Novel idea went viral and then I got a full request - WOO!

[audrawinter]

A crazy thing happened recently. I've spent about 2 years querying now, one with a previous manuscript and just recently started with my new and shiny manuscript. I've written about five manuscripts in total now, all set in the same universe but different books. I'm on the third rewrite of my novel and querying again!

Just a couple of days ago, I posted a TikTok about my book with some art I commissioned over the years - and it went ABSOLUTELY viral. As in, 1.8 million people saw it and I jumped to almost 50K followers within a week. All for the concept of my novel. I don't think I've ever been more excited.

Popped my page right into my query letter for platforming. The next day, I got a full manuscript request! WOW! After two years of on and off querying, that felt like such a success.

Fingers crossed for this one! I'm super excited to have such an audience rooting for me.

[Johnny 5]

Wow, well done and good luck! Out of interest, how many followers did you have at the time you first posted the book idea on TikTok?

[audrawinter]

I had about 6,000 before this last week. I started the account specifically for my writing and had a couple viral video ideas before (but nowhere near 1.8 million views).

[James_Ellery]

Wow what a tale of triumph! Congratulations!!

It must feel amazing to have all that hard work finally validated  Best of luck with it, mate!

[msluna]

Good luck! That sounds so amazing! I'm always so happy to hear about success stories. If you're comfortable, would you like to share your video link? I'd love to see it.

[Viddiest]

Congratulations! That’s brilliant. Well done you! I’d love to see the video too if you feel like sharing the link.

[richardclin]

Dear Audrawinter,


That is such an uplifting story. Thank you for sharing and I am so happy for your well-deserved success. With such an enthusiastic and large author platform and obviously hot concept, I would not be surprised if many more requests for fulls are forthcoming as agents try to clamber aboard your query train.


Good luck and please do let us know the good news. I suspect it's coming soon for you.


Sincerely,
RCL

[audrawinter]

Thank you so much, everyone! I’m super super excited. I haven’t sent out my next batch of queries yet but I’m very excited to!

Here’s the video that went super viral! Although I have a couple of recent ones that also are pretty popular.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeGUveH2/

[Johnny 5]

Thanks for sharing with all of us who are super curious!

Love the Hamilton song and your story about the series you squeezed into that clip. You put a lot of effort into this clearly and I wish you all the success and good luck with this!

500, 000 words is no small feat!

[audrawinter]

Thank you sooooo much! I posted another video recently with my elevator pitch which 73,000 people liked... guess my elevator pitch works too, haha!

[msluna]

Hi Audra, did you see this article? Really relevant for you! I hope you do as well as this author - sounds like you have the same audience numbers.

https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/alex-aster-lightlark-tiktok-quotes

[audrawinter]

OMG - I haven't! I haven't sent out any query letters since I hit 50K - I'm at 56K right now and it's only been a week. I'm about to send out some queries with this. Although I'm questioning if I should be sending to publishers now.

[raktinope]

Although I'm questioning if I should be sending to publishers now.

The advice I hear from agents is not to send to publishers, because you can actually be shooting yourself in the foot.

Agents know the preferences of the editors of a print house better than authors do. If you start submitting to publishers, you're cutting down the submission list your eventually agent can make. If you pitch an editor at a conference or something then I would go ahead and submit. Otherwise, I'd rake in requests.

Also congrats!

[audrawinter]

The advice I hear from agents is not to send to publishers, because you can actually be shooting yourself in the foot.

Agents know the preferences of the editors of a print house better than authors do. If you start submitting to publishers, you're cutting down the submission list your eventually agent can make. If you pitch an editor at a conference or something then I would go ahead and submit. Otherwise, I'd rake in requests.

Also congrats!

Yeah, I decided to keep going through with literary agents. I've officially had an agent reach out to me before I queried them (which was my favorite daydream for two years) so I think that the agent process will work for me. I'm avoiding publishers for that very reason. I just sent out another batch of about 10 queries since I hit 50K so... we'll see how it goes!

[audrawinter]

In case anyone’s wondering how things are going… right now I’m sitting at two #PitchDis likes from editors and 77K TikTok followers! I haven’t sent out queries for a couple of weeks but… fingers crossed!