.